Motor Paint Suggestions

[geoffschultz]

Yesterday I was adjusting the valves on my generator and started looking at the paint on the engine. I was dismayed to see that I had quite a few places where it was flaking off. So I chipped the bad paint away, wire brushed the rust, and then coated it with Ospho to etch any of the remaining rust and convert it to iron phosphate.

My next question is what to use for a paint. I'll be painting it in place with limited access to some sides, so spray paint isn't an option. The generator is painted white, so I want to stick with white. I don't think that I need an engine enamel as I don't think that it gets that hot and from what I can tell, the original paint wasn't high temp engine enamel.

Any suggestions for readily available paint?

-- Geoff

 

[Stu Jackson]

Rustoleum has worked very well for me. I used the primer (gray) and then covered with General Motors Camel (#285 IIRC) to match the color of our original tan/gold M25 (1986). No reason you couldn't use Rustoleum finish for that the white. Could also be they make a white primer, too, dunno.

 

[geoffschultz]

I got Rustoleum, but I wasn't sure if that was a good choice for the engine.

There are some aluminum components that I'll clear with Alumaprep and prime with Alodine. Should I prime the iron sections with a metal primer? Should I also coat the aluminum sections with the same primer?

-- Geoff

 

[Hermit Scott]

I tore down my little one banger completely. Stripped it down with a wire wheel, and used a bake on paint. I have an industrial oven in my shop which I used for the smaller parts. Unfortunately the block didn't fit sooooo, I used the oven in my kitchen. If you look carefully the picture looks smokey. Aparently there was some oil in some passages that burned out. My wife was a little pissed and thought our oven would poison her. She thought the same thing when I used it for vacuume forming some plastic parts. She eventually gets over it. Women.
Anyway, I didn't tear down the transmission completely so I couldn't bake the paint on. So I painted it with regular engine paint(it was aluminum). I also painted the baked on paint with the same color engine paint(grey).
Now the aluminum parts, whether baked or just engine painted look fine. But the block which is iron has paint flaking off of it and rust showing through after only two years.
I bought a product called Rust Bullet to cover the bolt heads and other parts of the engine. It converts rust and acts as a primer. It is silver colored and sticky. This is the only thing that stopped the rust that I have tried. I could paint ove rthe rust bullet to make it match, but I have another engine I am working on as a replacement to my one banger.
Anyway I recommend Rust Bullet.