Just after opinions for painting engine (block - cast iron; head - cast alloy). What products have people used? Spray/brush? How long lasting is this type of finish likely to last?

It's all in the preparation, must be clean and oil free or paint won't stick
I've used spray engine enamel, break calliper paint and smoothright

Hammerite or Smoothrite works well and lasts too, but as above must be really clean.

I thought I'd give the por15 engine enamel from frost a go. It's not really any better than hamerite smooth really although I can't comment on longevity. It did cover well but as previously said all rests on the quality of the prep.

Apologies for the crap phone pic


Engp

Degrease, derust prep prep... Hammerite.

I spent ages getting all the crap off with diesel, then loads of cillit bang and a rotary wire brush in the grinder to get all the rust and other crap off.

2 coats of smooth hammerite does the trick. That's because once you've bolted all the ancilleries back on you can we yove wasted hours of live doing something you can't see. Bit like painting diffs.....

So a bright colour will give it the lift!

So Smoothrite/Hammerite is man enough to take the heat?

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Originally posted by chris68
So Smoothrite/Hammerite is man enough to take the heat?

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I used Halford engine enamel on a Zetec 14 years ago. Cleaned the block to ensure no grease before starting and cleaned off all flaking rust. The paint is much better flowing than smoothright and left a superb finish. Still got the engine as a spare and it still looks like it did when I painted it.

Just had a look on the Halfords website and they still do an engine enamel. But I wonder if it is as good as what you used 14 years ago what with all the changes in paint chemicals over recent years? Still it is reasonably priced and seems to be described as 'thin' so will flow better than Smoothrite.

I think the heat of the block bakes all paint to rock hardness. There are a couple of people on here who swear by simple gloss house paint. I used jotamastic 87 followed by hardtop flexi from Shepherd marine. However I had from painting the chassis. I would think any hi temp paint would be okay.

always just used normal car paint in a tin, works fine if area is clean and grease and oil free

I Just use 2pack, the temps that the outside of a block get to are not that great anyway.

I used Halfords spray Silver, brush Satin Black engine enamel. The black went on easily without brush marks

Description
Description

Someone posted about this stuff before and I thought it looked really good.

http://www.frost.co.uk/vht-black-wrinkle-finish-310ml.html

Edit

Found the thread I was thinking of http://locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=189862

[Edited on 16-10-15 by loggyboy]