NBL

1991 C2

Doing a tip to manual conversion - see other thread.

While I have the engine out I'm doing a quick change of valve covers, valve cover gaskets, camchain housing gaskets etc.

When I took off the camchain covers the face of the camchain housing was a mess. Looks like someone thought that gasket goo was required. Anyway, I cleaned up the faces and they were very pitted. So I cleaned them right back to metal. Looks pretty bad, see photos.

So questions:
1. Is pitting normal?
2. Will the new gasket seal even with the pitting?
3. Can the camchain housing be sanded down diy or resurfaced professionally?

And, slightly different question- has anyone considered having the cam chain housing and cover painted or powder coated?

AOW162435

I’ve replaced chain cover gaskets on a number of 993s over the years. It’s never easy to remove the baked-on residue from the mating surface. I scrape it as cleanly as possible and wipe it with a solvent before installing the new gaskets, etc.

The pitting is quite common from what I’ve seen. Use Curil T on both sides of the gasket.




Andreas

95_993

Rather than painting or powder coating, I had my covers Cerakoted. Coating is very thin and extremely durable.

Peteinjp

I'm going to get mine done with cerakote too including the gasket faces. What type and color cerekote did you use? How is it holding up with the heat?

Pete

95_993

Pete,

I went with satin black, not sure on the spec. I cannot speak to the long term yet as I just did it last week. As for heat, the temp won't be any higher than your oil temp ever gets.

cobalt

^^ love the look of fresh hardware!!


They are magnesium and will easily pit if moisture is allowed to attack the surface. You need to at a min paint the surface before doing anything otherwise it will only get worse. Cerakote is a good modern approach but that would require removal of the timing chain boxes. I would not powder coat magnesium since it varies greatly depending on who does the work and builds up a thick layer. Cerakote is far more durable and thinner. It is used on most weapons these days.

You have exposed magnesium which must be addressed. The corrosion is pretty severe for a matting surface. I normally don't use anything, however If i were, Curil T would be what I use and in your case might help with the pitting. You need to at a min use an etching primer and paint that allowing it to cure for a while before closing up anything.

Meatball964

For mine, I cleaned w/mineral spirits/wet sanded; etched primer & engine paint. Still holding up....

cobalt

I just cleaned mine. I used a plastic scraper designed to remove wheel weights to remove the old rubber that bonded to the mating surface. This way it doesn't scratch or expose the magnesium although there are slight signs of pitting. The outside was fine I just cleaned with penetrating oil and they look like new.