Can I remove Cosmoline stains?

[Jason]

i try to keep my engine compartment pretty, but the greenish/goldish stains on the valve cover and parts on the intake manifold drive me nuts. Im guessing its cosmoline. I've heard its a bitch to get this stuff off. Any pointers? Anyone have any leads on a good place to get the valve cover redone with a crinkle or powder coat in the NY/NJ area? I like the pewter color George has on his intake manifold. not sure if i want to go all black and try to make it look like a modern valve cover. But in the mean time I would just like to get it clean. Thanks

[Hector]

About the valve cover, WInfred said he uses some high temp engine paint. Although I like black, I'd like to paint my valve cover and intake with a different color. When I get a little more serious about this later on, I'll see what options I got to go forward with it but I'm curious what kind of responses you'll get here.

[George M]

timely that you mention this as I am refinishing my valve cover again after initially repainting it in red. I was ambivalent about the red because it isn't exactly a BMW color and my car is sterling silver with black interior so decided to go with a monochrome theme more in keeping with the factory silver cover (without Cosmoline) only will shoot it in a light Aluminum color, brush the bars and BMW logo for contrast and clear it in High Temp urethane. Personally I recommend you use a high temp paint...pennies compared to powder coat, quite durable and will give you more freedom to choose paint options. Cosmoline is not that difficult to remove when these cars were new as was supposed to be performed by the dealer. What happens over time after repeated thermal cycling is the viscous Cosmoline becomes baked on are really bonds with parts under the hood. Having been through this, my advice is to remove all parts you want to de-Cosmoline and use a chemical stripper followed by Simple Green and/or Brake cleaner....only on metal parts of course. For Cosmoline on plastic you must be much less invasive to preserve original surface texture. A medium 3M scour pad works effectively as well without scratching the metal. I will put up some pics when I finish mine...am in early stages, just removed the cover and have stripped it.
HTH,
George

[gordon]

[George M]

Cosmoline is paint?

[Unregistered]

I treated my cosmoline stains like my underwear stains......I just threw out my drawers and got a new pair. I suggest a new engine!!!

i try to keep my engine compartment pretty, but the greenish/goldish stains on the valve cover and parts on the intake manifold drive me nuts. Im guessing its cosmoline. I've heard its a bitch to get this stuff off. Any pointers? Anyone have any leads on a good place to get the valve cover redone with a crinkle or powder coat in the NY/NJ area? I like the pewter color George has on his intake manifold. not sure if i want to go all black and try to make it look like a modern valve cover. But in the mean time I would just like to get it clean. Thanks

[Dave Rutkowski]

Inquiring Minds want to know.

[Martin in Bellevue]

scuzzbag.

I treated my cosmoline stains like my underwear stains......I just threw out my drawers and got a new pair. I suggest a new engine!!!

[George M]

a little known fact...the root word for Cosmoline is Cosmos and therefore it is radioactive. Best to use old stained undies dipped in turpentine...keeps the fallout down if not scares it away.
George

[winfred]

on this one the valve cover has about 50k miles on it's engine block paint, it's just dirty the paints fine

this one has almost 30k on everything

Cosmoline is paint?

sorta, close enough, spray aircraft stripper works good