Stupid me I sandblasted the cover, I thought I cleaned it out, but I was still worried about the stuff under the baffles. So, after some decision making, I decided to take the baffles out, cleaned them (there was a ton of sand under there, even after cleaning it for 3 straight hours, glad I did it ), tapped the vc, and installed bolts so I could take them out again if I ever wanted to change colors.

Valve cover untouched:


Tools to remove the stock "rivets"


Tap the tops of the stock rivets, they should break away clean



What the underside of the baffles look like:

Sand, the black spots are all sand. I cleaned this beforehand for 3 hours with a hose, hot and cold water, soaking in simple green, sifting through the bathtub, etc:


After tapping the vc with m5 x .80 tap:

Done, installed bolts with washers, red loctite, and torqued to 10ft/lbs.


I also added a drop of JB Weld on the bolt tops to ensure they wernt going anywhere. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

 

I think I would have used button head allen bolts for this... great job none the less.

 

did you screw them back? is there some space to make a thread?

 

I installed bolts instead of using rivets. And yes, there is some space to add some threads.

Why would you use allen heads instead? I thought about this, but I had the sockets for these heads, and I didnt have a way of ensuring they were all torqued down the same with an allen head. Are allen heads stronger?

 

Not any stronger, the head is shorter... can you verify that the bolts you put in clear the cam caps and bolts? Get a set of the 3/8" socket allen heads to torque allen screws down properly...

 

I have not tried it on yet to be honest, but I followed this guys write up and hes using the tall allen head bolts and safety wire, so I'm guessing I should be good to go. Thanks for the input!

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...-solution.html

 

I think is enough to use Loctite thread locker (red tube), Ill do the same and then post some pics of mine, thanks

 

when riveting or using bolts what material are you using to bound the magnesium and steel? Just basic aluminum? Are there any considerations as far as corrosion that would make you lean towards another metal for the rivets/bolts?

Also, I know Mitsubishi uses Aeronautical rivets, but can standard rivets work just the same?

Thanks for the information.

 

nice job

 

I heard that the heads of the bolts can break off and its better to weld it back in

 

I have had zero issues or problems with this install.

 

I like what you did surely, specially not installing this cover on with the hiding sand as it would have destroyed the internals.

But I surely would have dumped it and bough a new cover

 

Yeah I was looking for one but then I realized that if I did this, I could change up the look of the bay very easily with having a buddy with b17, sandblast cabinet, and powder coating. I like to switch things up a lot usually.

This has seen regular street driving and the drag strip three times since I've done it and everything seems to be in there just fine

Thank you for the kind words.

 

I need to do this!

 

I did this to my valve cover. Put ~7500 hard miles on it. Bolts did not fall out. Used same bolts with lock washers and red locktite. Also have 3 -12 fittings on the valve cover. 2 of them go to my catch. One is off the back of the block and vents into the head. Reason it vents into the head is that there was a lot of oil coming out of it so I decided to dump the oil back into the head and the gases would exclave out the other 2 -12 lines.