Painting Intake Manifolds

12-29-2000, 09:31 AM

Since I am going to be dismantling my CIS and take down the intake manifolds I thought I would pain them to dress the engine up a bit. Seems like a simple enough chore. I could use high temp primer and paint after stripping off the old paint. Does anyone have any suggestions, could recommend a good high temp primer or paint on the market or offer up any ideas on making these pipes look great? Car is now painted Sepia Brown (looks like a caramel taffy apple going down the street). Thanks

BR'73T

12-29-2000, 09:44 AM

BR,

The best aluminum primer I know of is PPG's DP40/400 ... a two-part Epoxy Chromate Primer that I have used on all kids of parts and pieces! It is very easy to use in a touch-up gun for small pieces with minimal resulting waste or overspray. GM recommends this primer in their service manuals for aluminum trim pieces that have to be refinished!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

12-29-2000, 10:12 AM

Warren..should I be overly concerned about a very temp paint at this location? Colors in high temp paints are limited although I thought the next time I get the valves adjusted I would also dress up the valve covers. Would love to chrome but its big bucks I hear. I have not seen enough dressed up Porsche engines to determine what popular or "exceptable" trim colors are. I should put it to a vote:

RED
YELLOW
GREY
????

Thanks
BR '73T

12-29-2000, 10:29 AM

color is a personal preferance. However, for my vote, silver would be a great looking color with the brown.
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Paul
78SC Targa

12-29-2000, 10:44 AM

This may not be a problem for you, but painting an aluminum part will slow the dissipation of heat. That is one of the good qualities that aluminum has. In some applications every little bit helps! The motor I am currently building was painted red everywhere by the PO. It is a hot-running turbo motor so I plan to remove all the paint from the aluminum parts and just highlight the "porsche" script on the valve covers. I'd like to hear other folks' view on this subject. Engine detail can really make a car! Team 5150 had an SC with an awsome looking engine!

12-29-2000, 10:55 AM

Check out http://www.rustpaint.com. They sell a manifold paint that will withstand up to 1400 degrees. They also sell some fantastic engine enamels. I have used their enamels for my valve covers. I chose their T-bird red. Most products can be applied w/ a brush and leave no marks. Great products w/ even better customer service. Good luck !

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CM Wagner

1968 911 S Coupe
Light Ivory

12-29-2000, 11:25 AM

BR,

No, I don't think high-heat paints are needed on anything in the engine compartment, per se. And, certainly not on any intake system parts. I have painted some of my sheet metal parts with no problems other than how to achieve the durability that the factory does with its' baked enamel! And, cleaning the factory finish off to achieve a smooth finish is no trivial matter, either!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

12-29-2000, 01:23 PM

not sure aobut the cost for a 911, but this cost $200 to have this done to a VW intake monifold. that is NOT a bad price and look at the results:

this is the kid that had that done to his scirocco:
klcoll@yahoo.com

here is that message on the VWVortex board, with more pics of the polished parts:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/vwbb/Forum13/HTML/000510.html

that looks really nice, and for only 200 bucks! if i wasn't racing the 924, i'd get that done to it's valve cover.

good luck!

obin

12-29-2000, 01:32 PM

here's another, better picture:

obin

12-29-2000, 06:33 PM

Thank you for the kind words RarlyL8 !

When I did my detailing I just used Hi-Temp silver color. You don't use a ton of it so it isn't like your wrapping the manifold with insulation and I think the difference in the heat dissapation to a street driver is not worth the time to do the math on. Now if your racing - that is a whole different story and you'll do really expensive things to gain any advantage.
Here is a picture of my engine detailed out. Th whole process can be seen in pictorial form at my web site
http://members.rennlist.com/5150targa

Here is a shot of the engine.

Tom Sharpes
90 C2 Targa

12-30-2000, 10:40 AM

12-30-2000, 01:25 PM

WOW WOW WOW! that looks absolutely fantastic!!! did you do that yourself? how long did that take?

obin

12-31-2000, 05:12 AM

Powder coating ? I understand that its more durable. Anyone have experience with this ?

12-31-2000, 06:56 AM

Boy this really sucks. I was just going to clean the compartment and reinstall the motor. The completion date just got pushed back a month or so.
FYI, powder coating claims 3 to 4 times more durable than auto paint. Powder coaters can now do pearl and clear coats if you are interested. The motorcycle bunch makes use of the process.
All my black window and glass trim is going to be powder coated for $50 if I take all the paint off.
David

01-01-2001, 09:31 PM

I was able to check with a friend of mine who is an engineer here at Brembo North America. FYI, Brembo uses a two-part epoxy on all its brake calipers, black, red and now the yellow. So good call Warren! Apparently the two-part epoxy used by Brembo is the best means to provide a colored finish that will withstand high temperatures and maintain that just finished look over many years. However, the epoxy used by Brembo is applied only in Italy because the chemicals used are not approved for use in the U.S. Brembo North America had tried to have the non-painted calipers shipped over to the U.S. and the coating applied here. I noticed that Automotion sells a two-part epoxy for calipers. But, according to Brembo, this is not the same epoxy used on its calipers.
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Paul
78SC Targa

01-01-2001, 09:48 PM

Okay, I finally checked this thread out, and you guys have beautiful motors. And anyone who wants to paint intake runners has my blessing. But the beautiful engines above (not all pictures appeared on my browser) all have stock aluminum-looking runners.

I took my runners off when I had my engine out and just cleaned them off. They look beautiful to me and I'm not sure I'd change a thing. Now that magnesium fan, that's another story.

But aluminum things can just be polished if you want, and they have a naturally good look to me.

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'83 SC