While I'm waiting on parts I figured I'd waste some time painting the head. I thought maybe it might be easy to do this since the head is apart and sitting on my workbench. Now I've done it, I think it might have been best to paint it while installed to the block, since I had to take great care not to get any paint on the mating surface. But it turned out ok.
I used POR's "engine painting kit" with the color being their Ford Corporate Blue. I think it looks awesome. Quite a hassle though, there are two cleaning steps, both involve spraying down the piece afterwords with a hose. I don't have a hose inside my apartment so I made do with a water mister, but it was tedious, time-consuming, and made a god-awful mess. The painting went better, first there is a coat of POR-15, then several hours later the coat of color. I'd really like to paint the whole engine but whether I can do that without making a mess in the parking lot I don't know. Management here wouldn't be happy if I spilled a bunch of paint. And cleaning the engine is another challenge since again, I won't have a hose, and also, I won't be allowed to get so much as a drop of crud on the ground. I'm thinking it could be done, but it may be one of those jobs where you seriously regret the hassle about half-way through.
Taking it to a car wash for the cleaning is an option, and I've done this in the past, but it doesn't work very well. First, by the time I get the car to the wash, the engine will be hot, so now I'm sitting at the car wash for several hours waiting for it to cool off. Invariably I get inpatient and bad things happen. Secondly, it's hard to clean some areas with all the accessories on, it would be best to remove them first, but then I couldn't drive it to the wash...
Well anyway, I'll keep thinking about it. But the head will look nice. At the very least I can also paint my rusty water pump and a few brackets.
Luke
With my Summit valve cover. You can see the PCV spacer won't work in the stock configuration.
I used POR's "engine painting kit" with the color being their Ford Corporate Blue. I think it looks awesome. Quite a hassle though, there are two cleaning steps, both involve spraying down the piece afterwords with a hose. I don't have a hose inside my apartment so I made do with a water mister, but it was tedious, time-consuming, and made a god-awful mess. The painting went better, first there is a coat of POR-15, then several hours later the coat of color. I'd really like to paint the whole engine but whether I can do that without making a mess in the parking lot I don't know. Management here wouldn't be happy if I spilled a bunch of paint. And cleaning the engine is another challenge since again, I won't have a hose, and also, I won't be allowed to get so much as a drop of crud on the ground. I'm thinking it could be done, but it may be one of those jobs where you seriously regret the hassle about half-way through.
Taking it to a car wash for the cleaning is an option, and I've done this in the past, but it doesn't work very well. First, by the time I get the car to the wash, the engine will be hot, so now I'm sitting at the car wash for several hours waiting for it to cool off. Invariably I get inpatient and bad things happen. Secondly, it's hard to clean some areas with all the accessories on, it would be best to remove them first, but then I couldn't drive it to the wash...
Well anyway, I'll keep thinking about it. But the head will look nice. At the very least I can also paint my rusty water pump and a few brackets.
Luke
With my Summit valve cover. You can see the PCV spacer won't work in the stock configuration.