AMP99 said:
MojoMoto,
That engine looks great! :bow :xyxthumbs
How long did that take you? Again, great job.
Cheers,
My Black 7 Series
Thanks! I probably spent about 2 or 3 hours of actual cleaning and dressing (with 303). In addition to that I spent a good 4 hours cleaning, sanding, priming and painting the valve cover.
For the valve cover, I used a product called "Oil Eater" ($8.00/gallon at Costco) to get it clean and then began sanding with an 80 grit sand-paper to rip off the old paint. As I got down to the aluminum I began to use progressively finer sand-papers until I finally finished the a fine (0000) steel-wool. After that, I primed and painted with high-temp spray paints. The only portion of the valve cover that I actually sanded and painted is what you see in the picture; this is because it is the only area that is actually visible (the rest is covered with the black, plastic "BMW" cover).
There are still a number of areas (which aren't visible in the picture) which need additional cleaning. Due to the oil leak in the valve cover there's a lot of dirt/oil buildup on some of the hoses, engine components and subframe; mostly deeper down though.
At the risk of sounding like an infomercial:
The Oil Eater works
very fast. Spray it on a big clump of oily, greasy booga and it starts to dissipate almost immediately! Depending on how bad/long the dirt's been there you may need a wire brush. I suspect that it may be stronger than the EF Degreaser so I try to wipe or rinse it off as soon as possible. It's also very good for cleaning oil/grease/brake fluid off of the garage floor and getting oil/grease out of your clothes (just pour some in the wash).
As filthy as it was starting out, I just had to show the end result to someone who would appreciate it. When I showed it to my wife she look at it, then she looked at me and said "Did you unload the dishwasher?". Sigh.
My better half took a look at the new supplies I purchased and said, "More? You have plenty left in the other bottles. Why don't you fininsh it up? And what ARE you gonna do with all those towels?". 