Engine Painting w/o Disassembly & Paint Type

I've been contemplating the same idea. I think my motor is a good candidate for it because it's bone dry on the outside and has no oil seeping from anywhere. I want to brush the paint on, but I don't think there is a brush on Buick green. I'm thinking wire brush and TSP or something similar for prep. I'd remove and spray the valve covers.

 

Hard to paint a running engine because the fan blows all the paint onto the firewall.....Just clean it up and tape off everything that you don't want to paint. Most times it is a great time to pull it and change all the gaskets and motor mounts. That is what my Grampa always called a spraycan rebuild.

 

My fantasy would be to leave it alone and hope it runs until I'm dead.

 

I painted the engine and the engine compartment without removing the engine. I stripped the engine down, cleaned it with degreaser and brake cleaner, and painted using a brush, POR 15 (Buick green) for the engine, POR 20 (silver) for the exhaust manifolds, and Rustolem (primer and black) for the engine compartment.

 

That's sweet! On my "to do" list.

Tim

 

Awesome! I need to get some POR! Great job!! How is it holding up?

 

I'd consider pulling the front clip off for ease of access to all the nooks and crannies.

 

Was the original f-head just gloss black? Mine has shades of dark green beneath the grease....that Buick green looks tremendous though!!

 

The POR paint has held up well. It's been on the engine for 2 years. Absolutely no chipping or flaking on the engine. Had slight flaking on a couple of spots on the exhaust manifold a year or so ago. I touched it up and have had none since.

 

Did you brush the valve covers as well? It must really level out very well...

 

Nice job! Did you have to take all the rust off the manifolds to paint ? How did you do it?

 

I used a paint brush on everything, including the valve cover. I stripped all of the old paint off of the valve covers using a wire wheel on a cordless drill. On the exhaust manifolds I cut the stove off of the passenger side, and cleaned them up with the wire wire wheel also. The parts I could not reach with the wheel, used used a small stainless steel hand brush.

 

Just a contrary comment -

IMO it's not that much more effort to pull the whole shebang from the Jeep and paint/prep with it on the garage floor, a pallet or whatever. You can leave the transmission and transfer case attached, remove the grille and front fenders, (the "front clip") and pull the engine with a cherry picker or chain hoist. When I outfitted my garage, I put a truss in the ceiling and mounted a chain hoist for jobs like this.

A warning that this make the "might as wells" just that much more tempting. Things like seal and gasket replacement are very easy once the engine and transmission are out of the Jeep. May as well split the engine and transmission and inspect the clutch. May as well replace the throwout bearing, now that you're in there. Etc etc etc.

 

Where is that "like" button? Wish I had a truss...

tim