looking back...back make that light coat not cost. I have been in month end cost analysis all day...

I painted the fan shroud red and the tin chassis black. To the question above about linkage, I believe it is Weber. Looks like the same set I got from Fast Freddy's Weber (not the set in my picture, that's CB performance).

A few things here...

First, a thin coat of black paint can help radiate heat (or absorb it for that matter). Most especially on cast-iron things, because the paint conducts heat better than rust.

But, that is irrelevant to the engine tin! The engine tin doesn't hold hot stuff that we need to get the heat out of, it just holds air that is (theoretically) cool anyway. So the color of it doesn't really affect cooling.

Third, lighter colors really throw the light around in the engine bay and make it easier to see what you're doing, find dropped parts, and so on.

But--it starts looking really awful in pretty short order, because engines tend to be dirty things and get the stuff attached to them dirty as well. Which looks like crap on light-colored tin, IMHO.

Like many things, painting the tin has its pluses and minuses. Mine is satin black. That's how it came, and I don't feel any need to change it.

--DD

The darker the color the more heat is absorbed AND radiated. That is the old "black body model" from physics and heat transfer class. But it really doesn't make much difference on our cars since they are cooled not by radiation but by convection, the movement of a fluid (air) past a hot surface (head and cylinder fins and oil radiator). I'd bet the radiation contribution is negligible.

Paint it any color you like!

Mike