Engine Painting

[Garbe]

I want to paint my intake manifold and cam covers.
I know they need cleaning up before hand, do i need to use a primer, if so what type do i need as they are aluminium.

[Goldy]

Zinc etching primer is always a good plan when painting on aluminium. I just painted straight onto my camcovers with heatproof paint. I've used hammerite as well, that seems to work pretty well without primer.

[Paul Woods]

to add to goldys post if you are going to use hammerite use the smoothrite version as its smooth and not er....hammered finish :)

[Zip]

Aluminium you say :hmm:

Would it damage the engine if you Anodized it because if not i would consider doing that:cool:
That way the Colour wont fade and it wont scratch or go rusty easily

[Garbe]

Well the paint i'm going to use is a very high temp paint, bright aluminium finish, it's just that i don't want it to start flaking off later on.

[Sponge Bob]

I used high temp spray paint... was shit so don't do it!! Although I've had good results with brush on high temp paint...

[adamh]

yeh echo that high temp silver, dont ue it on thecam covers, its funny old stuff can almost rub it off when dry. id use a thicker paint

[Sponge Bob]

yeah exactly Ad - i'm finding if I brush my cover I get silver fingers... bloody waste of time I tell you

[superchargedsam]

or get the cover powder coated its not expensive and gives a top finish ! Am having a load of the engine parts for the 1.5 professionally polished and should be collecting them on wednesday so will put some pics up !

[Garbe]

Ok so no high temp paint then, I did want to do something other than the blue or red both of which i like,

[Zip]

Theres still always anodizing it if it doesnt cause damage :)

It wont flake off either

Or sams idea, if it works

[Garbe]

Any idea how much powder coating costs?

[Sponge Bob]

I was quoted ?25 for the actual powder, but it has to be treated first - the place didn't quote on that as they didn't do it there...

[superchargedsam]

powder coating shouldnt be too pricey ! all you need is clean metal surface and then an air compressor and an oven that your not cooking food in ! Rekon a decenmt place wouldnt charge more than about ?20 for a 3SGTE cam cover ! Will be able to do it for ya in about 4 weeks once I get me oven as already got powder coating kit and some black powder to experiment on some parts for my engine !

[Garbe]

That sounds very tempting, but i'm already lagging behind on my swap.
I'm hoping to get the engine together in the next week or so.

[adamh]

powder coating is done on ally no problems, most places just ask what paint they have left over instead of buying a specific colour!. got my wheels done for 30 quid each, inc hub caps. ive had my bumper bars done for 40 quid front and rear and that was pricey!.. i reckon a cam cover for 20 quid as sam says, thats a fair price for the painter. he should sand blast it for that, but not paint the inside etc.

[superchargedsam]

be reet careful blasting cam covers and make sure you clean the inside like it was yer little fella ! The 4AGE has a baffle plate in it and during blasting the media gets rammed behind it and then once the engine is running blast media gets in the oil and well need I say more ! Think the 3SGTE covers are more blast friendly but only having dont the outside so far not ventured other side to check it out !

[JB]

Dead right Sam - lots of examples of knackered engines oil pumps etc on various cars where engine parts have been blasted. My bruvs Stag for one!!

[superchargedsam]

thankfully it hasnt happened to me but I did have some cam covers blasted and powder coated but thankfully never got round to using them before I found this out and low and behold removed baffle plate and lots of sharp little bits of blast media rammed in there !