Even though my car was produced after they stopped painting the heads, I am painting mine gold just because I think it looks cool. So there.
My question is… Does the whole head get sprayed or is the area around the head breather left polished aluminium?
Herb
Herb,
It is your car, and since the head isn’t supposed to be painted, I suppose that you can paint it any way you want to. 
Paul
This is the way CJ does theirs, and I followed their example. On the back side of the timing cavity, the gold goes up almost to the polished area. I masked the flats on the back where the oil feed and blanking plates and tach generate mount.
I can’t really tell from the picture. So the area around the breather is polished? What about the area on the sides below the cam covers where the timing gears live?
Here’s how I did my 3.8. I copied the way it was originally done. I also only used decorative gold paint from the local store, nothing special and it lasted well without discolouring.
Yes both, zoom in and you can see a thin stripe of gold down the left side of the manifold mounting area. It was taped off in the corner where the timing cavity sides start.
That is something I’ve been wondering about - what paint to use on my 5.3 L V12?
Engine paint (if it exists), auto paint, rattle can engine paint, or just any rattle can paint?
The CJ engine shop turned me on to this VHT stuff. I don’t think anything was used on S3 heads though?
Correct you are, Erica. The V12 heads were installed in bare naked aluminum- no paint anywhere.
It wouldn’t surprise if some folks painted the heads with cadmium-looking or silver paint to clean up years of use / miles / grease/oil stains.
Mine was just brushed on from a jar.
Erica, the same paints I’ve checked out at my local O’Reilly’s. They also have some not quite as very high temperature.
Various high temperature rattle can paints
I’m thinking of painting the Valley of Death on mine to match the exterior color. I have no concerns on painting it when it was not painted by the factory … it isn’t theirs any more. 
I doubt the engine gets hot enough to need to use even 600F paint, much less 2,000F paint, but I wonder which has the best grip.
If I were to paint the heat shields over the exhaust manifolds, then likely the 2,000F paint.
I’m using engine paint and primer from Orielly’s.
Hi, only the valley, intake and exhaust sides are painted Gold. The front of the head is NOT painted. My 1965 OTS had an original 11,210 miles and 95% of the original paint was intact. The car now has 11,911 miles. The gear shift feels like a rifle bolt, so precise! Here it is at the 50th celebration ceremony on the sidewalk in New York.
Regards,
Allen
I have just used the VHT engine paint on the XJ6 series 3. Let’s see how it holds . It is supposed to stand temperatures slightly under 300C. I used the black One to paint the block .
You can also see the exhaust shield, my mistake, painted with the engine paint. That is how it looked after a 100 km.test drive, burned with a strong smell. I did not expect the shield to get so hot, or I would have used "MOTIP exhaust paint’, which I used for the exhaust and down pipes - black .
For the IRS on the E-tyoe I used “VHT chassis and roll bar” and happier with that one, good coverage , super fast drying and nice glossy finish.
Rui
I thought you painted the manifolds!
My aluminium paint (dupli color?) held up perfectly on the old S3s head, heat shield, and manifolds. Just one thin coat.
And I maintain that at least some 4.2 heads were originally painted in an aluminium colour, but don’t want to start the old argument again, what looks good looks good. Gold looks good.
