Ok my new Magnesium vlave covers arrived today. They are very tall, light, and very cool. Now my question is what do I do with them? Do I leave them as is? Polish them? Or paint them? Also what about PCV? Should I just do a PCV on one valve cover? PCV on one breather on the other? Or a PCV on both teed off to vacuum?
I'd polish them. They look sort of 'unfinished' as the are. Crome breather on each one would look good, too.
My advice is that if you use the car in winter, paint them. If not, polish them or at least have a clear coat on them. You can watch magnesium corrode for fun. Years ago when I was with A7 aircraft in the Navy we had on land in the ocean just off the beach. The Navy pulled it up on the beach 26 hours later and all of the magnesium parts were corroded through, even the painted ones.
Years ago, Olds had a pan under the manifold and ran the breather tube down at the firewall at the rear of the engine for engine fumes. The point is that maybe you don't have to drill those covers out. Maybe your newer engine doesn't have that. One thing for sure, you'll have to put an anti-splash guard below the opening in the valve cover or you'll lose your oil too. Some kind of epoxy or that J-Weld stuff they use on exhausts.
in the spirit of the car ...paint it gloss black with either gold of red lettering. i think gold leaf on the lettering would look cool. its comming together nice stick!
Another dumb thought. Don't the detergents in the oil attack Magnesium? I'm thinking of the inside surfaces. Don't know what you'd use to coat that.
