With this hail and absolutely terrible Indiana weather, my brother and I got going doing some small projects. 65 convertible 289. We were putting on valve covers but there is so much gunk and burnt nasty oil caked on the top of the heads and all over the original valve covers. We also have a noisy lifter which im guessing is from getting the gunk in the lifters. Here are some pics of whats going on.

What do we do about this? Can we remove the crud without taking the heads off or having them cleaned up by a machine shop? I'm going to soak the valve cover bolts in some clr or goof off and should I paint them or leave them be? Are there gaskets that go betweent he valve covers and the head?

ALso, lastly, whats the best paint to use to paint the block and the engine bay?

 

Engine should be hi temp enamel, most auto stores have the cans. The engine bay can be anything. When I get to that point, it will be the same color as the rest of the car Black Jade.

T

 

A long time ago people used Marvel Mystery Oil to remove 'gunk'. The trick was to add a quart and run the car no more than a hundred mile and then drain the oil. As a side effect it was supposed to free stuck lifters. I never had a car that got to that state so I can't really say if it works or not. In your case, scrape as much out as you can.
For the valve covers, scrape, brush and get some paint cleaner called Krud Kutter from Home Depot. I'm not sure if you are going to use the original or put on some new valve covers so if the old ones, stock color is gold. And, yes there is a valve cover gasket. Leaving it off is disasterous.
The engine and engine compartment paint is, depending on your personal preference, black for stock (or modified at your discression. Whatever you do, show some class and don't paint the wires.
Jim

 

I am afraid if you try to do any scraping or use any gunk remover liquid, you are going to get that crap in the bottom of the engine. If it was mine, I would go ahead and pull those heads, take them to a maching shop and have the valves ground. You will be killing two birds with one stone. You most likely need the valves to be ground anyway, and you would get that nasty thing cleaned up and adjusted properly.
Regarding the covers. Your first picture is not the original cover. The second gold cover is the original, and should clean up real well. Use paint remover to get the old paint off, use degreaser on the inside, then order the correct color gold paint from a Mustang vendor.

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