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Member Solutions: UGLY MOTOR SOLUTIONS!

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8K views 77 replies 27 participants last post by  ponchonlefty 
#1 ·
My engine builder did a lousy paint job on the engine and it was a real eye-sore. But what can you do when the engine is in the car? So, I just swapped out my cam and I took advantage of the opportunity to get the engine looking better, so that I didn't have to be so embarrassed at shows.

My car isn't a daily driver, but it's a survivor and I take a LOT of road trips. A crummy paint job, a few old leaks, and road grit... really poo-pooed up the engine bay.

So I stripped the engine. Timing cover, water pump, valve covers, valley pan, balancer, pulleys, and intake. I bought a 50lb of soda blast media from jegs and a gravity feed blast gun from Harbor Fright. It took an hour to strip the engine and then a few hours with Simple Green and blast gun to clean the parts. After that I blasted the engine to and wiped everything down with acetone.

I found pints of a product called "Motor Coater", Pontiac Blue. Mixed it up with a hardner, thinned it with acetone, and sprayed it through a $25 Harbor Fright HVLP gun.

It took two evenings, but man was it worth it. I also got to fix a few leaks and installed a $50 stainless steal engine bolt kit from Butler.

Trigger Gun barrel Camera accessory Air gun Gun accessory

Liquid Packaging and labeling Sleeve Font Gas

Tin Tin can Paint Drink Rectangle
 
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#10 ·
I did something similar with my Pontiac Truck motor. It had zero miles on the motor but the entire build took more years than I will admit. The motor looked worse than yours as the build was almost done and I merely wire wheeled some things and washed down with lacquer thinner and shot the whole thing with engine paint. The motor had to come out to fix a rear freeze plug leak so it was a no brainer. (it took just over 20 years for that freeze plug to fail, there I admitted it). I have over 2000 miles on the fresh re-paint and all is good except the manifold which I expected to fade fast. Yours should do real well knowing it was blasted.
 
#25 ·
Thanks bro! Holley owns MSD, as well as Mallory now, so... The Mallory stuff is simply the MSD stuff with different packaging. My Hyfire is just a 6AL in disguise and its a direct plug in for my Summit Pro Billet, which is just an MSD Pro Billet, in disguise!

So now, not only am I the only guy at the car show with GTO, Im the only guy without an MSD 6A, too.
 
#27 ·
It was all a good learning experience. Ive lived with it looking horrible for well over a year, because I didn't know what my ability would be to improve it, while in the car. At the end of the day, it was a quick and painless process. I just had to take the first step. I hope to continue the progress with the rest of the engine bay.
 
#28 ·
It's looking nice, here's the hose ends I saw if you don't want to go all steel braided, this guy won two best of shows I was at this summer and the car is to die for! And he drives it to the shows, I think he spent three days just routing the battery cables, I would Google images and take mental notes at shows and just try to keep things
Motor vehicle Automotive tire Automotive design Automotive fuel system Hood
Motor vehicle Light Automotive design Hood Automotive fuel system
Wheel Tire Vehicle Car Hood
Car Vehicle Motor vehicle Wheel Window

cleaned up or hide wires and pay attention to details and people really notice like this guys engine bay, very clean detailed and not too flashy except for the 6 webber's 😉 I know I'll probably get bbq'd posting a Chevy but I love those models. Keep up the good work 👍
 
#34 ·
There's a special tool to do it... but yeah a razor, too. I like the idea, and although I can see it being a pain during a fail while on the road, if you have to go to NAPA for a new hose, you can always buy a clamp, too.

One thing is that the Gates shrink clamps are $10 ea!

Old skool black anodized covers, without the stainless cover sleeves are actually cheaper. And you can always shrink over a clamp, as well.
 
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