What color is everyone painting their engine blocks? Any suggestions? I was thinking about black, but I don't want it to look like it's covered in oil and grease. THANK YA

-Erik

This is in the wrong forum, sorry.

 

this is probably in the wrong forum, that's why you aren't getting replies. maybe try the detailing and appearance? but i'd go with orange.

 

Mine's painted semi-flat black. You can't see much of it anyway. The large tube headers hide the sides. The front motor plates hide the front and the heads are unpainted aluminum. That only leaves a section between the timing cover and the intake that can be easily seen.

 

Does that mean you're a pessimist, compared to someone who says it's semi-gloss black?

A black block doesn't look like it's covered in oil and grease unless it's actually covered in oil and grease.

 

Yeah, I was thinking black, too. I actually saw a block painted grey today and it looked really well with non-painted aluminum heads.

 

Paint it aluminum/silver and tell everyone you have an aluminum block.

My lifter valley is painted gloss white but it's now more of an eggshell/cream color.

A black block hides dirt easier. I've seen white and yellow blocks and you can see every little oil drip on them.

OK, semi-gloss then. It's not a high gloss and not a dull flat. Although I've been tempted to paint the whole car flat black. Much easier to touch up scratches. My future "rat rod", if I ever get a project going (need a vehicle first), will be flat black or primer red.

 

Yeah, that's a clever idea... paint it silver and make people think it's an aluminum block. LOL Hey... how come people are painting the lifter valley?

 

To improve oil draining.

 

Ahh, so it like creates a slicker and smoother path for the oil to follow? Good idea.

 

id vote traditional orange if your going to clean it and show it, black for sleeper or frequently driven car. i went with black also it covers stuff and i dont show my engine.

 

I personally like a stock engine (no paint) but VERY clean....but that's just me lol

 

Stock engines were semi-gloss black, not unpainted.

 

oh yeah, well you know what I mean lol I think it looks NICE....if it's clean

 

Mine was chevy orange, but I scratched it so bad I put a new coat on... Tremclad "international red". Close enough.

Yea, my girlfriend pointed out that you can barely see the block. But in a black engine bay, with some chrome, aluminum color painted heads, orange REALLY sticks out.

I only went with orange because there wasn't a lot of choices. I figured black or any dark color would make it harder to find the inevitable leaks.

 

i think i really want a clean, stock looking block. like black or grey or silver, something along those lines.

 

I was looking at mine last night. As I mentioned above, the only part of the block you can see when looking under the hood is the small area between the timing cover and the intake manifold. I should paint that part silver and you'd never notice it. Aluminum intake, chrome timing cover, aluminum front motor plates. It would blend right in. If I had a one piece front motor plate, you wouldn't even see that part of the block.

I painted my lifter valley with some enamal rust paint (tremclad etc). Use a 1" brush and paint it on. Using white, I was able to see how much coverage I got. 3 coats gave it a good coating without seeing the block through the paint. The engine has gone through a hot tank and the paint is still there. I also had the advantage of painted a new, clean block so the paint stuck to the clean metal better.

 

I wish mine was black, it's orange and clashes with the blue paint. Not like it's noticeable, but black just is better IMO.

 

Wow, that engine there looks really good. It's so clean lookin' and I like it. Do most people paint the lifter valley or it just like an added performance thing?

 

It doesn't matter what color it's painted, if you want it to look clean you have to actually clean it once in a while.

 

FWIW, if you ever want to touch-up or completely paint an older orange Chevy block or head, the correct color is Allis Chalmers orange. Of course, gloss white seems to work well on the inside.

As for painting a brand new casting, you'll want to make sure you remove the excess mold release and casting impregnation chemicals. Lacquer thinner works fairly well to wash that down before painting.

 

Is there a chance that after painting the lifter valley, the paint could come off and therefore clog the oil filter or related internals parts of the engine?

I'm somewhat worried about painting the inside of the block.

 

If you engine is carbed I'd go with the classic orange.

Its its TPI then engine and TPI base flat black, paint the plenum and valve covers the same grey, and polish the hell out of the runners. Simple, but its looks sharp.

 

Not if you prep it properly and use the right paint. It's not totally necessary to paint the lifter valley though, so if you don't feel like doing it then don't bother.

 

you can always just throw some sanding cartridges on your die grinder, and just sand smooth that area. Does the same as paint but you don't have to worry about it flaking off.
Or you can do both, sand then paint.

 

I thought it was okay for the surface to be rough, which would allow for oil splash.

What procedure and paint would you suggest?

 

to me block color would be determined by the engine bay color. If it had a red engine bay then i would go black, and if my car was red and the bay was black, then i would go red.

 

That's kinda what I was thinkin too.

 

I'm going through the same issue right now. I"ve got a black IROC and I'm starting to use two different colors in the engine bay. I was going to stick just with an electric blue for parts I can powdercoat, but am thinking about adding some bright violet accents to that. It's the engine compartment/bay that I can't figure out.

If you are really thinking about black for the block, maybe a graphite or a metallic black would make the engine 'pop'. You probably wouldn't have to do as much block grinding/smoothing with a mettalic color. Nitro

 

im doing mine bright red. shows off my chrome very nicely

 

yeah for me if the whole car is black, i think i'd go with blue or red, or maybe some crazy green, depending on the interior i guess

 

see being a pontiac man I'd have to tell you to paint it blue....

 

i went with white on the block thinking it would help spot oil leaks and such but i should have painted the whole bay white to get the reflective proporties making it easyer to see in low light conditions (which seems to be all the time) as others have mentioned above cant really tell the color any way....tao

 

any pictures of what it looks like???

 

i just smoothed out my lifter valley and polished it a little on my new block i think that works alot better than painting but it takes at least 2 hours i still might put a clear coat on it though as long as you prep it right it should never chip or come off this isnt a very good pic but you get the idea i think this works alot better than painting

[IMG][/IMG]

 

Grabber Green with Darker International Green accents. Vehicle is electric blue, so it works OK. Engine bay is silver, which is the cars original color.

I attached some pictures, no where near complete yet...but

 

Are you gonna put that grabber green small block in that honda?

 

I painted my 305 chevy orange and hated the look of it. The 350 got painted black, makes a nice contrast to all the aluminum on it.

 

I painted my block Semi gloss white. The accessory brackets are Semi gloss black, and the accessories and firewall / fenders are flat black. Yes it gets dirty, but it is very easy to clean. It actually helps you spot problems / leaks faster. The attached pic was taken after a day at New England Dragway.

 

Interesting Looks kind of like a ghost. Its original for sure! Then again, thats what Hot Rodding is all about
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No Heavens no But a Fiero, now that would be the shzizzle!


Actually. the block came to me that way, I originally planned on changing it, bit it kind of grew on me... Like moss grows on a mushroom

 

Goddam thats a nice ride. Matter of fact its identical to mine
I used flat flat on my engine and love it. If my dead *** gets motivated to borrow a camera I'l' post a pic.I also painted the k member black or to be more precise sprayed undercoating on it(if your're lazy)-no cleaning/prepping just spray it on. I think it looks good. Its not visible enough that I'm gonna clean it off, especially since it is covered in oil and other various muck. Yeah one of my friends ripped on me; but I just reminded him my car is faster than his. That will shut up the nitpickers usually

 

i painted the 350 in my truck orange and in my camaro black. the orange is a pain because you are always seeing scratches and everything. the black is nice for hiding everything. my car is red so the black block looks nice with the chrome and aluminum

 

For about a dozen engine builds over the course of more years than
I want to admit, I've painted the lifter gallery and topside of cyl.
heads. But GE Glyptal is the only thing I would trust to withstand
the hot oil environment. (Glyptal is used for insulating electic motor
windings. Epoxy like, to withstand very high temp.)

The current project is a red 90 formula. For the the engine & heads
I'm using gray POR 15. (This is miracle stuff, dries hard as epoxy.)
Will have chrome valve, timing chain & Air cleaner covers. I don't have
the thread at hand, but another board member had a neat idea for intake
manifolds. Use the color of your choice RustOleum as a base, then finish
with a couple coats of VHT clear, baking each in the oven. He used gold
base, which looked really cool to me.

Good luck,
kk

 

Thanks!! I can use all the advice I can get!

 

Do you have a link or a picture?

 

The gold intake is probably this guys (David burke)
http://www.ws6transam.org/305HO.html

 

i like black, paint everything black. you can make a good sleeper this way. people look at it and dont think much of it, yet the color can hide a real monster

 

Orange!

 

My dad painted his block and heads the classic GM blue. ( I dont remem. the actual name for it.) I'll see if I can post a pic. tomm.

Its not a camaro though; its in an 86 C10 he restored...

Later,

Mark

 

Well, if it’s “classic” it’s orange if it’s anything from the last 60years or so… blue… that is usually either Cadillac (almost navy, not quite that dark but almost), Pontiac (sort of a powder blue metallic), and then there’s ford blue…