[Need4Camaro]

Just wondering, do you think this would be covered by the bumper to bumper or given its cosmetic, I will have to just buy new Vinyl?

[Keloid]

It's worth the try asking for replacement - hey, you may be going to car shows and that's important to you.

Lame as plastic covers are, it doesn't make them cheap, $100+ for a pair. The letter coloring is not vinyl though, it's paint. It's flaking in some spots, but that doesn't mean you can scrape it off easily, heck no. You'll need passes with a sanding block.

I bought vinyl to cover mine and bring the letters to match engine bay color. Vinyl may be laser cut but it won't cover letters 100%, so for good look you'd probably need to sand the original color down to black plastic, otherwise the orange paint may be showing from underneath some edges.

Ditching the rail covers is an option, but then again - it's Fisher Price or dealing with dust settling in those crevices and on cable looms.

[Bosse'sBoss]

Same thing happened to my Stingray engine's cover letters

[rocknss]

Same thing happened to me with my Fifty! I would take it to the dealer and see what they say.



I didn't take mine to the Dealer because I was going to have it custom painted by River City Creations. This is what it looks like now.

[DorkMissile]

The biggest reason for the intake cover and fuel rail covers is emissions - they help quiet the noise from the direct injection

There are cafe standards for noise emissions that, just like exhaust emissions, get more and more stringent as time progresses. You or I cannot really tell the difference in the noise with them on or off the car, but the car needs them in order to pass government standards (and the testing standards that are in place)

[Geckobros]

Mine were flaking as well. Don’t sand them.. I used acetone and rubbed off the red. The acetone didn’t harm the plastic. Now the “Camaro” wording has a nice flat black stealth look. I may get them painted but I certainly wouldn’t have them replaced as the flaking will just happen again in my opinion.

[Keloid]

Originally Posted by Geckobros

Don’t sand them.. I used acetone and rubbed off the red

I also heard that it could be rubbed off with acetone, elbow grease etc. - tried it, it did nothing on mine, like it was baked or laminated.

[Geckobros]

Originally Posted by Keloid

I also heard that it could be rubbed off with acetone, elbow grease etc. - tried it, it did nothing on mine, like it was baked or laminated.

That’s strange, it came off pretty easy on mine. If I recall correctly I used a rag and soaked the acetone in to a corner of the rag. Rubbed and wiped off the red as it “mushed” away.

[Jeb114]

It's covered

[mstgeer]

I installed orange vinyl letters on mine after the paint started to flake off.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2016-2017-2...item33d387694e

[DorkMissile]

Originally Posted by fullpower

That sounds like more bovine excrement than what’s on my cousin’s farm in Berlin Heights.

Well my best friend of 30 years runs the only dyno at GM that is setup for sound emissions testing and he makes a living doing that very thing.

Its a dyno setup in a sound chamber (has the foam spike walls on the walls, ceilings, etc....) with multiple microphones that measure sound in frequencies in the human audible range and outside of it.

Like with the Cafe standards on fuel economy and carbon emissions get stricter and stricter, the parameters on the emitted sound emissions get tighter and tighter.

Hence the need for the black covers on the valve covers - they cancel out a series of noise from the injectors. It is also why there is a plastic cover and a layer of insulation over the top of the intake manifold. It is all there to absorb noise while the car is running a specific speed while the hood is closed.

Millford Sound Chamber Dyno Article

[DorkMissile]

Originally Posted by fullpower

Soooooo when I switch to track mode with the dual mode exhaust and go wot the slight tick of direct injection is muted nicely by a $10 piece of Chinese plastic. Got it.

Not blaming you personally for anything mind you. But you have to agree at the level of cow patties accumulating from this. Up to the roof of the silo.

I’m removing my cover. Both the silly engine cover AND the even sillier piece of plastic on the intake manifold. If I want a quiet engine I’ll buy a Lexus. For GM to put insulators that look cheap and incredibly fake on an engine that’s supppsed to be loud - in both the Camaro and Corvette - and the people buying them have every expectation for them to be loud and rough is quite comical.

I’m not advocating for anyone to run it - just explaining why they are there. It’s not because GM wants them, the rules say it has to be “X-Quiet”, and every couple of years the regulations on X get harder and harder to hit.

The government’s test is very defined - specific speeds, frequencies, etc.... and if you execute the test on a bone stock off the showroom car it will pass the test. It only needs to pass this test up until the point it is sold and delivered.

If you could hear the stories on the amount of time, thought and resources that go into finding a ultra high frequency noise not being heard to the human ear, but detectable to the sensors on the certified test, to find out it is the end of the dipstick tube.

It’s similar to the need for stability control, abs, daytime running lights and backup cameras. The government says if you want to sell cars in the US, they have to have it.

Diesel-gate with Volkswagen is a perfect example. Every one of those cars VW delivered, when thrown on a dyno they would pass the governments test with flying colors. Had Virginia Tech not figured out that the cars didn’t do the same emissions on the road as they did on the dyno, they still would be getting away with it.

These Camaros are in the same boat - left stock, and put into the specified test as they were delivered (down to the factory tires and tire pressures) it will pass it.

[DorkMissile]

Originally Posted by fullpower

Leave it to the gub’ment eh?

So, besides inflating sticker prices on cars by probably at least $10,000, what exactly do all these tests and certifications provide for us on public roads. Not necessarily the emission stuff but the whole “high frequency” and other vibration stuff? When driving on a normal road the traffic and just general life will drown it out 100 fold. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere. Where it’s so far from civilization that night time is absolute black.

Exactly what is wrong with the CAFE standard programs. In the end - the emissions coming out the tailpipe going down the road doesn’t matter. It’s how it passes the test, which is a unrealistic driving situation (ie - the recommended speeds in which the manual you shift, totally unrealistic)

An example is Diesel engines - an American built diesel car MUST use Eurea injection (refined cow piss). It doesn’t matter what kind of emissions it gets - it HAS to have it.

VW used to make the same engine for the TDI golf, Jetta, Jetta wagon and Passat in the same factory in Germany. With the exception of the Passat, the rest of the cars were made in Wolfsburg. The cars made there didn’t need to have the Eurea injection (a huge maintenance cost on a system that does nothing to improve anything ) but the Passat has to have it. The German cars were cleaner, got better mpg, and didn’t require cow piss every time you fill it up.

It’s such a screwed up system - in the end, cars now weigh the same, get the same mileage, with slightly better emissions with a huge up cost to the consumer.

[Frayles]

They’re covered. Same thing happened to mine and the dealer replaced them with no issue.