Anyone ever paint their intake manifold?

[Corbet]

I just got done painting my valve cover as my rebuilt engine is nearing completion. Anyone ever paint the upper/lower intake manifolds? Search and couldn’t find any pictures.

I’ve got them cleaned up and need to decide paint or leave raw.

 

[jjdeneen918]

I powder coated mine gray.

 

[bigredmachine]

I would just powder or ceramic coat them, going to be more durable with the heat from the engine

 

[mudgudgeon]

powder coat, or raw.

unless you use a full aluminum specific, high temp paint system, paint is likely to look s*** in short order

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Aluminum ceramic coated mine 9 years ago and they still look just as shiny as when I installed them.
I would just leave raw versus
painting them though.

 

[Kernal]

SCarolinaFZJ80: got photos and details about the process and materials for aluminum ceramic coating?

10 years ago I powder coated my valve cover. About one year ago
I started to notice irregular/shallow bubbling of the coating, most likely oxidation of the aluminum (I live close to the Ocean), and it's been getting worse. FWIW

 

[shishkabobs]

I went with satin black powder on mine.

 

[jjdeneen918]

I agree. If your going to the time-expense of removing you paint, go the professional route.
ceramic or powder coat.

mine, I had a machine shop hot tank it to remove all the gunk inside & out.

it took it to a powder coating place & picked it up looking perfect.

make sure the shop you use goes through & tapes all the ports, machined surfaces, & vacuum spots.

it prob took my shop an hour to tape the damn thing. I’m pretty sure they were kicking themselves for the quote they gave me.

It would suck to just paint & a year or two later it start to peel & look worse than if you never painted.

 

[Corbet]

Looks like I’ll just leave it raw. My rebuild is already maxing out the credit card and as a rule I try not to spend money on cosmetic stuff like this. Paint would be cheap with the manifolds already off the engine.

 

[Dave 2000]

My preference is raw, a wipe over with brake cleaner and they look good again.

regards

Dave

 

[rolliges]

Silver high-temp rattle can is cheap and beautiful.

Cleaning and prep make all the difference; 12 bucks & time is all it takes.

 

[Rwhat]

I cleaned the inside out and sprayed oven cleaner to etch the outside and used high temp paint. No problems. You got to throughly clean the oven cleaner off.

 

[Kernal]

Before I had my valve cover powder coated I had an engine shop run it
through their block washer twice, then rinsed it a few more times
over the next few days to ensure any remaining oil was pulled out
of the pores of the aluminum casting.

I wouldn't do powdercoating on aluminum in the engine bay again however;
looks good for ?? years, but then once it starts to fail, bubble, it looks bad, and can't be touched up. Next time I'll use High temp ceramic paint or leave it bare aluminum.

NLXTACY did this: (scroll down to post #779)

Builds - Wits' End Turbo Test Mule #3- no cartwheeling allowed

Was thinking showroom parallel lighting at around 4500K for the photos. Not sure if BajaDesigns is portrait quality light. Thats where the Kino Flow FreeStyle 21s come in. Being from the film industry has its advantages sometimes :P

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Corbet]

I’m familiar with what Joey did. I tried contacting the shop to see how much that would set me back but never got a response. In reality just the frieght both ways to CA would probably be more than local powder.

 

[White Stripe]

I've painted a manifold on one of my cars and my 4runner supercharger. Ive used caliper paint and wheel paint. Here is my 4runner supercharger with aerosol wheel paint. It held up decently.

 

[Kernal]

Cerakote maybe?

 

[arcteryx]

Just run it plain. Spruce it up with batteries, painted valve cover, spark plug wires, etc.

 

[pgmatt]

Use VHT high temp or alternatively just use there high temp clear only and it will look minty fresh long time.

VHT paint

 

[graham5david]

Painted mine with por 15 engine enamel. Gotta say the por 15 is great.

 

[tech_dog]

Is the intake manifold raw aluminum from the factory? The combination of oil and oxidation on my 94 makes it look like failing metallic paint, so I wanted some confirmation before hitting it hard with a wire brush and solvent. I'm OE so it's in original state +30 years.