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Removing rust inside the valve cover?

gw204

NAXJA Forum User
Location
St. Leonard, MD
Pulled the valve cover off of my 2000 4.0 in order to replace a leaking gasket. After thoroughly washing out the cover and allowing it to dry, I noticed a fair amount of what looked like rust on the inside of the cover, mostly above the baffle. That being said, it's not traditional flaky rust, it's more powdery and crumbles away to nothing pretty easily if I put a piece between my fingers.

I did a quick search for possible causes of rust and condensation was the no. 1 thing. This Jeep sits most of the time now, so that makes sense and doesn't really worry me.

Given that this stuff is above the baffle, I can't get to any of it to try and remove it. I'm going to try hitting the inside of the cover with a powerwasher tonight in hopes that the high pressure stream will get up behind the baffle and break some of it loose, but I was wondering if you guys had any other suggestions for removal? I might try soaking it with a little CLR as well.

Or should I drill out the spot welds holding the baffle in place, clean the crud out and then pop rivet the baffle back in with some RTV to seal the rivets? I tend to think that would be more trouble than it's worth...

Thanks.
 
I usually clean my VC with oven cleaner (easy off yellow can) ... do it on a sunny day, let it warm up in the sun, spray, wait 20 mins and rinse well. Then spray some oil on the inside, wipe and re-install.
 
He has a stamped steel VC stock ... I replaced mine with a '93 aluminum unit when I did the head swap. But, IIRC ... the '00's were all spot welded together, where as previous alu VC's had the baffles bolted in.
 
As Devilfrog said the baffle can't be removed and replaced. Good advice on cleaning it with over cleaner as well. A dish washer wouldn't hurt either.

Are you certain its rust and just not old oil? I would just wipe it down well with WD40, get as much off as possible and reinstall it.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. The oven cleaner was a good idea. I'll have to remember that for next time.

Talyn, I don't believe it was old oil, but I can say for sure. I forgot to mention in my initial post that I gave the cover a thorough spraying with brake cleanere after washing it out and that didn't seem to clean it up any more. If it was just old oil, I would have thought that would have gotten it.

Anyway, I did go ahead with the CLR and power washing, so I wanted to report my results. I first et the cover upside down and shot some full strength CLR into the gaps between the baffle and valve cover. I let that sit for a few minutes and then wiped what I could with a sponge. After rinsing thoroughly, I hit it with a 15 degree nozzle on the power washser. I concentrated the spray on the gaps and shot at different angles to try and maximize coverage. Once that was done, I washed it with dishwashing liquid again and set it to dry.

Upon later inspection, it looks like I got most if not all of the flaky crud out. What is left definitely looks like rust, but it's WAY cleaner than it was before. So, I'm happy with it.

Thanks again guys.
 
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