Removing/Replacing 392 Engine Covers?

[Schorbf]

I am obviously in the minority here but, if mine start to peel I will probably strip them down and go all black. Don’t get me wrong I am very meticulous and keep my stuff nice but this under the hood beauty just isn’t a priority.

I’m with you on this one. Mine started pealing as I was washing the engine bay. I removed them and tossed them in a box in the garage. I’m the only one who sees under the hood anyway.

 

[DWS44]

Does Mopar have replacement decals ?

Not directly, I don't think, but the overlay decal kit offered by Reflective Concepts is Mopar-licensed:

Reflective Concepts

Here are pics of the decal kit I, in Bronze Metallic. Probably be a couple weeks before I can take the covers off and apply the decals, but I'll come back and post pics for anyone curious.

 

[Turboencabulator]

Yes, they were very responsive and we discussed some custom painted/dipped options based on another set I'd seen on the JL forums, but ultimately it was a little more pricey than I could talk myself into spending on them right now, so I just ordered a set of the overlay decals mentioned above and will try those for now.

Distinction does not have the 392 covers listed on their website, nor do they stock the covers, so you have to ship them your existing covers for them to do their magic.

@DWS44 How much did they quote for painting the covers? I sent them an email and they never got back to me.

You mentioned they will "dip" them... is that to protect them with a varnish or clear coat? Or are you talking about Hydro dipping with a film pattern?

It looks to me like the engine covers might be making contact with the hydro-guide air induction system and that might be causing the paint to chip off. Has anyone had their engine cover's painted by Distinction Applied... how has it held up?

I'm half tempted to just remove the paint and go "stealth" mode old school plastic. Or if I had them painted, I might go have the painted area covered with a PPF film to protect them (but that area might get too warm for PPF).

 

[DWS44]

@DWS44 How much did they quote for painting the covers? I sent them an email and they never got back to me.

You mentioned they will "dip" them... is that to protect them with a varnish or clear coat? Or are you talking about Hydro dipping with a film pattern?

They quoted me $399 to hydro-dip my existing covers in a black carbon fiber pattern, then paint the gold/bronze accents like OEM. I'm not 100% sure if they were going to be clear-coated on top of the paint/pattern or not. The pictures of a similar set on another forum looked very nice, but once I decided to just go with the decals, I didn't want to take up any more of their time.

 

[DWS44]

Got to spend some time under the hood this weekend and finish a good under hood detail (I'm a car detailing nut. ) and spent some time cleaning up and decaling the engine covers with the decals from Reflective Concepts.

For as much of, and as easily as, the OEM Gold had faked off to date, I was surprised the effort it took to get the rest of the gold off. I ended up carefully wet-sanding the rest of the stripe and numeral areas to get all of the gold off before applying the decals. The decals themselves were an impressively good fit. I'm actually super happy with how it came out and kinda glad I didn't splurge on the painted ones now! Pics, as promised:

Add that to an oil change and installing new battery, and it was a good productive weekend in the garage with the 392!

 

[Robr651]

Got to spend some time under the hood this weekend and finish a good under hood detail (I'm a car detailing nut. ) and spent some time cleaning up and decaling the engine covers with the decals from Reflective Concepts.

For as much of, and as easily as, the OEM Gold had faked off to date, I was surprised the effort it took to get the rest of the gold off. I ended up carefully wet-sanding the rest of the stripe and numeral areas to get all of the gold off before applying the decals. The decals themselves were an impressively good fit. I'm actually super happy with how it came out and kinda glad I didn't splurge on the painted ones now! Pics, as promised:

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Add that to an oil change and installing new battery, and it was a good productive weekend in the garage with the 392!

Looks great nice work

 

[Rscx4]

Got to spend some time under the hood this weekend and finish a good under hood detail (I'm a car detailing nut. ) and spent some time cleaning up and decaling the engine covers with the decals from Reflective Concepts.

For as much of, and as easily as, the OEM Gold had faked off to date, I was surprised the effort it took to get the rest of the gold off. I ended up carefully wet-sanding the rest of the stripe and numeral areas to get all of the gold off before applying the decals. The decals themselves were an impressively good fit. I'm actually super happy with how it came out and kinda glad I didn't splurge on the painted ones now! Pics, as promised:

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View attachment 50315
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Add that to an oil change and installing new battery, and it was a good productive weekend in the garage with the 392!

Geez, looks like you even shampooed the carpet battery cover. This is a high bar, looks great.

 

[Turboencabulator]

For as much of, and as easily as, the OEM Gold had faked off to date, I was surprised the effort it took to get the rest of the gold off. I ended up carefully wet-sanding the rest of the stripe and numeral areas to get all of the gold off before applying the decals. The decals themselves were an impressively good fit. I'm actually super happy with how it came out and kinda glad I didn't splurge on the painted ones now! Pics, as promised:

View attachment 50312

Those look great! Really helpful write-up, I'm going to do the same thing on mine. Just curious... what grit(s) did you end up using to sand down the old paint? I was thinking of trying something like an automotive 3M 1000 grit. Also your covers have a really nice "wet" sheen. I'm assuming that's a cleaning product you sprayed on after you applied the decals... not a clear coat? What product did you end up using? It looks fantastic!

Honestly I think this is a better solution than paint because I have a sneaking suspicion that the hood scoop is making contact with the engine covers and rubbing off some of the paint. With decals you won't have that issue. Just ordered my decals from Reflective Concepts. Thank you!

 

[DWS44]

Those look great! Really helpful write-up, I'm going to do the same thing on mine. Just curious... what grit(s) did you end up using to sand down the old paint? I was thinking of trying something like an automotive 3M 1000 grit. Also your covers have a really nice "wet" sheen. I'm assuming that's a cleaning product you sprayed on after you applied the decals... not a clear coat? What product did you end up using? It looks fantastic!

Thanks! I used 1500 grit sandpaper, which had just enough bite to do the job.

You are correct that the sheen was from one of the products I used in detailing. Its a product I really like from Koch Chemie called Motorplast. (Couple sellers in the US carry it...here is one I've bought from) It gives everything a nice even sheen and also adds a non-greasy protective layer. Here's a good video that explains the product a little and how to use it:

In the video, he sprays it on after drying, but I usually spray it on as a drying aid while things are still wet after rinsing, and then just let the engine bay air dry. You can come back later and wipe away any high spots or nooks where it might have puddled up.

 

[station378]

I ran into the same thing on my 392 the gold lettering is way more fragile than it should be and seems to wipe off with basic cleaning. From what I’ve seen, the newer replacement covers don’t hold up much better either, so warranty swaps aren’t a guaranteed fix.
Removing the covers is pretty straightforward just a few bolts/clips and take your time so you don’t mar anything. If you want a long-term solution, repainting or powder coating seems to be the best route.

 

[OldVetteGuy]

Considering what we all paid for our 392's, Jeep should offer to send these at no cost to owners who have the problems. Would be easy to implement, go to the Jeep web site, put in your vin and check a box, bingo the solution arrives right to your door, no dealer visits which we all dread!

When you think of it, that would be a must more cost efficient way of handling flaky paint, not only that is would promote good and a great solution for something that really should never have happened!

 

[Turboencabulator]

Big thanks to @DWS44! Just finished "re-finishing" my 392 engine covers using Reflective Concepts 392 engine cover decals and they look great. The paint on the OEM engine covers must have been painted by uncle bumblefvck on a friday afternoon. The factory finish reminded me more of scratch off lottery ticket than an automotive paint job. No clear coat... wtf? even for the Jeep Paint Dept. it's bad. "Get it out the door and onto the showroom floor." No wonder the paint flakes off.

I used some 3M 1500 wet then went back over it dry to burnish it for a smoother final finish. For some reason the Reflective Concepts Drivers side gold strip didn't line up perfectly so i used the extra Passenger side strip they provided on the Driver side. It came out nice, but anything would be better than what came from the factory. Time will tell if the engine temps have any impact on the durability but for now I'm finally not embarrassed to showoff what's under the hood without all that paint chipping off the 392 engine cover logos.

 

[OldVetteGuy]

For what its worth if you are dealing with trying to get the factory paint off just use a pressure cleaner at about a 45 degree angle, it will literally blow right off. If you don't have one of those just pitch the valve covers in the back and take a run down to the local do it yourself car washes, the high power wands will do it too.

Once you have them stripped use some and paper to rough up the spots to be painted or apply a replacement decal either way you will end up with something that will last the test of time much better then what the factory gave us.

When your all done apply some cerakote to give them a shine and also protect the new decal or paint.

 

[andrej77sk]

Maybe I missed it, but which color at Reflective is the closest match to original. They have descriptions of each color but no recommendation o close to OEM color - I read gold, but they have "gold metallic", "gold reflective" and "medium yellow" also looks similar.

 

[DVS1965]

I know this has been a known issue w/ the 392 engine covers, but my search skills on the board were coming up empty. The engine covers on my 2022 had still looked pretty good up til now, but as I was doing some annual engine bay detailing over the weekend, the gold markings on my covers damn near all washed/wiped off with very little "cleaning" effort. Of course, I'm a couple months out of my B2B warranty now, so I'm sure its not worth wasting my time to try to get warranty replacements. Thinking about just buying a new set or getting the original ones painted, but I was mainly curious of two things... For anyone who did the warranty route (or bought new ones recently), do newer ones hold up any better than the original ones used back in the first couple years of the model? Also, if anyone else has taken theirs off themselves and replaced them, how hard are the covers to remove and replace? Any tips/tricks? Thanks!

 

[Sasquatchilly]

I know this has been a known issue w/ the 392 engine covers, but my search skills on the board were coming up empty. The engine covers on my 2022 had still looked pretty good up til now, but as I was doing some annual engine bay detailing over the weekend, the gold markings on my covers damn near all washed/wiped off with very little "cleaning" effort. Of course, I'm a couple months out of my B2B warranty now, so I'm sure its not worth wasting my time to try to get warranty replacements. Thinking about just buying a new set or getting the original ones painted, but I was mainly curious of two things... For anyone who did the warranty route (or bought new ones recently), do newer ones hold up any better than the original ones used back in the first couple years of the model? Also, if anyone else has taken theirs off themselves and replaced them, how hard are the covers to remove and replace? Any tips/tricks? Thanks!

I found these online for my 392 Challenger from what I gather they will fit the jeep i have been thinking about it but was going to try sanding and painting mine first.

 

[Sasquatchilly]

I know this has been a known issue w/ the 392 engine covers, but my search skills on the board were coming up empty. The engine covers on my 2022 had still looked pretty good up til now, but as I was doing some annual engine bay detailing over the weekend, the gold markings on my covers damn near all washed/wiped off with very little "cleaning" effort. Of course, I'm a couple months out of my B2B warranty now, so I'm sure its not worth wasting my time to try to get warranty replacements. Thinking about just buying a new set or getting the original ones painted, but I was mainly curious of two things... For anyone who did the warranty route (or bought new ones recently), do newer ones hold up any better than the original ones used back in the first couple years of the model? Also, if anyone else has taken theirs off themselves and replaced them, how hard are the covers to remove and replace? Any tips/tricks? Thanks!

I found these online for my 392 Challenger from what I gather they will fit the jeep i have been thinking about it but was going to try sanding and painting mine first

 

[Srtmodmaster]

Big thanks to @DWS44! Just finished "re-finishing" my 392 engine covers using Reflective Concepts 392 engine cover decals and they look great. The paint on the OEM engine covers must have been painted by uncle bumblefvck on a friday afternoon. The factory finish reminded me more of scratch off lottery ticket than an automotive paint job. No clear coat... wtf? even for the Jeep Paint Dept. it's bad. "Get it out the door and onto the showroom floor." No wonder the paint flakes off.

I used some 3M 1500 wet then went back over it dry to burnish it for a smoother final finish. For some reason the Reflective Concepts Drivers side gold strip didn't line up perfectly so i used the extra Passenger side strip they provided on the Driver side. It came out nice, but anything would be better than what came from the factory. Time will tell if the engine temps have any impact on the durability but for now I'm finally not embarrassed to showoff what's under the hood without all that paint chipping off the 392 engine cover logos.
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Not bad my dealer warranties mine

 

[Turboencabulator]

Not bad my dealer warranties mine

Same part.... same eventual outcome unfortunately.