Well this is a bit disappointing. I took my heads and intakes to be hot tanked and the finish on the intakes is now quite, er, horrid really.
Previously I had scrubbed them clean and kept the silver finish. They looked stock but fairly clean (as clean as I could get them with petrol, a stiff brush, and some furious polishing. The point of getting a shop to clean them was to bring them up better than I could.
In all honesty they looked better as I had got them. Now they’re plain and have to be coated or painted.
Any ideas what I an do to get them to a factory (ish) look? Just silver paint and lacquer? Do they need high temperature paint. Power coating maybe.
I would degrease them, etch prime, then plain silver and lacquer but would that last in the hot engine bay?
And do I have to mask the injector bores, etc?
First 2 Photos show how clean I got them and next ones show how they look after the shop got hold of them. I think they actually media blasted them. Not sure. They thought I had done a good job and maybe they had to blast them to get them “better”.
Malc,
When I restored the engine bay of my wife’s 1990 XJ-S convertible a few years ago I cleaned and painted the intake manifolds while I had the camshaft covers off to adjust the valve clearances and replace a lot of gaskets. I spray painted the intake manifolds with a light coating of high temperature “aluminum” engine enamel paint that I got in a local auto parts store. They brightened up nicely and looked OEM new, but perhaps just a bit too shiny. I did very light coats, just enough to brighten them up without making them too obviously painted.
They looked beautiful then and still do three years later, although I believe that the shine has dulled a little bit making them look even more like OEM.
I used a wire wheel on a die grinder to get the finish I wanted on the inlet manifold then I powder coated them in clear. It’s lasted well. A cheaper way is to use clear engine enamel… Doesn’t hold the shiny finish as well as powder coating but not too bad.
Malc,
No, I did not use a primer. I scrubbed the intake manifolds thoroughly and brushed them up with a hand held wire brush to give the paint a good surface to adhere to. I was concerned about putting too much paint on and losing the OEM look, so I decided against a primer and just went with light coats of enamel spray paint. Just enough paint to look good, but not too much to look obviously painted. There are no signs of peeling paint after three years and about 10K miles of driving.
Paul
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
8
Perhaps the color used on alloy wheels would work well here.
Hi Malcolm sorry for delay I got your PM. Been trying to get this supercharged xjs together and take care of yard work at same time. And feed the cats etc etc lol
Powder withstands temperatures very well. You can do cam covers, fuel rail, intakes, water pump, etc. the only thing you don’t want to powder is the exhaust shield or manifolds which I had instead used a special ceramic paint.
I shop for the powders on Prismatic Powders. If you are not familiar with coating them yourself then take powder of your choice to a powdercoat place.
You will notice on the stock intake manifolds there are a lot of sharp edges and they can be smoothed down prior to the powder process.
Also, you can polish, but it takes a LOT of patience, beer, time, understanding from the woman, sacrifice, and you must be a loner at heart to follow through.
I actually just polished the cam covers on my E type. Attached are some photos.
Of course I have to make a production out of everything so I had to wear my disco shoes and take out the disco ball to stay inspired through the process.
