Dang! I read all 36 posts (very useful) but there is no last act. Got the same feeling I had as a10 year old watching the end of Pollyanna.
I see no problem painting in situ - that is what I did some years back as a stop-gap (as it turned out) until the head was off for proper cleaning.
What possibly helped was that minimal paint was used. The casting was cleaned as best I could and then little more than a dusting of high temp aluminum to even out the look and overcome remaining stains and discoloration.
I painted mine a few months ago. I used por 15 engine block paint for the black. And I used a gold spray paint for head. I will check shortly which one I used and add it to this post. I taped everything off real well and it came out nice. I used 4 coats. 2 very light ones to start with.
I had cam covers on. In actual fact, I had a spare set of cam covers(ribbed type) since my motor is a 68’ and I still masked it off real well although the covers were not bolted down.
I painted mine 36 years ago with Dupont Imron, and it shows no signs of wear. You can have Imron prepared to the gold of your choice in a spray can with an activation “switch” for the hardener. Before activation, the contents will last six months. After activation, you have 24 hours to git 'er done. Cost is about $50 for more than enough paint. Note that you’ll likely have to drive out of the city to get it, as it’s illegal to sell in some areas.
Coincidentally, a friend of mine is in the process of painting his head, and he is trying to match it to mine. He’s coming over today with his latest sample. If it’s the correct color, and you like it, I’ll see if I can get a paint code.
Not that it really matters, but I thought I read somewhere (thread here) that some valleys came from the factory painted silver and some came painted gold and that it was indicative of the compression ratio of the engine. Or maybe I just had a dream that I read this…always possible.
Mine is currently painted silver and I’ve debated using silver or gold.
Use the sequence from the manual and remove the cylinder head nuts (drain some coolant first). You do not want to paint under the nuts so drop appropriately sized washers over the studs to mask that area. Drop nickels into the spark plug holes to mask there. The head surface is rough so you can paint it with a brush.
I was lazy and „cleaned“ my head with aluminized paint. Looks almost too good, went on easily and lasts very well. That was about 10k miles ago. But it’s not really something I would consider a proper job, even though it looks the part. Coins in the spark plug recesses and tape around the nuts why not.
Are the 3 copper washers that seal the water jacket aluminium coloured on original heads?
