DZAUTO
Apr 21st, 06, 5:52 PM
Lets see if this works.
Well, I was hoping this would be a larger picture, but I think you can see it well enough anyway.
I have ALWAYS painted the inside of all my engines to help to seal the pores of the casting and it seems to help keep things stay cleaner (crud doesn't seem to stick to the paint as bad as it does to the bare casting). A lot of people don't like to paint inside an engine for fear that the paint will flake off and clog oil passages. This is the SB400 in our 70 conv. Recently I determined that water was getting into #2 cyl (as you can clearly see from the top of #2 piston!!!). I was hoping for a blown head gasket, but, no such luck, the head was cracked right in the roof of the combustion chamber! I was going to have the crack welded, but my machinist convinced me that it would be cheaper just to build up another head to match, so I did.
Anyway, my whole point is that I built this engine in 98, and 6yrs later, you can see just how well the paint has held up and how clean it is. I paint a block with an old cam and set of old lifters installed to prevent paint from getting into the cam bearings and the lifter bores. When finished painting, I soak a rag with lacquer thinner and wipe out the overspray from the cylinders, deck surfaces and main bearing bores. I also paint behind the timing chain and I also paint inside the heads in the rocker area (I save toilet paper rolls and protect the valve springs with them when painting the heads).
So, if you have ever considered painting inside the block and heads, here is the results 6yrs later.
I started painting inside engines about 30yrs ago and have NEVER seen a problem so far. I use rattle cans of High Heat paint after the block has been cleaned well enough to eat off of.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h219/DZAUTO/0091031-R1-020-8A.jpg
Well, I was hoping this would be a larger picture, but I think you can see it well enough anyway.
I have ALWAYS painted the inside of all my engines to help to seal the pores of the casting and it seems to help keep things stay cleaner (crud doesn't seem to stick to the paint as bad as it does to the bare casting). A lot of people don't like to paint inside an engine for fear that the paint will flake off and clog oil passages. This is the SB400 in our 70 conv. Recently I determined that water was getting into #2 cyl (as you can clearly see from the top of #2 piston!!!). I was hoping for a blown head gasket, but, no such luck, the head was cracked right in the roof of the combustion chamber! I was going to have the crack welded, but my machinist convinced me that it would be cheaper just to build up another head to match, so I did.
Anyway, my whole point is that I built this engine in 98, and 6yrs later, you can see just how well the paint has held up and how clean it is. I paint a block with an old cam and set of old lifters installed to prevent paint from getting into the cam bearings and the lifter bores. When finished painting, I soak a rag with lacquer thinner and wipe out the overspray from the cylinders, deck surfaces and main bearing bores. I also paint behind the timing chain and I also paint inside the heads in the rocker area (I save toilet paper rolls and protect the valve springs with them when painting the heads).
So, if you have ever considered painting inside the block and heads, here is the results 6yrs later.
I started painting inside engines about 30yrs ago and have NEVER seen a problem so far. I use rattle cans of High Heat paint after the block has been cleaned well enough to eat off of.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h219/DZAUTO/0091031-R1-020-8A.jpg