Alright, I was out checking the oil in my car today and noticed that the valve cover was chipping. There were flakes of paint or something falling off arournd the coil pack, and the middle two sparkplugs. Is this a big deal? By the way it is the aluminum valve cover. I'm going to be changing the vavle cover gasket this summer because the spark plug tubes have been getting oil in them, so i was going to repaint the valve cover this summer too. Can I just leave the cover until the summer and paint it then or is it something I should do right away? Also what kind of preparation should I do before I paint the valve cover, and any recommended paints? TIA

 

It should be okay until then. It doesn't sound like anything you need to worry about right now. If you're going to paint it, just make sure you clean it up really well and then use a paint that can take some heat. You might want to get it powdercoated, that would be even better then paint.

 

Its just the paint. It might corode a litlle, but nothing steep wool or sandpaper can't take care of.