painting the block

[dsmputz]

I have my engine torn right apart and am staring the assembly stage. As you can tell from the picture the block has just come back from blasting and is prepped for paint. I was wanting to know if anybody can tell me a good paint to use on this block. Gunmetal is my preffered choice of color so if any of you have used this please let me know how it came out. Originally I was going to go with powder coating but after searching I found that a turbo hanging inches away would destroy the finish in a hurry.

Cheers

 

[92awddsm]

VHT and duplicolor both make good high heat engine paint. Most any auto store will carry the duplicolor so it should be rather easy to find. The vht is a little harder to find but both are of similar quality. I havent really seen any gunmetal colored engine paint but then again, I never really looked. I normally just stick with black for the block. And if you do paint it black, stick with a semigloss, not a high gloss. With a high gloss black, oil leaks tend to be extremely hard to pinpoint(all dsm's leak oil) where as the semigloss generally shows where the leak is coming from.

 

[95talon_in_ma]

I was just looking at the block and noticed that whoever did the sandblast, sandblasted right over the freeze plugs.
That tells me that you probably didn't have a machine shop do it.
Assuming thats true, you would be better off to have them hot tank and manflux it and check it for cracks. Along with decking and align honing the cylinders.

Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but I can't see anyone sandblasting the freeze plugs....

Either way, make sure you give that thing several hot soapy baths along with allot of high pressure blowing to get all of the media out...

 

[elfroggo]

I could see why you wouldn't want sand blast media in your engine block though. So it could be lack of knowledge or a wise choice

 

[dsmputz]

I could see why you wouldn't want sand blast media in your engine block though. So it could be lack of knowledge or a wise choice

yes the old plugs were left in as a security measure. The block is now off to be completely flushed out and hot tanked to remove all abrasive material. I know the owner of a machine shop so i'm getting all the threads re-tapped, block decked, bored 20 over and have the bottom end assembled ( I don't like to mess around with that stuff).

 

[Rex2342]

I tried searching but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for so I'm asking. I just picked up my block from the machine shop. I just had it tanked and checked out and everything looks good. It's still a bare block with no internals and was wondering if I should paint it now or wait unitl after it's assembled? Also there is a bit of rust on the outside of the block that I would have to remove and some bit's of gasket still left around the water pump area. I have a 3m rust remover disc and wanted to know if that would be safe to use on the block to get the rust off and clean the gasket surfaces up? It basically just a scotch brite pad that chucks into your drill and I don't think it would hurt anything but wanted to ask to make sure.

 

[danyz250f]

Dont paint the inside of the block and keep paint off of the gasket surfaces. If the rust is not bad and just light surface rust that will naturally be there, like when cams get wet and there is no oil on them. Take a wire brush and take as much off as possible. Then get all the oil off and wipe or blow off all the rust dust and you can paint it.

Mine came painted from the machine shop. So that was nice.

 

[1g_tsi_awd]

Make sure you use l;ots of masking tape and newspaper when you paint...

 

[dsmputz]

You should have had it blasted before you cleaned and tanked it. Sand blasting provides an excellent surface for the paint to stick to. I've personally torn down four engines and the two that where blasted look alot better to this day.

Rob

ps. If you find a gunmetal color for high heat engine block paint let me know the brand name so I can get some myself. Have yet to find any.

 

[Rex2342]

You should have had it blasted before you cleaned and tanked it. Sand blasting provides an excellent surface for the paint to stick to. I've personally torn down four engines and the two that where blasted look alot better to this day.

Rob

ps. If you find a gunmetal color for high heat engine block paint let me know the brand name so I can get some myself. Have yet to find any.

I was going to get it blasted but I couldn't find anything local. My buddy has one where he works but can only do valve covers and smaller stuff. The block doesn't look bad but it is rusted a bit so I would need to get that taken care of before I painted it. I'll keep an eye out for some gunmetal paint. What temp paint is needed fo something like this? Autozone only has 500 degree but I would think with EGT temps around 1k the manifold and turbo would get hotter than 500. I did find some header paint that was 1500 degrees but it only comes in flat black.

 

[fourreGsixty3]

Check out http://www.NorthEastCoatings.net , you might be able to buy some 1500 degree paint off them, they have it in loads of colors so i know its out there somewhere...or you could send them it, but that would be expensive to ship.

Dustin

 

[project_tsi]

When I had my engine machine work done and assebled, it was hot tanked and thouroughly cleaned 4 times. After that, sure, a small bit of surface rust showed up but not much at all.

I then masked off the parts of the block I didn't want painted, and also put a bolt in every single threaded hole to make sure no overspray went into the holes, causing no binding.

I then proceeded to have a good friend give the block 2 coats of grey primer, folowed by 3 coats of gloss black. I let it dry overnight, I pulled off the tape and its been beautiful ever since.

I'll include some pics of my block after paint.

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[dsmputz]

My block looked sexy as hell fresh out of blasting. I should have quickly painted it with a high temp clearcoat. I didn't, and before you knew it BAM!, we got hit with a couple thunderstorms and the moisture in the air had it's way with it and turned it back rusty red

 

[perley03]

Check out mine....painted it with everything back together. Took it out of the car, pressure washed it with degreaser, then spent about 2 hours with a wire wheel and a drill and a big wire brush and went to town. Then masked off what i didnt wanted painted and filled the gun up and sprayed 3 coats of acrylic enamel and let dry.

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All i did with the letters was sanded the original paint off down to the aluminum, then sprayed directly over it. Before it completly dried, i took a razor blade and literaly cut the paint off the tops of the letters. Then i put 2 coats of clear over the entire motor.
Just basically get all the dirt, grease, and most of the rust off and it should stick good and last. I found it was cheaper to buy the acrylic in a quart then it was to buy 5-6 cans of that high heat paint. I've painted 9-10 engine blocks this way and they still hold up, 2 were race engines that see vigorus weekend track use, and they still shine.