Magnesium Cam Covers
 

As we all know the cam magnesium covers corrode due to electrolysis caused by the magnetic field around the coils in the presence of moisture caused by condensation. That is a serious problem that pretty much dooms all cam covers eventually. In that regards I saw something the other day that put me to thinking. Bad habit I know. I saw a large coil in a shop trash ben that had a metal shield aroung the probe that reached down to the spark plug. I don't know what it was for. But, what if we wrapped heavy duty metal foil around the rubber boot when we installed them? I think the foil would drastically reduce the magnetic field and could reduce the corrosion of the magnesium.

What do you guys think and has anyone tried this?????

That reminds me of the people who wear aluminum foil hats to prevent the aliens from reading their minds. But seriously, isn't the aluminum head in close enough proximity?

Is the cam cover grounded to help prevent corrosion?

The cam cover is probably connected to the head through the mounting bolts. If anything that will make corrosion worse. Magnesium is like zinc in that it will corrode in the presence of moisture and a magnetic field. The reason I came up with the idea of the foil is to shield the cover from the magnetic field generated by the coils. Using a metalic shield is quite common to protect something from a magnetic field.

Magnesium is probably the worse metal for this application. Moisture and an electric current causing a magnetic field will eventually corrode the material. I worked as an engineer for Boeing. And they learned that lesson the hard way. If any designer specified magnesium he was immediately escorted to the front gate where he turned in his badge.

Magnetic field?

Check out "galvanic corrosion" instead.

Yeah, magnesium is on the top of the list of common metals, no way to protect it.