Cleaning Engine

[badgertom]

I am trying to clean the outside of my engine and eventually repaint it. Once the engine is clean can I just repaint it with hight temp paint. The color is silver (aluminum). Because of the fins it is hard to polish it evenly. Having the engine (sand) blasted or similar tech. is out of the question for me. Aslo, if paint is advisable what brand is most suitable?

[Wrider]

Not sure what kind of bike you have, but painting it is probably not the best idea.

From what you said it has cooling fins, indicating an air-cooled engine. Adding paint to it would just stop the heat from dissipating like it's designed to do and would not be good for your engine at all. Honestly just cleaning the engine would be best, but if you are going to paint it, make sure you use high-temp (like you said) and non-glossy paint.

[Johnj]

You didn't say what kind of bike you have. Most of the Japanese manufacturers have painted their motors at one time or another.

[BuzZz]

Painting an air cooled engine will not affect it's ability to transfer heat away into the air. The amount of heat transfer loss due to paint is measurable, but only with very accurate and specialized instruments.

Paint away, but don't go nutz and lay it down 1/4" thick or anything, just a normal coat will work fine. Clean the engine as good as you can, don't paint over loose dirt or corrosion, and especially make sure there is no oil/grease residue.

[Wrider]

Ya know Buzzz you're probably right... I was thinking of the way I paint, and with my "specialized" method things usually end up weighing full pounds heavier than they started off... It's not my fault that it took a whole gallon to cover a bicycle frame!

[BuzZz]

I learned my painting... *coff*... 'skills' the hard way as well. When it takes a knife to trim down the runs before you even consider sanding, you might be a little heavy on the spray nozzle......