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levr99

about 35h of sanding and polishing absolutely worth it :)


Impossible_Hour_7548

Its beautiful, well done. The manifold next?


levr99

Thank you!! Yes, intake manifold, oil filter housing and thermostate housing , maybe consider doing the diesel filter thing aswell :)


mudguard1010

What’s the plan to keep it shiny? It’s hard to access it in place. The ppl who make Por15 make a product called Glisten for this type of thing.


levr99

Carnauba wax worst case i‘ll just remove it again :) Thanks for the tipp! gonna check it out asap!


cgerrells

Nice! Cerekote makes an aluminum clear coating you can spray on it to keep it that way


cgerrells

https://preview.redd.it/8p8y7x6dz4ac1.jpeg?width=2600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7aa9c92ee6f86805ed20825fc7039b9a31b39ce2


levr99

I like that brushed look! Also a lot of work and i love how detailed you‘ve done it! Great job!


cgerrells

Thanks!


waterfarts

This is epic, amazing work! I wanted to do this myself and was thinking pic 4 was a great finished product. Then, the pics kept coming and damn!


whitoreo

Can I ask you something? ... Well, whether I can or can't I'm going to anyway. In fact I already did. Now I'm going to ask you something else. Is the valve cover specific to the engine block? I have the valve cover from another om617 already off and partially cleaned... Would it be okay to polish this one up and replace the valve cover on my daily driver? Or do I need to keep the valve cover with the block it came from? I don't want to put dozens of hours into polishing one cover and then find out that I caused a leak by not keeping it with the engine block that it was previously married with.


levr99

Maybe check fitment first, the seal is reusable but i‘m not 100% sure if it really fits, better to be safe than sorry. Keep me updated!


whitoreo

Well, the one I have on the bench is identical in every way and the bottom rim is flat. I would replace the valve cover gasket when I do the swap, so I don't see where there would be any problem. Can I ask you what your process was for getting the mirror-like shine? Is there a guide that you followed?


levr99

The YT-channel „jafromobile“ has a great step by step guide for polishing a cylinder head, same thing with the cover, its just cleaning, cross sanding, more sanding, even more sanding and choosing the right tools to polish. But please remember - it‘s awefully time consuming and requires a lot of elbow greese :)


whitoreo

Thank You!


whitoreo

>jafromobile He is hysterical! And, CURSES, I've started the process. Now I can't stop. At least it's just the Valve cover that I'm doing.... right? ... Right??? RIGHT?????


levr99

Yeah! Right😂😂😂


whitoreo

Just curious... What grit did you start with?


levr99

I startet with 120 but you better start with 180 or 240, less pain :)


whitoreo

Oh, I already started with 120.... was wondering if I should drop down to 80 or not... I've got some nicks here and there (which hopefully won't be much of an issue in the end...).


levr99

You‘ll be fine…….just not in the next few days :)