cylinder heads

my cylinder heads are back from shop tomorow. blown headgasket at the rear was the problem. i thought it best to have the heads gone over completly just in case. total bill with resurfacing $140 not bad. im thinking that i should paint the heads along with the cylinder covers a bright red. would that be too much? since the buick colors are red wht blue maybe a tri color scheme might work? cylinder heads ,red. valve cover, 1 ,wht, the other blue, too corny? any sugestions?

The old Buick Engine Red will make it look like a big block from the 70's!!!

Well, really it won't, it will still look like a FWD V6 from the 90's.

Oh well, anyhow I might like just the Red but do whatever you like. I have seen some nice valve cover painting, but don't worry too much about the rear head, nobody can see it.

YOu could go nuts and get aluminum covers:

http://www.3800pro.com/forum/cams-heads-valvetrain/5435-follow-up-3800-billet-rail-fabricated-valve-covers.html

Or ZZP's

Warning - be sure to get OE or NAPA valve cover gaskets for yourself - chatter on the boards complains about hte gaskets ZZP sends - although as inexpensive as gaskets are you'd think they would have switched to better by now.

And then there are these TIG welded ones froma garage in Des Moines - I don't see a groove for the gasket though, could be a problem:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/3800-GM-FABRICATED-ALUMINUM-VALVE-COVERS_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286Q2em20Q2el1116QQhashZitem1d9a16b98QQitemZ7946202008QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

All that said, if it was mine I'd probably paint the heads and clean up the valve covers but not paint them. GM made metal valve covers for the RWD installations of the 3800 but I think the oil fill hole is in the wrong place among other problems.

Albertj

WHOA!! 400 bucks for a set of valve covers....A
little steep dont ya think?

6061T6 billet aluminum isn't cheap to start with. Consider the size of the block of billet you have to start out with before CNC work to make them.
Then the cost and time on a CNC machine.
I can see $200.00 per valve cover being their cost to manufacture these.

robotennis61 wrote:

my cylinder heads are back from shop tomorow. blown headgasket at the rear was the problem. i thought it best to have the heads gone over completly just in case. total bill with resurfacing $140 not bad.

How come so inexpensive. Have you got a brother in law in that machine shop or what.?
Excellent price.
A local shop in my neighborhood just finished a 3800, sent heads out for a valve job, their cost from the machine shop was close to $500.00. That was their cost, not your average civilian cost. I thought that was high but I don't know what the machine shop had to do or replace above and beyond the average valve job would consist of.

You'd think GM would have steel or aluminum covers in the parts bin somewhere...

Albertj

For a series 1 you can run valve covers from a 3800 powered f-body. They have aluminum valve covers.

i think im going red on the heads. i might leave the valve covers alone...ahh choices!.. well rick, the guy sed i didnt need a valve job? except for 1 of the heads being warped the valves were in good condition im a little confused,but if it aint broke why try to fix it? and i get to keep $200 in the pocket. honest guy

Still an excellent price for disassembly, cleaning, inspect, resurfacing warped head, new valve seals and reassembly.
Seems the labor alone would justify a higher price. But I wouldn't complain either.

yap. and all painted bright fire red! they look good. now waiting for new head bolts and sc and throttle body gaskets. and good to go!...man is it hard getting parts around here lately? sucks!

I suspect we will all be using more of monsterpartsonline.com

Albertj

yeah. im thinking about painting the s/c too. might look good in red along with the heads and covers. as it is what i have painted looks tight!