i pulled my valve cover off today (EW4/D15A3) with the plan of cleaning it up and repainting it, so i pulled it off and cleaned up the inside with some mineral spirits adn a rag then sandblasted it, part way through sandblasting i realized that i should have masked off the inside but it was too late, the baffle inside the cover has sand all up in it and its stuck on the oil and grease up in there

so needless to say i need to clean it all out, can i remove this baffle and just put a filter on the vent? it looks to just keep the intake from sucking up a bunch of oil since the breather has a hose to the intake tube

heres what im talking about
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thanks for the help

 

I would just blast it out with a bunch of degreaser and an air hose until it's all cleaned out. I wouldn't remove the baffle, you need to get oil vapors, and moisture out (which a filter would trap), and keep liquid oil in (which the separator keeps from going out). It's not really a big deal, I did the same thing with my A20 valve cover. Cleaned it out, had it powder coated, and it's good as new.

 

the only reason im concerned is that i know it only takes 1 grain of sand to ruin a motor, i dont know if an air hose will be able to blow all of it out

im suggesting a small breather filter on the breather tube and just eliminating then baffle

but i can see where that could be an issue

hmm all ideas would be helpful

thanks

 

Maybe just find another valve cover at the junk yard and start over? I imagine they're not too hard to come by. I think there are two fuel injected EW motors at my local wreckers, I could get one for you if you need.

 

you would think that there would be a bunch of them in my junkyard, but no

my junkyard is full of mint condition vws, a renault alliance that looked like it just drove off the line (had window sticker and entire service history for its 64000 mile life in glove box) and alot of old datsuns like a couple old Zs and a couple 510s as well as a mint nissan pulsar 50th aniversary

needless to say my junkyard is frustrating and sad

 

I honestly wouldn't be TOO worried about it. Just clean the hell out of it, clean it some more, coat it and slap it on. The one or two grains of sand will get picked up inthe oil and filtered out.

 

remove the baffle and use a oil catch can this way u can still seperate the moister/oil/and vapors cause the oil wil go back to the pan while the intake vacuum sucs the vapor/moister to the engine to b burnt off

 

im gonna try to clean it out really good tonight and see what it looks like

as far as an oil catch can, i suppose i could try that if i cant get it cleaned good

 

Personaly id just ditch it and start over. Any of the 84-87 Civic/CRX Valve covers will fit it. The Si's were aluminum, The Dx's were stamped Steel, and the HF's were plastic. The Si and Dx's mount the same, you might need the studs from the DX if its shorter. And the HF's youll need the bolts around the ouside.

 

I still don't really see any sense in removing the baffle or getting a new valvecover. I'm pretty sure lots of people get sand in their baffles and I'm also pretty sure it'll come out. I'm not saying you dont need to clean it EXTREMELY well, but it's really not going to hurt anything.

 

that is much easier said than done, i cant find anything in the junkyards around here and you go into a honda dealership and they laugh at you