Painting an assembled engine - tips or tricks anyone?

[Spork82]

Hey guys,

I pulled the 302 out of my Mustang and getting it ready to be painted. The motor was rebuilt 10 years or so ago, never drivin maybe has 45 min of run time on it. I want to clean it up and paint it up. It's got years of dirt/dust and grime on it from sitting, some oil seepage and surface rust.

I don't want to pull it all apart to paint it. I am swapping the oil pan and intake, best course of action is to use simply green and brake cleaner? I have a ton of wire brushes and picks to get into the tight areas.

What is a good primer to spray and brands of paint to use? The last motor I painted I ended up using some rattle can engine paint, but never kept it long enough to see if it held up over the years.

[Rod]

use the primer of the brand paint your shooting, (I.E. VHT engine paint use VHT primer)

[Rucumn]

If you have old paint on the engine, use Easy Off oven cleaner to remove paint. I seal everything up really good with plastic bags and duct tape, etc... Spray it with the oven cleaner, let it sit 20-30 minutes. If needed, cover the sprayed areas with plastic to prevent the oven cleaner from flashing off too quickly. Next, I use a pressure washer to thoroughly clean the outside. The old enamel paint will come right off.

Once most of the paint is off, then use soap and water (make sure there is no silicone in soap) and a scrub brush to clean it. Rinse thoroughly and then air dry with compressed air.

Once clean and dry, I spray the block with an epoxy primer. Epoxy does not have pores in it, so you will not have problems with the paint flaking off that you will have with enamel. Once you have a couple of even coats of epoxy, you can paint with the color of your choice. You can use the rattle can enamel or you can use a base coat/clear coat.

This will give you a long lasting paint job! Thorough cleaning and epoxy are the key.

[vintageracer]

When masking the block to cover areas not to be sprayed aluminum foil works great.

Take a small hammer to tap the foil around the edges as this will make a perfect and clean cut on the foil making for a PERFECT masking job around the edges!

[ChevelleNV]

When masking the block to cover areas not to be sprayed aluminum foil works great.

Take a small hammer to tap the foil around the edges as this will make a perfect and clean cut on the foil making for a PERFECT masking job around the edges!

Nice trick, gonna have to remember that one..

[Spork82]

Good call on the aluminum foil, never would have thought to use that!

I pulled the motor out from under the bench and got it on a stand, time to take off all the accessories and start prepping!