engine paint, undercoat or not?

[Budgie]

Just as the title suggests, I will be painting the engine of my tourer once all the hard work on the gearbox and bits and pieces on the engine has been sorted out. So my query is , is there any need to use an undercoat before I use the paint which is being purchased from ESM or not and if so , which undercoat is best?

[Matt Tomkins]

Hi, Personally I dont tend to, so long as the surface is properly degreased, as the heat resistant paint is likely to peel if the primer isnt as heat resistant as the top coat.

[greendefender123]

I bought my engine paint from esm. I really cleaned the engine up and used Mr muscle oven cleaner. Tho the engine was removed. Just painted it on straight from the tin. Tho removed any lose bits. It looks really good, even tho I brushed it on.

[Mark Wilson]

I used the ESM paint without undercoat on the cast block and head, but primed the steel rocker cover, sump and timing cover. Took a very long time to dry in cold weather, particularly where I'd let it pool a bit in a couple of recesses. And I found that using carb cleaner spray a week or two after painting removed some of the paint from the cylinder head

[Budgie]

So was the 250ml tin enough to do the whole lot and did you give it one or two coats?

[panky]

Not long bought some engine enamel off eBay, about £10 for 250 ml, for my Mini engine. Used about a third of it with two coats of the block (red) and an egg cup full to do the head (green) Need to find something else to paint now
I didn't use primer, washed the block down with various products (parrafin, detergent) and ended up giving it a final squirt of brake cleaner to get it really oil free.

Painted.jpg (33.35 KiB) Viewed 1767 times

[irmscher]

Lovely engine Panky .The best thing I have found is oven cleaner apply with a stiff brush leave overnight and jet wash in the morning it comes up brand new ready for paint .

[Mark Wilson]

So was the 250ml tin enough to do the whole lot and did you give it one or two coats?

Used less than half the tin, just one coat, but will need to touch up where I washed it off with carb cleaner.

Interesting colour scheme Panky. Is the whole car in Eddie Stobart livery?

[Budgie]

So one tin is more than enough then, cool. Was hoping to start cleaning the engine tomorrow ready for painting after my brother-in-law had rebuilt the gearbox but I think I got sent the wrong bearing for the third motion shaft as it's narrower on the small race by 100 tho than the one that came out plus it didn't come with the spacer washer ! More time wasted again .

[panky]

Doesn't look quite so Eddie in the flesh but is is nice and bright - especially since the polished alloy rocker cover went on KAAAA-BLING