To Prime, or Not to Prime?

Good Evening All,

On Sunday I will be hopefully pulling the 250 from the 72'. Pep Boys had a special 4 hour sale on the Big Red 2000lb engine hoist so I jumped on it. With all rebates and instant savings, it wound up costing me $89.99 dollars! Anyway, I am posting to ask if they make a High Heat Primer for use on the motor? After I degrease and power wash it I may not be able to paint for a couple of days or so. I dont want things to start rusting over. A friend says that I only need to use the High Heat Engine Paint w/ Ceramic and no primer at all. Is that the case or do they make a primer for high heat applications? I will probably be taking the block and tranny down to bare metal so I want to do it right the first time. I just want a good base for the engine paint to adhere to. Thanks for any input! Billy.
P.S. I will be posting new pics of the engine pull on the website. Thanks Again. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2447606

Wow - great price on the engine hoist!... i've never heard of a high temp engine primer. You have the right idea - GOOD degreasing and hi temp paint will equal a durable paint job.

You dont need primer. Just clean it real good and take a wire brush hooked to your drill/dremel to it. That is what I did to mine and it has lasted over 10 yrs. The paint is starting to fade, but it isnt flaking off.

Is there a reason to be using a high heat paint ?. I know a lot of people use it with success but also a lot of others use regular car finish paint. The engine will have a couple of hot spots that discolor whether you use a high heat paint or car finish paint. These area's will be right by the exhaust ports where the headers or exhaust manifolds are at and on the intake by the crossover ports. All the other spots and area's on the engine will only get as hot as the water circulating inside the block (maybe a high of 240 degree's ?).
Bare metal will start rusting right away but how fast this progresses depends on the enviroment. I have spots on my car that were sandblasted over 3 years ago and while I know there is rust that has formed it not as bad as part's I've left sitting outside.
I would say get it prepped and put on some metal prep on the bare surfaces when you get done and the later spray it with what you want.
Like other have said, it's all in the prep. Most paint line from one company are made to work with their other parts. Do not use one brand of primer, then switch to anothers color coat and then use a third's clear coat. Chances are it won't work. Also read the directions for recoat time windows. Some products if left untouched cannot be top coated outside of this time window without scuffing or sanding and some if topcoated again will affect the underlying materials.

Jim

Thanks for all the input guys. I put the hoist together this evening and will be taking the motor out tomorrow. A friend is coming over to help with the extraction. I will be posting pics on the website tomorrow. Thanks again.

I will add this, although you don't really need the primer for the engine block, a few coats of "sandable" primer on the valve cover followed by some 400 grit can give you a nice slick finish on it.

Thanks Andy. It's Sunday afternoon and the motor came out without incident. Thank God! Now I am going back downstairs to do a little degreasing for the rest of the day. When I get back i'll post some photos on the site for anyone interested.

I don't know how it holds up, but I am going to try POR-15 engine paint when I am ready. Keep us informed with pics and products used.

It's funny that you mention the POR-15 cause I want to use it on the exhaust manifold. My friend used it when we were restoring his 66 Dart (Yeah!, He's a Mopar Guy!). He did not use the engine paint but he did use that black high gloss enamel to do the frame and undercarraige. I gotta say that it looks excellent and is smooth like glass. I hope to have the motor power washed tomorrow. It's finally out of the car and ready to clean up. I posted some pics on my web page. I will post some more when its painted.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2447606

POR-15 on the exhaust manifold? I didn't know it would handle that much heat!:confused:

Dave

No, They make an exhaust paint as well. If you go to the website and look on the left hand side you'll see (exhaust). Just click there. It's supposed to be really good. I saw it at the Fall Swap Meat at Englishtown NJ. They had a booth with sample pieces each done up on one side only to show the difference. The finish is amazingly hard and shiny. I should have bought it then but didn't. I'll just have to order it online.