Engine Painting

[Richard Dobson]

The engine I have the PO didn't degrease it or something before he painted it and the paint is flaking off. I don't want to disassemble it to repaint but what would you guys suggest. I have taken of the exhaust headers, starter, etc. It is out of the truck so I can get to everything better. Would you take it down to the bare metal? Would you take off the oil pan, timing chain cover, intake etc. What do you suggest to remove the old flaking paint?

[cdowns]

try a course wire wheel in a drill,that should remove most of the loose stuff//dont see a reason for removing pan or timing cover if its a pretty lomilage engine but if mileage is unknown or hi i'ts a good time to inspect the timing chain and checking oilpickup(i always tac weld them to the pump)

[Sinister]

I've used carb cleaner to strip the paint off a block with good results...

[Bus Ted Knuckle]

I'm going through this now on a 350 my dad rebuilt before he died. I know it is a low milage motor. I started with 8 cans of engine cleaner, spraying one can on, let it soak, then scape with a scraper. Then went to the power washer with degreaser. It took two afternoons of work, but I am ready to paint it now.

[cardude66]

when I painted the motor in my cutlass, I taped up the intake and the exaust, andput it on the engine stand. I degreased it good with varsol then I took out the sandblaster and blasted the crap out of it. No problems and very quick.

[dingo_dan_22]

Oven cleaner is cheap and is a great degreaser. Gasoline and then soap and water works good too.

[Richard Dobson]

Yeah, it's a low milage engine. When washing it down with water what keeps it from rusting up? Getting to all the small crevices is hard to do with wire brushes and without sandblasting. I do need to get it down to bare metal right? I guess I just scrape and scrape until I'm happy enough to final paint. Another thing, I have the orange engine paint which is high temp but, what about primer, any suggestions?

[greasy68]

Hit the areas you can with a wire wheel and then work on the smaller areas with some aggresive sandpaper. Stop periodically and spray it with degreaser. I used the engine paint from the auto parts store and it worked great. Once it was all cleaned up and degreased I primed it and painted it. The engine primer is right next to the engine paint at the parts store. It looks way better than previous engine paint jobs since I primed it this time.