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I've been a big fan of the Velocity channel and many of the shows. Many of the high end builds like Kindigit and Chip Foose paint their engines beautifully and in a few shows the have older builds come in and the engines still look great! What do they use for paint?
Pretty sure it's the same paint they use on the vehicle itself. The engine block doesn't likely get as hot as the hood or roof would get sitting in the sun. Exhaust manifolds are a different story. I sprayed my case iron exhaust manifolds with VHT high heat manifold paint and have had no burn off, also sprayed my exhaust pipes as well..
Automotive paint should have no problem surviving on an engine " when properly applied " possibly with the exception of right at the exhaust manifolds on cast heads . As John said the roof or hood sitting in the sun can be amazingly hot .
It looked like it was just automotive paint...I'll just super prep everything before I shoot, its awhile off anyway. THe VHT stuff I put on the brand new exhaust manifold on my '79 F100 did not hold up too well.
Has anyone used any of that wipe on or rub in manifold dressing?
Last year when I rebuilt the engine in my old Mercury, I had my local automotive paint shop mix up a quart of standard acrylic enamel in Ford blue. I mixed per directions with a catalyst and after a year and approximately 1000 miles it still glistens. It has only darkened slightly where the exhaust manifolds attach.