Painting the engine

[mytrplseven]

If you're doing major work on replacing all seals and hoses like me, then I'm a big proponent of painting the major components of the engine. I pulled the intake manifold, cam tower, cam sprocket cover and have painted them. Also cleaned all the dirt and residue from other stuff in the engine bay. While the intake manifold was out, rebuilt the injectors, replaced aged hoses and one broken vacuum fitting under the J boot. Also replaced the AOS seals. More simply put, while you're in there, there's a number of things that can and should be attended to while you have access.

My cam tower and plugs on top were taken down to the bare metal (after degreasing) with a drill powered brass brush. Steel is damaging to the aluminum. Then cleaned with clean towels and carb cleaner and a spray degreasing pre-paint fluid. After serious masking of the letters and areas wanting to be exposed, sprayed with 2 coats of VHT engine primer, one coat of white to enhance the color of the red and then two coats of red. The cam sprocket housing is done in similar manner and stainless steel metal flake spray paint was used. This sound tacky but after the paint dries, it should be wiped down with a clean cloth and the flakes that sit on the surface are wiped off and it looks outstanding.

The intake manifold is out for media blasting because a wire brush won't get to the inner areas of the manifold but will be sprayed with the same stainless finish.

The pictures tell the story. Saved about $300 over powder coating.

[darud35]

Looks great! One option to masking all of the lettering is sanding after paint on the surface of the letters.

[mytrplseven]

I had considered sanding after painting but when I looked at the surface of the letters after I used the rotary brush on them I saw that they were very porous looking. It would have been a lot of sanding plus standing the chance of accidentally dinging the new paint job. The fine masking took an hour with a razor blade to trim and was definitely worth it. Can't wait to get the intake manifold back so I can paint it and get everything back together.

[v2rocket_aka944]

when i painted mine red like that i took it to my machinist and he milled off like 0.005 from the letters. i clearcoated over the whole thing, its still shiny 6 years later

[9FF]

If anyone wants color choice ideas for engine painting they should look at Albert Broadfoots work. Amazing!

Engine_Rebuild_Page

[kfanazini]

Thanks!

Originally Posted by 9ff

if anyone wants color choice ideas for engine painting they should look at albert broadfoots work. Amazing!

engine_rebuild_page