The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk engine paint ?

Anyone ever use the engine paint Chevy Duty sells? How does it hold up? I bought a quart, PPG ALK200, and it came without a product sheet, so i fetched one off of PPG's website. Well, it seems to be some nasty stuff. The temp. rating is only 200 deg. F. Will the motor put off more heat than that? I'll run a 180 thermostat. It also does not recommend that product be brushed on... Chevy Duty catalog says it's ok. I'm getting tired of Chevy Duty being the middle man on this stuff... like some brake lines I ordered through them.... but i'll talk about that in another post.

I'm surprised it's rated so low. Most any automotive paint will take 300 deg. Engine paints in rattle cans are rated at 500. I wouldn't use it, the temps in your radiator get to 212 and then boils out. Temp of the head has to be at least that if not higher. Cecil........

I used the straight gray POR15 paint on the 235 - not the por engine enamel because (strange enough for engine paint) it is not gas resistant?!

The normal por15 is oil and gas and everything else resistant and gives a nice finnish when brushed on. I use it on almost everything and swear by it.

When I climbed the Swiss Alps with the 41 this summer the engine was close to a meltdown.

Especialy when I turned her off at the peak and there was no cooling anymore.

No problem with the paint.

The por15 changes slightly color to a bit yellowish/brownish grey when exposed to heat and sun (UV)light. But I like it because it goes from that clean "fresh restored" to the more "vintage" look that way very fast.

But this is personal taste. I think it would be a hair rising thing for some guys when the fresh engine color looks vintage in a view days.

I bought some at Summit speed shop.It came in a spray can,and it worked very good,Chevy Orange.I have not done the entire engine ,just some accesories,and parts.New water pump,etc.However I am planning on pulling the motor and really freshening it up with the same stuff.You can probably get this at most auto parts stores.

I used rattle can Duplicolor high temp primer then engine enamel on my 235 & am very happy w/ results. The first few weeks I had some oil leak issues and pressure washed the engine. No problems. Paint stayed on & seems to be resistant to Gas, oil & high pressure spray. So far, so good

Yea, engine paint comes in spray cans at AutoZone, NAPA, Advance Auto, and just about every other autoparts store i've ever been in.

Orange, Blue, Red, Yellow. Grey and Black seem to be the most common colors.

I've even seen rattle can Mexican Chrome for high temp/engine use.

I just finished painting my 235 with spray paint
from auto zone you can use plasti-kote which carries all GM colors or Dupli color. Its only about 4.00 a can and it looks great and is 500
degree paint. The paint job looks great and dries
very fast.

guys, thanks for trying to help me out... i know about regular engine paint, orange, blue, black, whatever..... but this is going to be an original truck, all colors must be original (that's why I bought the paint from chevy duty)- this will be a 90+ point show truck. So, like my first post asked, has anyone used the specific one that i have? Or, has anyone used a gray rattle can paint that matches the original color?

CD's catalog adverties that paint as high temperature, and guarantees it not ot burn off. It would be interesting to see what happens....

I used paint from hirschauto.com, which is rated to 600 degrees and supposed to be accurate colors.

As for brushing, Hirsch also recommends it, and it works fine on blocks. Not sheet metal.

Pretty much all the vendors work as middlemen, I am sure your brake lines came straight from Inline Tube. But you probably got a better price than if you had ordered direct from Inline Tube. At least that was what I found when I checked on my order.

The only correct paint of which I am aware for 1929 to 1952 Chevrolet engines comes from The Filling Station and Chevs of the Forties. The Hirsch paint is seen on a lot of restorations, but is a much lighter gray than the original. The original is very dark gray with a hint of blue, looks almost black in low light.

I've had the Chevy Duty paint you are talking about on my 216 for about 4 years and it looks fine. I brushed it on the block and sprayed it on the valve cover.

I just ordered a can from Chevy duty yesterday, hopefully it will work ok... Speaking of engine painting, anyone have some recommendations on how to paint? Put on all the new gaskets, assemble then paint? Or mask, paint and then assemble? Engine is a 54 235.

I'm going to assemble mine first, then spray everything- so all the srcrew/bolt heads will be painted.

All the Chevrolet factory engines were assembled first at least up to the intake & exhaust manifolds (6 cylinder engines)then they were painted a darker gray with blue tint ("Filling Station" has correct gray). Accessories, carb, distributor, starter, etc were then put on after the paint dried.

If youre going to use alk200 make sure you use the hardner, I belive that the ratio is 16 to 1. However I would recommend that you use base clear. If you have the color in alk then you should be able to get it mixed in DBC or Global (PPG products) You may also use single stages in these paint lines. I like the B/C because it provides better protection. When you begin painting it is important that your working with bare metal for the best adheseion. If needed aircraft stripper will wourk great to remove any old paint and should not hurt any seals if assembeled. Once you have bare metal you'll want spray down some etch primer, or epoxy prime or both. You may also etch it then use another sealer but the Epoxy should be suffeceint. I would suggest MP177(etch) and MP170(epoxy)they are cheper than the global or DBC line. Then simply apply you color and clear over you epoxy primer. I'm not sure what the heat range is , but I've always used one of these system on my restoration and they work great.

I used the CD grey (original color) on my 51 chevy motor and it worked just fine. We wiped the motor off with acetone a coupla times (it was a new crate motor) and sprayed it on with a spray gun. Had that truck for 3 years and drove it hot several times over those years (engine water temp was 200 degrees hot I mean). Seemed to work just fine... Good luck.

thanks for the advice guys..... 961299xgmcwsb.... you mentioned a hardener for the alk... i didn't see one listed on the product spec. sheet from PPG, what did you use?