hey guys dumb question

have an 81 xj650 as you all know the motor and tranny gets a little ugly after awhile , i have cleaned it with a tooth brush and tried polish , still looks well 30 years old , my question is can i safely paint it with some high temp paint , and NOT have it overheat ? thanks

 

should not be a problem to paint.

I painted 2 of my bike engines with no issues of over heating. I used 500* rattle paint can from Autozone

 

turtle was makes a really good chrome cleaner. my 81 maxim 650 had oil burnt on the exhaust headers. and they cleaned up really nice.

some type of small polisher with a round ball might be easier then hand though.

 

get the hi heat engine paint wont be a problem at all. Just clean all the clear thats chipping and get the oil off everything should be really clean

 

Your right it is a dumb question :lol: J/K

But seriously Yamaha painted your air cooled motor 29 years ago and then covered the shiney bits with lacquer right? and paints are better today then they were then right?

It really doesnt make much of a differance but if you want to get technical Flat paints will disapate heat faster then gloss paint becuase they have more surface area, but in this application you are really spliting hairs. Paint wont insulate your motor like thermal blanket or nothing (i really dont feel like writing 3 paragraph explaining why) All you want to make sure of is that you use a paint rated for more then 500 degrees so your paint dosn't burn off or catch on fire.

 

No stupid questions here, we all like good looking XJ's

What I did with my engine was first got it to room temperature (leave it in the garage for a while) then took a can of Brake Cleaner (this stuff WILL eat through plastics and the color in factory decals, be careful with brake cleaner) or use carb cleaner (less powerful) and spray the entire engine down and get all the loose crud and oil off it. Then let it dry. Take a can of some 500* engine spray paint probably black like I used, and just go at it. Actually what I did was used the 1100 degree stuff first, then the 500, then gloss, just to make sure it stuck on there and wasn't going to chip off or burn off and fade. 500 degree should do good for you. Use a piece of card board to mask the over-spray. Usually you can hold the can in one hand and the cardboard in the other and work them both at the same time. Do lots of other masking too of course. You wouldn't want black on chrome, or other shiny bits.

Have fun, make her look good.

 

ok got her cleaned up , masked everything off , and shot some 1200 degree flat black ,

 

diesel fuel works much much better then brake clean. for cleaning up dirt and oil.

just spray it on. sit for a few minutes and hose her off.

dump trucks use diesel fuel to keep the asphalt from sticking to the truck.
i also used it to clean off the leftover tar stains before hosing off.

 

hopefully it wasnt bbq flat black. that works great on pipes but if you run your finger over it you will have a black finger. and the oil from your finger will make it shiny and wears off pretty quickly

 

used automotive paint , no greasy parts lol , now that the engine looks good thinking of adding some color to the tank and panels , dont get me wrong i love a blacked out bike !!!!