2.0 Fan casing dress-up

[captjm]

I am rebuilding a 2.0 liter. Has anybody powder coated, chromed or painted this casing? I have cleaned or blasted this piece and have not made a decision as to what to do with it now. Maybe I should just paint it. I have powder coated the intake pipes in a chrome color and they came out pretty good. ANY IDEAS for the casing??
Thanks-

I bought some "chrome" paint that looked great. It wasn't the fake stuff that flakes off but a really bright silver. The housing paints really easy and turned out great for it to be spray painted. I would think powder coating would be better but unless you're just wanting to throw money at it the spray paint will suffice.

HTH

[maf 914]

Jim,

I'm curious about refinishing the fan shroud too. Mine, currently in the car, is a nice dingy grey. You indicate that you blasted the shroud. Did it come out uniformly clean with a nice aluminum sheen? If so I wonder if it could be clear coated to resist surface oxidation. I have almost decided to paint mine silver with Wurth silver wheel paint, or if I get around to having the tin powder coated, have the shroud coated too. I haven't seen too many 914-4's with detailed engines. I would like to spruce mine up a little bit, so I've been trying to think of possible colors and finishes. Any suggestions anyone?

Thanks,
Mike

[Bleyseng]

I had all the engine tin and the fan housing powder coated a satin black. I really looks nice and easy to keep clean. Cost me $150 total with them bead blasting it too.
I suppose you could have the fan housing clear coated if you wanted.
Somewhere I have a pic, if I find it I'll post it.
Geoff

[norustscott]

Polished mine and sprayed 3 coats of high temp clear...I only concentrated on the visible areas. Took about six hours with a drill and wheel...started with 600 grit paper...the rest is time and elbow grease...I did sand blast first. The color after the blasting was a dark grey and very rough...no shine at all.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The shroud is a magnesium alloy, like the tranny case. It probably won't polish up that well--though I have seen some clearcoated ones that looked nice. Darker than the engine case and other aluminum bits, but nice.

A buddy of mine painted or powdercoated his engine tin yellow. Black car. Looked very sharp, for about 2 days. Then the dirt and grime that are inevitable in the engine bay started showing up in a major way. You'll see every imperfection on a light color.

Sure did throw the light around well, though. You could see what you were doing without shoving a shop light in the engine bay, which came in very handy for a few things.

--DD

[Ron Meier]

The finish on a material via bead (or sandblasting as most know it), is determined via the material used. Sand will clean and remove metal, leaving a pitted, rough surface. Glass beads will clean the material leaving a clean, but dull finish. Aluminum Oxide beads will clean and leave aluminum, aluminum/magnesium alloy materials with a bright finish. The Al/Mag alloy will not be as bright as straight Al.

I use glass beads to clean and then paint with a high temp grey - color is similar to Ford engine paint (very similar to the original VW light grey).

Oh well!

[Otto]

you should not paint or coat the case, your case is a heat sink. How would your skin breathe, like the girl in Goldfinger??? OTTO

[Ron Meier]

Sorry Otto - I don't paint the case - only the tin and fan housing.

[Wayne 962]

Actually, if you follow what we used to do on military satellites (when I used to work at Hughes), painting the aluminum with black paint (there is some special type) will actually increase the heat disipation (sp?) because the black surfaces radiate heat better than shiny aluminum.

Has to do with quantum physics type principles that I can't really remember...

Still, I wouldn't recommend doing it without knowing exactly what paint to use, because as John (Otto) said, you don't want to accidentally 'insulate' the case...

-Wayne

[mike mueller]

I'm using stuff from this company for my heat managment issues.

http://www.techlinecoatings.com/BulkEngine.htm#TLTD