Painting engine

[aslam]

Is it foolish to pain the engine?  The top half of my GS500 motor is silver and the bottom half is black.  I was thinking of getting that high temp barbecue paint or whatever (good up to 1500deg or somthing) and spraypainting the top and bottom to match.

Any problems with this?  

Also probably want to get new case covers on either side and paint those as well.

Suggestions welcome.

ASLAM.

[MarkusN]

In theory this should work.

In practice the problem will be to prepare the engine parts so that good adhesion of the paint is guaranteed. If you take the engine out and de-grease all parts thoroughly it may work.
In-frame I'd rather not attempt it.

Also, there's better quality high temp paint around than the barbeque stuff. Nobody cares if their barbie develops a sore spot. Bike engines are more coveted.

[chupacabrah]

I'm not sure, but wouldnt that take away from some of the cooling characteristics of the air-cooled engine?


I'm not sure about that, but I know painting intercoolers hinders them.  bah.

[Briggs]

IMO it wouldn't be worth the work to do a half a$$ job with the cylinders attached to the lower end. It is going to be difficult to get paint to addhear to the engine because you will not be able to scuff the fins very well. Do it right. Remove the cylinders, take it to a bike shop where they can recomend a place that can sandblast it. (with out sandblasting the inside) then have it powdered. (with out powdering the inside)Although that would probably cost alot. So I would probably just live with the
Punky Brewster look. You can just think of it as a street fighter!

[Gisser]

You can do a pretty fair job with the engine in the frame.  Spray off the engine very well at the high pressure car wash and when you get home use degreaser and a garden hose.  Tape the frame, etc.  Don't use barbecue paint, use PJ-1 engine coat available at Dennis Kirk.   Comes in different temperature ratings.  They may have silver, too.

You can make a lot more work out of some DIY jobs than you really want or need.