Painting my engine question

[Lippyp]

I need to spruce up my engine as it looks pretty awful. Is it possible to paint an engine in situ as I don't have the space or facilities to pull the engine at the moment? I'm happy to remove inner/outer fenders if neccesary to make access easier. As I've got a new intake, valve covers, dizzy to go on it makes sense to spruce the block up first.

[wHATANERD]

It's possible, but I would have the engine compartment and engine steam cleaned before painting as paint doesn't stick to oil and grease very well.

[Longhorn Man]

clean everything you want to paint. This is th4e hardest part when it is in the truck still (can be done though)
When you think it's all clean, do it two more times.
I say strip the engine as far as you can.... belts, hoses, fuel lines.... all the 'dressings' on the engine need to come off. I would even pull the fuel pump and exhaust manifolds/headers.
As you are masking things with yesterdays news paper... grab the alluminum foil from the kitchen. You can mask off odd ball shaped things (cross memeber, sway bar, brake lines) with the foil, wrap it, squeeze the foil, anf it's there.
Have fun, take your time, clean clean clean.
Here's one I did... engine never came off, intake never came off, did it in my dirt driveway, all in all I think it took me a day and a half. (obviously not straight through)

[see ten]

71see10 did this one while it was still in the truck. He pulled the inner fenders and painted them black and then he shot the inside of the outer fenders and firewall green. It turned out great.....but he has above average skill and patience.





I may have some better pics somewhere...If I find em I'll come back and add them to the thread.

[Lippyp]

Firewall and inner fenders etc are all fine, its just the block and heads themselves that need paint. The intake manifold will be coming off to be replaced with an edelbrock performer anyway, its got ramshorns on it so assuming I can get them undone I'll take them offand as much of the other bits as I can. I was going to use POR15's engine paint as that seems to get a reasonable thumbs up from people.

[TotalChevy1]

If you take the front clip off it makes it very easy.... strip the motor down as far as you can, degrease.... The old pan and around the trans were the hardest, but mask and you should be fine.

[leddzepp]

Yes, use POR 15 for sure. You can even brush it on if you do not want to mask everything off and you will get fantastic results!

[PanelDeland]

I like to finish clean with brake cleaner.It seems to make the surface completely oil free and the paint sticks better.It will eat paint so make sure it doesn't get on paint you want to keep and is completely dry.

[71 super]

you will be happy with por15, but dont thin too much as it will run and it is a pain to get off,but it looks as good as powder imo.

[BLACK AND BLUE 67-72]

I used Dupli Color engine enamel on mine and didn't even get all of the grease off of it, it's been 3 years now and it still looks as good as the day I painted it!!!!