To paint or not to paint?

[neilaction]

What's the general opinion in regards to the engine?

Would you paint the crank cases, barrel, head etc, or get them cleaned back to metal and possibly clear coated?

Pro's and con's either way.

[Steve]

It all depends on the look you want.

I had seen pictures of some bikes with black engines, so I painted the engine on my wife's 850L. After I did that, I found out that Suzuki did that on all the '83-and-newer bikes, so in effect, I updated her bike by another year.

With just some basic cleaning, the paint sticks rather well. I have not compared engine temps, but many objects are intentionally coated black so they radiate heat better. I figure the engine will radiate more heat than it will absorb, so it's not hurting much, if any.

.

[duaneage]

you have to really prep it for the paint to stick. I've done a few in silver and degreased the engine with lacquer thinner before painting. I've done the polish and clear coat too, it helps to have the part warmed up to about 100 degrees for a smoother finish.

[syren]

Good post idea, I have a couple questions too. What do people thing about painting the tins on the bike? Mine is the Suzuki red (79 gs850) that they did in 79. I want to paint it flat black or if I do a gloss it will be gun metal or something similar. I did a quick search and I saw some posts on painting bikes but none were flat black like I want. Is there a way to do this is make it look somewhat professional and not look like I did it like painted it in my back yard with a spray can. What products do you guys recommend?

[Dave8338]

The flat black can be a tricky thing indeed. I've done a few flat black projects (on cars) and I've yet to be impressed with any of the gun applications, even with adding twice as much flattener to the mix. Just seems to VERY hard to not get the "skunk stripe" going. You must attack it from every angle and hold back on the gun to paint distance.

On a bike, you could just use a spray bomb and apply several THIN coats in many different directions. Just a heads up...

[sharpy]

Never done a engine with it all together but my brother has. I did the strip everything and gave it to a company for acid dip,washed it with truck wash, heat in sun, paint and bake in oven at 100 degrees for a hr trick. He did the degrease, wash, tape all shiny bolts/nuts (or remove them later and clean) paint in sun trick. Still looked good but upclose you can see thwre the gaskets got painted over. Also the botton half of the crank cases ARE NOT PAINTED as standard. Dont know why but thats true. I used VHT universal aluminum engine paint and still looks good. Seen a thread in here that some people used VHT and it went bad on them. Must be differant batch as i did mine about 19 yrs ago. Thats just my experance

[shedman1300]

I sand blasted my motor to realy clean it then used VHT aluminum paint. I also polished the cases, have not used a clear coat because have had hassles before of clear coat dulling

[Wingnut1]

From I've heard you shouldn't sand blast axles, transmissions and engines unless you take them all apart. Sand gets in and plays hell with bearings. Did you take your apart? Have you run it since blasting, maybe what I heard isn't true.

[shedman1300]

I only used a reasonably low pressure sand blaster with brickies sand first.
The reason is that it is not as hard on the metal and only removes the paint.
I then used proper sand blasting agrigate for the final cleaning.
It is very messy and you do have to be very carefull of any holes or openings.
I put rags in all holes then taped them all up, after i used a vaccum to make sure any sand was sucked up when taking off tape and rags.
It is a very time comsuming job but unlike industrial sand blasters it did not damage the gaskets or get into the motor.
I have pulled the sump plate off and everything looks clean.