Painting Engine - Primer to Use ?

[whyperion]

OK for engine paint some nice heat resistant green is going to look nice in the 948 saloon , but what about primer on the tappet covers , breather pipe and sump , after cleaning I have some surface rust on the pressed metalwork ( have some on the block too but I guess the normal odd oil spills and leaks will sort that out.

If primer , what should I ask for ?

thanks

[bmcecosse]

It's an engine - just splash on green enamel.......

[whyperion]

We did, it didn't stick too well, bought too much green anyway, so the two door got painted with it.

[bmcecosse]

If the engine had been properly cleaned and de-greased (paintbrush and carb choke cleaner spray) - the paint should stick like sh*t to a blanket!

[Longdog]

I have always used red lead or it's latest incarnation which doesn't contain lead. This forms a good basis for the enamel. There aren't many paints that truly prime and top coat in one and enamel was never designed to do both. Never had an issue with it peeling off so works for me.

[IslipMinor]

I use a spray BMC green 'engine' enamel with no primer and it has never caused any problem, except once when I decided to prime the rocker cover to get a 'better' finish. The primer stayed put, but the top coat progressively peeled off! Stripped it and resprayed it without, and it was fine again.

I had to spray the replacement block last year and used a spray can bought from eBay for that, no primer, and resprayed the rest of the engine components at the same time - so far so good.

[NOEL]

I cleaned the bay ,keyed the existing paint with some glasspaper, cleaned over this with carb cleaner and then used the green paint straight from the tin, this was last year and so far so good, most painting work is in the preparation, can only assume some contamination led to the intial peeling-hope this helps

[IslipMinor]

I cleaned the bay

I am talking about the engine itself, not the engine bay? Any bodywork needs thorough preparation and primer/top coat etc.

Many of the engine enamels are sold as not needing a primer/undercoat, but as above still need good preparation. Using it as the manufacturer recommends gives excellent results, just don't try to improve it with a primer seems to be the message!

[robby]

I`ve never used primer on an engine, just a thorough clean and degrease beforehand. One thing people can forget is to make sure any gasket sealant that has been used is removed from all the joints as most contain silicone. Paint doesn`t like silicone. Personally, I spray engines with 2 pack paint, it lasts for years and stays shiny as it likes the heat of the engine, but this isn`t an option for doing at home due to the nature of the paint.

[biomed32uk]

Just to put my two penneth in and experiences.......

On showy bits on mine, rocker cover, air cleaner I used some acid etch primer, the hycote aerosol one is pretty good.

Then used the engine enamel from ESM in a mini spray gun to do the rocker cover, and QD 90 black for the air cleaner. Not sure what the paint is that ESM sell but it smells like Dacrylate or Tekaloid, which are excellent paints.

Those items are looking good and no problems with them, smaller bits when you just need an aerosol and don't want to dirty a spray gun I find the Plasticote stuff really good.

The block properly cleaned will just take the stuff, and it will stay there, mine has. Going to be done properly over the winter as the engines heading out for a check over and rebuild.