Yes, you can go to the dealerships and get the paint. For the manifolds/up pipes/turbo housing maybe you can have a ceramic paint mixed to your liking?? Have to look into that one. But the factory paint works great. We paint the engines at the shop everyday with the OEM paint and it sticks to the exhaust manifolds great. When the engines come in 80,000 hrs later they still look great. Power wash everything that you can really good. The cleaner the better, but I am sure that you knew that one.

 

I plan to clean everything very very well.

Should a primer / prep solvent be used?

 

Do you know anybody in a autobody shop?
A freind did his engine with auto paint, looked great and lasted.

Prep work is the biggest thing, if what you are painting is cleaned and scuffed you can spray bomb it with cans and never have a problem. Just a little hint for you , when I painted mine I clear coated the vavle covers, resevoir and a few pieces that can be seen... bad idea. I guess with the heat the clear is getting tacky and the dust is now a permanent part of the paint:doh:

 

when I painted mine I clear coated the vavle covers, resevoir and a few pieces that can be seen... bad idea. I guess with the heat the clear is getting tacky and the dust is now a permanent part of the paint:doh:

kenny, did you try using any of the high heat engine clear coat w/ ceramic? i've used some of the duplicolor stuff with good results. just a thought.

edit: saw wacker's comment, so maybe the clear in a can is not a good idea, but i have had decent luck... :shrug:

 

For you Greg..........PINK :supergay:
If mine has to come out it will get a two tone yellow & black to match the CAT theme.

 

#### cat

I'd rather it be Ford / Cummins Red

 

Ouch, thanks for the tip on the clear coat. I actually wanted to do that for the shiny look, but won't now.

My friend went to school for autobody and does his own stuff. He should be able to mix and spray whatever I want as well as help with the prep.

 

Thats funny I used engine clear on my intake y and it is still nice and shiny .

 

Clean the parts till you think that they are "super" clean, then clean for another 10 min.. you can't have them too clean. We buff, wire wheel,and power wash everything. Prep is 99.9% of it. See if can't get your parts dipped in an acid before assembly. That will take most of the old grime and paint off. just my .02 cents

 

Besides my truck is red/silver, that them under the hood should look great

 

Oh, and the manifold I plan to have the insides only coated, the outside will be painted.

 

I'll have to admit that does look great.

I wonder if I can get a new orange sticker for the VC from Ford. Mines not in great shape and I could put the new one on after I painted it.

Did you just mask the sticker off Kenny?

 

Yep just masked it out, it wasn't in bad shape so I kept it.


BTW Thanks

 

I'll look Monday at the paint I used on the manifolds it is a high temp paint that I think has the ceramic in it, can't remember if it was good for 1200 or 1500 degrees.

Just do like Dirt said, prep work is the biggest and the most PITA part.

I forgot the clear coat was also from spay cans so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

Cool, let me know on the paint if you will. If I can get the ceramic paint in a silver / gray that's what I will use for the heat parts.

Good point on the clear too. If you mix it with the paint probably wouldn't do that.

 

I just used a can of "High Heat Ford Red" when I rebuilt my old IDI. I think it was Duplicolor but it was just from NAPA. I cleaned that damn engine for a week and then sprayed every thing except the exh. manifolds and the VC's with it. That was 5 years ago and it still looks awesome!!
I used that stupid "chrome" spray paint for the VC's and in about 2 weeks it looked like sh## so I sanded them down and repainted them with that same "High Heat" paint only it was black.

But anyway as long as it is super clean the auto parts stuff works pretty good!!

~Jim

 

I also got caught in the clearcoat trap on some parts. When the motor gets hot it gets tacky and collects dust. Only a couple of parts so I will just pull them off re-bead blast them and start over.

Tom

 

Clear from a can is crap.....period.

You have to get a good automotive clear with a hardener so it won't get tacky.

Gregrob the ONLY areas you have to worry about are the manifolds, turbo up pipes etc....The rest of the motor aint going to get hot enough to worry about. I have painted MANY motors with Base clear to match the truck/car they are going in. Most paints are going to hold up to the temps....remember your water temp aint much over 230, and most paints are going to be ok above that.


My motor got a custom limegreen base clear, held up fine for me.....I am sure it is still holding fine for NickG... but you HAVE to get all the oil off of it, hot tank is best...IMO The oil pan on mine flaked a bit because I just could not get it clean enough...

ANY paint will work, just make sure it is CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN

 

Why put a C7 in it? A 7.3 will make more power, even if you put an Edge on a C7 a 7.3 will out power it and get better fuel economy. None of the C7's we have are anything to write home about. Now if you want to swap in a 3406, C15, C18 then I could see putting the yellow iron in.

 

I didn't think anyone would go that far, it was a joke.....

It would be a painful swap, cummins would be easier. Maybe I should have clarified that......

 

Swap isn't any more painful than a Cummins swap. I helped put the non-electronic verson of the C7 in a pickup. No big deal, just not worth the effort for the power.

 

What kind of truck did this go in, did you take pictures?

 

I like my Green...

 

I would hope sooke:

 

I think people that paint up engines like this need to spend more time thinking about how to actually make them run right instead of how to make them look homosexual.

 

ointlaugh:

 

Lookin good Kenny!!

 

LOL.

I hate painted engines. Just looks cheese-dick for lack of a better phrase. Well we ran out of ways to make it actually run WOS so might as well paint it I guess....

ointlaugh:



To each his own. I like nothing to be painted except the truck itself. Let the material show through. I like the look of high grade stainless that's heat cycled. I do not like polished aluminum. Just let it be natural. I can't stand polished valvecovers, or painted valvecovers, just give me a set of stamped steel, or better yet, fabricated aluminum with nice crisp lines and tig welds....NO finishing treatment.

I like things to look functional. Paint serves no function on an engine. I don't think anyone painting their block to protect it from the elements, they're just painting it so it matches their purse and heels.

:hehe:

Yeah.......I probably am crazy :lookaround:

 

Then why not just paint the whole truck black for $50? After all, looks do nothing for preformance. For a $50 paint job it would still be protected from the elements, who care's how it looks as long as it's fast......oke:

 

I think raw aluminum, welds and all looks hot.....But a painted motor looks nice too. However, they say that painting a motor all black is the best option for heat disapation. Chromed parts makes engine bay heat worse, were as an all black motor disapates heat better than any other color.

 

Black generally is very good at ABSORBING energy whether it be infrared, visible, etc. Chrome would reflect heat. Colors will be inversely related when considering engine temperatures vs under hood temperatures.

 

Fine white, when do you want it done?
Red is a fast color so that will run you $70

 

I like looking at all the pretty colored (under the hood) goods, but I wouldn't want it done to my firewagon. So color on - I like the looking at it part :redspotdance:

 

Black is a bad color for finding oil leaks, it's black ya know...

 

Bright red, then tell people it's the new V8 Cummins!