What's the best paint to use on the engine case and tin?

Thanks,
Jsaum

I found powdercoating the tin has lasted better than painting; don't have any eperience powder coating the case. but someone has probably tried it.

Don't paint the case. It holds in heat, and the engine looks great when the case is nice and clean. As for the tin the BEST paint would be the same acryliv enamel you would put on the car itself. BUT most people don't want to put that time and money into the tin and use rattle can with good results. Rustoleum " Professional " line yields the best results. Strip the tin bare and use a primer under the paint for longest life.


Or get it all powder coated and never look back

I usually clean and paint the section of the case that you can see- the very top, not covered by tin. The heat possibly allegedly doubtfully held in by this little bit of bling is made up for in having your engine look good, in my opinion. I also like chrome, polished aluminum, wrinkle finish paint, and colored spark plug wires- none of which actually make it run better or faster.

Go for the extra style points, we do live in the pacific northwest where our weather is always cloudy and 70 after all!

HOT VW's did a test several years ago in regards to painting the case. They built identical engines, and painted each case a different color, and had the one control engine that was unpainted. EVERY painted engine case ran hotter. Not rumor or, allegation, tested and verified fact. In regards to painting only the top as you did, I agree that little spot wouldn't make a difference

Agreed. it will run hotter.

One of the key aspects of my business is thermal engineering.

By painting your are changing the thermal emissivity (the ability to radiate) as well as the thermal conductivity (ability for heat to conduct to the surface) where convection can remove it.

Rough aluminum is one of the best emitters, conductors, and lends to convection removal because of the surface roughness.

Stu

Yep, painting the case = higher temps, but how about ceramic coatings??

Everybody is talking about how it will run hotter. How much hotter? Too hot? How much time will it take off the life of the engine if it is going to run too hot? Maybe paint the entire thing and add an oil cooler because it will offset the paint?

the best pricing i've found on local powdercoating is Ken's Spanaway Powdercoating. located on 78th Ave E south of 176th. the items i've had done turned out fanastic. smaller shop, fair pricing, fast turn around, and they do nice work. much better than the big outfit in downtown. they do thermal barrier coatings also.

k

With fuel injection you never see the case anyway..

Powdercoating won't hold up to high heat, wasn't designed too, but I do wonder about thermal barrier coatings and if they reduce heat. I have been using Click to view attachment
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My coater won't coat engine cases, but unlike most Powder Coaters, he has a back ground in German auto repair, they started out as a German repair shop that also build & maintained Race cars, from 356s to Turbo "S"s.
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As to painting or Powder coating the case, as pointed out, that would keep the heat in and with our AIR cooled engines, that is the last thing we want. In the past I have talked to ceramic coaters who swore their coating would lower temps, but have yet to see a Type I of Type IV case that has been coated. If you are dead set on making your case pretty, just polish it out...

Who runs fuel injection?

Thanks for the input no paint on the case ='s less work! I'm good with that.

Jsaum

If your engine runs temps that make the difference in a painted case or non painted case an issue, well you have bigger fish to fry.

The Hot VWs article was directed toward T1 engines, with MAGNESIUM cases, not the TIV case with a nice, die cast ALUMINUM crankcase.

Me, for one. Carbs suck!

Yeah--Carbs can be a pain--I kept the D-Jet on all 7 of my cars.

Ceramic coatings work where they work _because_ they are insulators... Piston tops, exhaust systems...

Depends maybe on where you live. Until I moved to the salt/rust belt, I'd have never considered running anything but bare alloy. Here, I'd never consider running bare alloy...

So - GunKote. It's a thermoset paint (although there is a room-temp version too...) Nominal thickness is something like 0.0005" and while that might hold in _some_ heat - it can't be much. Like Jake says, if that little bit is the straw that breaks the camel's back, you have bigger issues.

I've used GunKote "matte stainless" coating on an alloy automatic transmission deep sump and diff cover. If you have 'real' bare alloy to compare it to, you can see the difference, but all by itself, you'd never know. And it will keep the corrosion at bay.

Comes in a lot of colors but black and matte stainless are all I have used.

Paint *may* end up giving you a degree or two difference, but it WILL NOT cause you an overheating problem. Building a motor with the wrong parts will cause you lots of problems.

Same thing goes with the engine tins. People over on the Samba and other places will philosophically debate why black is the only color to use,. . . I question if most of those folks even have a car, but that's another issue all together. If the motor overheats, it's not due to the color of the tins or the case. . .

I like natural cases. The Aluminum cases become really clean if they are jet-washed and look great natural. Do yourself a favor and have the tins and the mag fan shroud powder coated and you'll never revisit this issue again.

byron, the powder coating on my tin (done at Ken's) has not lifted, fallen off, or failed at all. i doubt the pc'ed tin itself reachs temps anywhere near those used in the coating process. like most finish end results it's all in the prep. Ken's does alot of high end cycle frames and exhaust systems for corba replicas and the like. parts taken in get the finger test. if they're not clean enough they won't do the parts due to the potential of blast media contamination.

k