Applying a little polish and elbow grease

The valve cover on an engine is usually the first thing that is noticed when a hood is opened.  Nowadays, pretty plastic covers sit atop the engine hiding the beauty of the mechanics underneath.  Not so on the Z, and the valve cover was looking somewhat dingy.  Since I wanted to inspect my top end anyway, why not pull the valve cover and give it a bit of a shine.

The valve cover had developed a dingy look over the years

Looks like there's a bit of sludge I'll have to flush out

A few areas of pitting had developed on the cover, so I used some JB Weld to fill-in those areas.  I knew that it wouldn't be a perfect match in color, but then again the valve cover itself isn't exactly show quality and the color mismatch between the aluminum and the JB Weld would still be less obvious that the deep pitting.

A couple of small areas of pitting needed to be addressed

I started out by soaking the valve cover in a mixture of Pine Sol and water.  This would hopefully address some of the gunk that had accumulated on the underside of the cover.  I used a pot scrubber to aid in the removal of the oil and sludge on the underside of the cover.  

The underside of the valve cover before cleaning

A soak in Pine Sol.  Note the balloon covering the PCV fitting to keep it in.

To begin addressing the outside of the cover, I mixed-up a batch of Simple Green and water.  Since the cover of the inline 6 is so long, I had to soak each end of the cover separately in a tall bucket.  This would remove the soaked-in stains in the aluminum exterior.

I don't have a bucket tall enough for the long cover!

Once the cover had soaked for a few days on each side, I then began the tedious process of shining.  I used sandpaper, Quick-Glo, a 3" random orbit polisher, and several buffing bits on a Dremel to shine the aluminum cover to a nice luster.  The Quick-Glo was applied at the end of the process to (hopefully) seal the aluminum with the wax that the product leaves behind.

Look at that shine!

I then donned a fresh gasket and re-attached the cover using new stainless steel hardware I purchased from a seller on Ebay.  Now the cover is the center of attention when the hood is opened!

Stainless screws complete the upgraded look