my dad brought me home 3 cans of engine primer and engine paint. hugger orange. and i KNOW i dont need all of it for Just the block. so i was wondering what else i could paint with this high temp paint. im getting my headers powdercoated, and my manifold powdercoated, heads arent getting painted, i just need some ideas for what else i can paint with it. i got white primer and orange paint. also, any ideas on how to paint the block? how do i mask off the area where the heads and manifold are? just by like taping newspaper over it?
how do i go about painting the valley where the lifters are? do i need to use primer for that as well? would i need to get a gloss for the paint as well? any tips are greatly appreciated!

mike

My opinion on painting the lifter valley is mixed. First, the benefit of this is faster oil drainback. But the drawback is the paint chipping and travelling to who knows where. There are special paints for doing this (and the name escapes me, do a search), and I wouldn't use regular engine paint. You also need to be sure the surface is CLEAN. If you think it's clean, clean it again with MEK. If it seems clean then, do it again...basically, if you think it's clean, it probably isn't. There's a lot of little nooks and crannies on the surface, and don't leave shop rag or paper towl lint, either.

For the exterior, wipe it down with some solvent, use newspapers and masking tape (get the 3M blue tape to make the job easier), and paint away. I like to put bolts in the holes I'll be using so I don't get paint in the threads. If you get paint on a machined surface, it can be scraped away pretty easy with a gasket scraper.

Just a Hint... ANY enamel or urethane paint will work great on the exterior of the engine. That thin high temp spray paint is BS. I have used the cheapest spray enamel I could find for yrs with great luck. I even mix pearls in urethane clear and came up with some neat colors.
As for painting the inside of the engine. Glyptol is the paint to use. Krylon used to offer it in a spray can. Also if painted the inside do NOT smooth out the surface ! before I smoothed mine out the Glyptol type paint stuck great, didnt have any issues. After I smoothed it out I had the problem that Matt had, where the paint would just flake off.
Duane

Glyptol is actually a sealer that's used on armature windings for electric motors.
Its the kind. graemlins/thumbsup.gif