Paint for engine cases

Hi I am about to do some tidying up of my 5th gen and need to paint the engine cases. Any tips on suitable paint for this job? Colour is interesting. Does not look like straight black but more kind of flecked.

Help appreciated.

Don

 

The most important thing is that the paint should be rated for high temps. There are several manufacturers that make paint specifically for engines (Krylon, VHT, Duplicolor, Rust-oleum)

You can also probably get by using paint made for BBQ grills.


Rollin

 

VHT make a bunch of high temp paints. Good stuff. Follow the directions. Some of it needs to be baked on, some of it has recoat windows, some is dry to the touch in a few minutes and will cure out overnight.

If you happen to need some of thier wrinkle finish, there is a little trick to getting it even. Spray on one coat in one direction, the second coat in the opposite plane and the third coat diagonally. A heat gun or a hair dryer can be used to accelerate the wrinkling but the stuff take some time to cure out.

For farkle colors.. look up "StoveBright" . This you can find at stores that sell wood, coal and pellet burning heaters.

 

The fifth gen engine cases are kind of a gunmetal color. As others have said, your best bet is some engine paint. Hit the paint section of the autoparts store, you should find what your looking for.

 

IMO you don't need high heat paint. The cases don't get that hot. My Vfr I had pro do it with Automotive paint. My CBR I used a dark grey metallic from the auto parts store. Color matched to a Toyota as I recall. Still looks good today. It's all in the prep. My $0.02.

 

Thanks guys. I did wonder if ordinary paint would do the job. Cases really just get warm. Probably not much more than a car in the sun. Just enables a match to the unusual colour to be made.

Don

 

I've used the VHT engine case paint with good results. Be careful with it until you've run the motor and heat cycled it to cure. It seems pretty bullet proof after that.

 

On my sixth gen clutch cover I looked and looked and couldn't find paint codes for the engine covers. I then found out that O'reilly's paint department can scan the paint with a scanner and get the paint code They scanned it and mixed up some Nelson 2 pak automotive paint. They can put it in a spray can if you don't have a hvlp spray gun. The mixture was still a bit bright/silvery after a test spray so I mixed in some black to color match it better. I'm not sure if the clear is a flat or semi-gloss. I didn't want to wait for O'reilly's to order one or the other since I had gloss clear already at home. I've put over 2500 miles on it since painting with ambient temps around 110 F and engine temps close to 230F and no problems with the paint. A 2 pak paint is going to be more oil/gas resistant than an off the shelf spray can. Learned that the hard way. Hope this helps.

 

I did not realize that you could get 2 pack paint in a spray can. That sounds very useful. I'll look in to that for sure.

Cheers

 

I did not realize that you could get 2 pack paint in a spray can. That sounds very useful. I'll look in to that for sure.

Cheers

 

What do they put in that two-pack paint in a rattlecan to keep it from curing? Do you have info on the model scanner that renders paint codes?

I wonder how many miles it is from NZ to Verdigris,OK?

 

It will set up in the can if not used soon because it's a 'chemical' dry process instead of an air dry. Not sure how long it will take to set up in the can. I think the guy at O'reilly's said it was an additional $25 to have them put the paint in a spray can. It's more for those that don't have an air compressor and hvlp spray gun. The problem with them putting it in a spray can is that you hope they got their color match right. Mine was still to light but since it was just in an open can I was able to mix in some black to color match it better. It will get pretty expensive with a can for the sealer, a can for the base/color and a can for the clear coat plus the cost of all the paints. Borrow an air compressor and buy a cheap hvlp gun from harbour freight or steves wholesale tools. The scan tool they had was kinda like the one Lowes or Home Depot uses to match paint samples you bring in for house paint which also tend to mix darker colors too light. Except theirs was a hand held model.

 

Sorry mikkels I just realized you're not from the US. All the names of the places I mentioned probably don't have any meaning. You'll just have to talk to your auto parts or paint supplier. I'm an American so the only world that exist is my own.*

 

Thanks I think. Your paint dude may be conjuring up the next thing to torch his building. For sure some paints can be transferred to rattlecans. Sherwin-Williams in some places offer this service.

Auto paints can be "mixed" to suit the flash and cure time. The deal here is that mixing the components is exothermic. An example would be using 3-4 time the "hardner" necessary in a glob of Bondo. There are some marine type coatings that are applied whilst smoking..so much heat is generated.

The exothermic reaction will heat the or gas in the can and can blow out the seal on the Abplanalp valve. Abplanalp was the dude who invented the rattlecan.. His pennance was to live next door to Richard Nixon..

One factor in exothermics is that the more there is the greater the heat from the reaction and enough will ignite both the matrix and the aggregate. Ka-Boom !

Those HVLPs from Harbor Freight ain't all that bad.


Are you sure about that scanner reading out codes? Every paintmaker even within large corporations have different codes. Possibly a tinting formula? The glitch there IMO is that the scanner would have to read the base as well as the pigment.