Datsun 240Z Valve Cover Mod – Shaved & Cleaned

This is an original valve cover from a Datson engine. It's made out of cast aluminum. The valve cover sits on top of the engine and covers the valve train. Originally, all the six spark plug wires run across the valve cover. Therefore, the valve cover has three of these raised sections with a thread in it. Usually, you mount a bracket here and then you can click on this plastic part to guide the spark plug wires. I don't really like the look of the spark plug wires running across the head because it kind of like blocks the view of this very nice valve cover. Instead, I'm going to run the wires along the head. That means that these three raised sections with the thread are not needed anymore. I'm going to shave them off, weld them shut to have a very nice and clean looking valve cover. I also need to mention that I have this ID from DCW Classic from Lithuania, one of the best sea car restorters in the world. He often does this mod on his own builds as you can see in this picture. And he even goes a step further and repositions the briefer right here and place it back here for an even cleaner look. Now, let's start with this modification. But first, this valve cover needs a good clean. Let's go. So, the valve cover is now completely blasted on the inside and on the outside. And now we can actually start working getting these ones here shaved off and completely deleted. The obvious things we definitely need to close these three frets with welding. But there's something more to it. If we shave off these raised sections, we will also end up with a hole right here in that section because the casting on the inside actually has indents where the race sections are on the outside. So, if you just shave it off, we will break through right here. So, the very first step I'm going to do, I'm going to fill this lowered section right here up with welding. And then we can grind these off. Everything is now ready to start welding. I'm going to use my 1200 W X tool laser welder for this. This is just perfect for welding cast aluminum because it's first of all super easy. Second, it almost creates no heat, therefore doesn't cause any warping. I'm going to use this aluminum MIG wire 1.2 2 mm.