I have seen many people struggle painting a valve cover when trying to mask the letters to make them a different color. I went about it a simple way and finished in about 2 hours.
First, I used orage degreaser and scrubbed the **** out of the cover and washed it off with soap and warm water. I then rinsed it with the hose. Pulled the spark plug boots, oil filler car, and 2 hoses and removed the wire holder clips. I took shop towels and put them in the spark plug holes, breather holes and oil filler hole. put newspaper and rags around areas I didnt want painted. I chose the color of my "H VTEC SOHC Honda Motor Company." (bronze) and proceded to paint the entire valve cover (3 light coats). After it was dry I took a tiny (water color size) paint brush (stiff bristle works the best) and dipped it in red bearing grease. I put a film of grease over the raised letters and then painted the entire cover with the base color. (black). after 15 min, I wiped the raised letters clean and the black paint slides off like water. I re-greased them and repeated 3 times. Now its dry, didnt spent hours cutting masking tape and got a nice finished product. Hope it helped

 

You can also paint your base colour (bronze) and then allow it to cure. After that you can spray your overall colour and easily wipe each wet layer off the raised lettering with a thinner/reducer dampened lint free cotton cloth. Ether way it can be done without masking. Nice trick with the grease though

 

thanks for the idea's i'll be making sure to try one of the techniques later on today