Hi Temp engine paint...

[Demorgan]

Afternoon (in London!), chaps!

am just about to get my barrels back from rebore and hone and new pistons...and while the jugs are off the motor, i was thinking about painting them black... they're reasonably clean already but will give them a jolly old scrub in the nooks and crannies with a brass brush and bit o degreaser, but what i want to know is what sort of paint... obv i can go to Halfords and buy a rattle-can of hi-temp spray-paint, but i really dont want to get engine all back together and then 3 wks later find the barrels are bubbling and peeling...

makes, brands, techniques, undercoats(?), etc, please.... (i did search btw, but couldnt seem to find owt..)

oh yes, i dont have access to compressor/gun equipment, so pref by hand or can or if its a pain in the arse, ill just leave it.. still bangs and goes..!

ta!

 

[Max Midnight]

I have used VHT paint bought from US Automotive.
A very good product and still on and looking good after many years. They also sell an undercoat but I didn't use it

The 'secret' to keeping it on is to ensure that the surface is spotlessly clean and grease free. The other point to note is for the paint to be sufficiently thick to cover the substrate but no more. The thicker the paint the more likely it is to chip, peel or craze.

After applying you need to cure at relatively low temperature which can be done on the bike or in (say) someone's oven. Preferably when the owner is out!

A word of warning on the latter though, it may be possible for the liner(s) to slip out when lifting the barrels out of the oven.....I don't know if this would happen on an XS650 but it did on an XS1100!

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

... it may be possible for the liner(s) to slip out when lifting the barrels out of the oven.....I don't know if this would happen on an XS650 but it did on an XS1100!

Yessir, and very easily too. If cooking cylinders in the oven, best to prop up the cylinder block, with the sleeves dangling below. And, have some sort of heavy steel setting atop of and holding down the sleeve flanges. Sleeves are known to creep out (upward) during cooling...

 

[fredintoon]

Hi Demorgan,
best I can advise is read the spraycans in Halfords and pick the one with the highest temperature rating.
But WTF would you paint your head and barrels black?
Time was we'd paint the cast iron top ends of our BSAs & Nortons with aluminum paint so folks would suppose we had aluminium top ended race bikes.

 

[Demorgan]

Thanks chaps! picked up some Simoniz Very High Temp paint for exhausts, manifolds etc... says a couple thin coats, dry between and cure by running motor or in oven, but I'll probably just bake em on bike... Yeah, i been looking at a lot of bikes with painted engine bits, and just reckon barrels and maybe possibly head, but not cover and def not bottom-end, is a good look...!
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=yamaha+xs650&safe=off&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj0rvjC-pfLAhXC6xQKHRY6AVYQsAQIHA&biw=1280&bih=652#imgrc=MQmHkLqZkymeKM%3A
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2239/2462637186_89650abdaa.jpg


hope those work!

 

[angus67]

Hi Demorgan,
best I can advise is read the spraycans in Halfords and pick the one with the highest temperature rating.
But WTF would you paint your head and barrels black?
Time was we'd paint the cast iron top ends of our BSAs & Nortons with aluminum paint so folks would suppose we had aluminium top ended race bikes.

contrast. Lots of silver color on the pre 80's bikes. on a 80 I have I just painted the barrels black. nice break up of all the silver chrome.

 

[Demorgan]

Angus, Yes... thats the idea!

anyway, am not sure it going to work, as i cannot get the damn things properly clean! bathed in degreaser and scrubbed with wire brush, but those deepest of crevices between the fins just wont clean and from what i read there's little point in painting if not entirely clean and grease free...

maybe one more go this eve...then ill leave as a well scrubbed alu finish.

 

[Max Midnight]

T'would be worthwhile asking the cost to have then vapour or soda blasted which would ensure that they are clean.
The probably is somewhere reasonably local that could do this for you?

 

[angus67]

my barrels were squeaky clean since thet were part of a overbore kit from mikexs.

 

[ThatXS650Guy]

If your wife won't let you use her brand new, high dollar convection oven I've had good results with baking in my BBQ. Did this a few years ago and it still looks great. This is the valve cover from my GPz.

Oh and the paint was PJ1 Ceramic