shooter
11-28-2005, 06:03 PM
I'm in the process of building a new engine, and have decided that the standard alloy looks great when new but give it a few miles and it looks dirty, so I thought about painting the casings.
Well over here engine paint is only available in a few colors and they all look crap, I wanted something different and classy looking, so getting my hands on some old heads and cam covers I decided to try different auto paints (sorry don't know what you lot have available), I tested cellulose, and 2 pack (2k).
Tests were paint part, let it dry, then put in the cooker (preferably with wife's consent ;) ) Cooking time was 1 hour at each temp (sorry we use centigrade over here) 100 degrees, 150 degrees, 175 degrees, 200 degrees and 250 degrees.
Cellulose bubbles at between 100 and 150, however 2k was good all the way to 250 degrees, no bubbles, burning, blistering etc. so it seems that now I can pick a color from all the available body colors out there for my engine.
One thing I did find out, I painted a head casing (it was damaged so wasn't worried) however I put it in the cooker cams facing down, at 175 degrees the valve guides started to drop out, in fact after 25 Min's I had 8 guides sitting in the bottom of the cooker :p so going by this the head casings shouldn't get as hot as this in use.
Well over here engine paint is only available in a few colors and they all look crap, I wanted something different and classy looking, so getting my hands on some old heads and cam covers I decided to try different auto paints (sorry don't know what you lot have available), I tested cellulose, and 2 pack (2k).
Tests were paint part, let it dry, then put in the cooker (preferably with wife's consent ;) ) Cooking time was 1 hour at each temp (sorry we use centigrade over here) 100 degrees, 150 degrees, 175 degrees, 200 degrees and 250 degrees.
Cellulose bubbles at between 100 and 150, however 2k was good all the way to 250 degrees, no bubbles, burning, blistering etc. so it seems that now I can pick a color from all the available body colors out there for my engine.
One thing I did find out, I painted a head casing (it was damaged so wasn't worried) however I put it in the cooker cams facing down, at 175 degrees the valve guides started to drop out, in fact after 25 Min's I had 8 guides sitting in the bottom of the cooker :p so going by this the head casings shouldn't get as hot as this in use.