Thread: Steps in painting an engine?

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Hey daver still got those old valve covers ? from the pic of the dirty engine ?

I am not sure about polished aluminum to tell ya the truth. Let me go test it out this comming week and I will tell ya what it does. I am sure it will turn the polished aluminum a little white or a faded look a bit because it will probably take off the polish film and pull out that black. But yeah let me check it out. And yeah I just wash the dirt, etc down the drain. It doesn't make a mess that's for sure, and won't turn the driveway black or nothing, it will wash away with the water. A wheel shop told my dad about this stuff a few months back and told my dad to spray it on him wheels before he polishes to make it easier and faster to get the wheels to shine. Ever notice when you polish, you look at the rag and it's all black? Well this pulls that out of course (I only said it a million times haha) and then when you polish it will just shine and make the job quicker. I will test it out this week though on my fathers wheels on his truck and see how it does. I will polish them and then spray it on there. You can delute it with water if you wan't but we don't. It's not meant to be deluted but you can. We have industrial cleaner that we delute more that 50/50 and man that stuff is way too strong, it turned my dads 454 motor all white, everything that was aluminum turned white and you try and polish it and buff it, etc it stays white so not good, gotta be careful.
This stuff is great and along with Simple Green which I am sure you have heard of. Simple Green is more for just grease and oil so if you wan't something like that. That stuff has been out for ages and wont harm your paint or nothing.

Everybody seems to have the painting well covered. Thought about detailing the outside of the block ? Like grinding of the casting flash marks where the sand molds met to foem the block mold, you can get at a lot of these marks by using a 4 1/2 inch disc grinder and sander and using a die grinder in some of the harder areas. Now I mean just to grind off these marks flush with the block surface and not into the block, the same with the cylinder heads. also paint everything before it bolts together with the machined surfaces masked off to stop overspray getting onto them.
Nice ford daver came up really well.

PS I would not use black paint on a motor as it will be hard to spot an oil leak.

Yeah light colors are good for oil leaks. Black may look nice but wait until you actually have a black block and have to look for oil leaking on your driveway. Plus a light block will show dirt and it will make you keep that engine clean more often like it should be.

Daver - you mention clear paint. Is it Duplicolr also, and is it Engine paint? I've been unable to find Clear Duplicolor Engine paint.

For the distributor, did you paint it silver and then cover it with clear?

That engine is sharp! Hope mine looks half as good.

Dave