I'm going to be painting my housings, plates and ends... (no debates about color right now! ;P) but so I'm wondering how much prepping I need to do if I want this paint to last the life of the engine? I'll be using the Duplicolor high temp paints... that's about all I've got, I plan on following the instructions on the can to get it done.

So far I've been scotch-briting stuff... started on the housings, not easy. But now I'm concentrated on finishing the oil pump housing... almost done doing it over with scotch brite.

The problem is no matter how well I work it, it always seems like it could be a little cleaner? It's bright and shiny, smooth to the touch but has small scratches worked in from the scotchbrite pads (I think that's good for the paint to settle into). Will this be clean enough to hold paint? What about hard to reach corner areas that I've thoroughly cleaned the dirt out of but don't appear to "shine" like the parts I've really scrubbed at?

Am I over or under cleaning these? heh... the only other thing I could think to do is get steam cleaning or pressure cleaning, neither of which I want to pay for... and I don't even know if they'd even do this good of a job.

--Gary

 

I just wiped down the outsides of my plates / housings with laquer thinner last year when I rebuilt my engine, then painted them with engine enamel from a spray can. The paint has held up well. 99% of it is still there, and I've pressure washed it a couple times.

 

Ah yeah I was gonna give it a once over with mineral spirits and/or paint thinner when I'm done, to get anything that I knocked loose out.

I think I'll paint the oil pump housing today as a kind of test for the housings... housings are harder to re-do heh.

--Gary

 

You've got the right idea, but I would definitely "soak" or "rinse" the parts you want painted in ACETONE. Lacquer thinner works good, but not as good as acetone. Lacquer thinner leaves a slight residue, acetone does not. Just soak or rinse the parts, let dry, then paint. Any type of pre-sanding or prepping is your call.

 

Definitely don't settle with just using paint thinner, then painting!! I made that mistake one time and the engine started flaking pretty bad a few weeks later................looks pretty crappy now.
Brian

 

So far I soaked it for a day in Simple Green to try to get some of this gasket crap off... and it's still not all off... but that has nothing to do with the paint hehe.

Needless to say, there is not a spec of actually touchable dirt on the parts at all... the stuff I'm removing is whatever dirt is so impacted on there that it takes some hard scrubbing with the scotchbrite to get it out and leave the metal bear.

So after I scotchbrite it thoroughly, I'll wipe it all down with acetone or some other strong smelling, hallucination inducing cleaner, and call it good to go for paint?

--Gary

 

Yep. That's almost what I did. Though I used methyl hydrate.

Generally, I would wash the part in the pasts washer, then clean with dish soap and water. Mask, then use brake cleaner on a rag. Then finish with methyl hydrate.

 

Yea, the key is to keep it clean. The best way to do it is to have the parts parted out individually.

acetone is great, I just use castrol concentrated degreaser, heres what I did for my engine parts.

1. Soak the parts in degreaser for about 10 minutes, then get a scrub brush and dish soap and scrub all areas into a lather. Rinse the part off.
2. Get some steel whool, bulldog brand works best and start scrubbing with that, make sure the part is dry. Go over all areas that are to be painted quite a bit, until its nice and smooth and all deposites from the metal are gone.
3.Repeat step 1 for the last time
4. Let it fully dry and then its ready for paint, make sure you rinse it really well and hand dry it immediatly.

It should be so clean that you can eat off of it. From there get yourself some heavy duty heat paint, this stuff has a primer built into it, so all you need to do is spray.
Spray on about 3-4 coats evenly, between coats let it dry for 20 minutes.

Once its done let it dry for about 2 days before you handle the parts again.

After 2 days, someone here suggested to me to bake and 'cure' the finished pieces, to make them more resistant to scratches and marks for when you re-assemble them. No joke, but put it in the oven and bake them for about 10 minutes I think he said on a low heat.

He replied in my tb dissasembly guide, just search for TB under my name and you'll see the post and his reply.

 

edit : wrong question

 

Hmm, even the housings? Think it's OK to put the housings in the oven at about 400*? That's what it says on the can, that you should bake it at 400* to make it the complete 1200* heat resistant. I'm thinking the housings can most likely take that heat easily right?

Figure I should ask though, I'm not crazy about throwing my housings in the oven. ;P

--Gary

 

I wouldn't be either, but im positive that your housings see that kind of heat, maybe more under engine operating temperatures.

Don't worry about it, metal expands when heated, but it won't warp or shape permanently if its just the one part by itself.

If you want to play it safe, let the engine operating temp do the curing, just be carefull when you put the engine back together, cause if the paint isn't cured it scratches easily.