The 'E' Type Forum

Hi
Its been suggested that the aluminium parts of the engine ie timing chain case, head, and sump, are painted with aluminium paint as part of the engine rebuild, i have never come across this the only paint i have seen is the pumpkin or gold on the head of series 1 cars. Can our experts please advise as i don't see the point of painting them.

There is no point unless it's a trailer queen and even then it should lose marks. If, on the other hand you are charging ten grand for the rebuild, a £3.50 rattle can of Ford Silver Fox is probably a good investment. Think of it as a generous coating of KY Jelly to ease the passage of a fifteen grand invoice...

Peter
Thank you Certainly wont be a trailer queen, i just don't recall seeing ally parts painted on an XK engine, on the e type it would appear not much of these parts are visible much less than on XKs so maybe not such a problem.

Peter
Thank you Certainly wont be a trailer queen, i just don't recall seeing ally parts painted on an XK engine, on the e type it would appear not much of these parts are visible much less than on XKs so maybe not such a problem.

Not something I would consider, but you can get pretty bright silver aerosols these days. The paint is very soft though & would need lacquering (clear-coat).

No. Cast ally parts can be sand blasted or water blasted for a smoother finish. Items like the crank cas breather and the inlet manifolds can be polished.

abowie wrote:No. Cast ally parts can be sand blasted or water blasted for a smoother finish. Items like the crank cas breather and the inlet manifolds can be polished.

I'd say "media blasted" rather than sand blasted. I've seen a couple of cars where alloy bits were sandblasted with too coarse a sand - they looked magic on assembly, but the surface was "keyed" by the blasting, so a couple of years later they were an absolute dirt magnet.

The last time I had an aluminium part cleaned, the media used was Al2O3 - aluminium oxide. The finish was dull and very smooth. The part was a cylinder head for my Dolomite Sprint.

You should not use aluminium oxide to clean aluminium parts. The media can embed and increase the risk of corrosion.

You should use glass bead instead. Much better finish too.

Regards

OK
Thanks for all the replies my point was should they be painted or not they have been done and it looks well good i was expecting them to have been just cleaned, obviously all the usual shiny parts shine with distinction and as has been pointed out it would lose marks in a competition but that's no problem at all.
If i can work out how to upload a pic i will post one.