Engine Painting Questions & Success Stories

I was thinking of doing some engine painting soon. FYI XJ650 Maxim is the bike.

I have a general idea of what I was thinking of doing. But I was seeking advise/recommendations on the project.

My approach was to remove the tank and mask everything off and cover everything with news paper. Removing the engine seems like a lot of work and i have never done it before so this seemed like the easier approach for me. Advise/comments anyone?

So my paint scheme currently is: valve cover black, stock silver on the upper fins, black on lower fins (very flaky and about 60% to 80% gone) and silver lower engine. I have also wet sanded and buffed most of the covers to a shiny finish.

Goal was to paint the upper and lower fins flat black and leave the lower engine alone. Then sand the edge of the fins back to aluminum and buff to a shine.

debating whether to do the whole lower half black too and leave the covers shiny aluminum. My reasoning is that the lover silver would clash with the upper black. But then again the stock had black and silver.

Any ideas, comments, recommendations would be awesome. Any pictures of others successes would be awesomer!!

I've had some great advise on previous post and am loving this site so I'm sure there are others with some great tips for me out there!

 

I had my motor out when I painted it but ...

 

I alwas theought the idea of all flat black with slight highlight of shiney aluminum looked awsome but then again I personally cant get enough chome either

 

I'm in to learn in this thread, I need to paint/blast/deal with the engine for the 550 I'm restoring

 

Pull the mill. Take the extra few hours and get the thing out of the frame. I'm sure you'll find some frame spots you'll want to touch up while it's out. Lets you clean everything up as well. Just build a box stand for the mill out of some 2x4 scraps, seal off the carb and exhaust ports, scrape, brush, clean and paint with a high temp enamel.

 

Figured I'd add a picture for reference if you care to look.
So anyone have anymore input.

I was thinking of leaving the bottom/crackcase silver and painting the top/cylinder heads black and sanding the fins to chrome.

or do people think it would look better to paint the bottom black as well.
I want to leave the covers I've buffed to a shine as is.

http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/damia ... 9835247804

http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/damia ... 1031840282

 

I'm in the same boat my friend.. would love the pull the engine & do it right but afraid of what might happen if I do. Anyway, here's my 2 cents:

Maybe obvious, but like "aSECAwrencher" said, make sure you use some good high-temp enamel or it will end up looking way worse than what you started with.

Degreaser, scrub, rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat.... then a good wipe-down with acetone before you spray.

I've never really like flat black on engines. I use it very sparingly on small parts but I would definitely go with a satin black instead.

 

I agree satin is the way to go especially with the bright polish you have on the covers. If you want to leave everything you have polished unpainted I would just the jugs and cover black with the fins polished or just re-paint the cover and just blast/clean the rest.
Of course it really comes down to your personal preferences.

 

I don't think you will get very good results with the engine in the frame.

 

Maverick I didn't 100% understand you. But i gathered you though clean the silver and paint the top/fins black.

Teddy i didn't have my heart set on flat black. My idea was just mainly black just didn't want a gloss. And then to polish the edges of the fins to create a contrast so you actually see the shine on them. This was to pair with the shine i already created on the lower half.

Posting one more pic of my plan so far.

http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/damia ... 3019408793

Anymore suggestions or comments.
My main concern is that the silver bottom and black top will look stupid

As for pulling the engine I sort of think that if i remove the tank and maybe pull the carbs i can actuallly get into all the nooks and crannies and tape the rest off.

 

I went for the Nuclear Option,I pulled the motor,stripped it and then had the complete Engine Aqua Blasted.I then masked and sprayed the lot with Simoniz Silver Engine Enamel,the nearest match to original.
When the Wife was at work the whole lot went into the Oven at 250C for two Hours ,and yes it did smell the house out.It was a little disconcerting when I heard a thump from the Oven,that was a Cylinder Liner dropping down out of the Cylinder Casting onto the Rack.
It was a Major pain getting all the casting clear of blast media,this stuff destroys Engines.
Up to date the finish is good,its not cracked or flaked or discoloured.would I use it again?....I'll have to ask the wife first!

 

I was just saying I think the polished areas are too big and have some odd lines that would make blacking the rest of the motor have an odd flow to it especially on the left side. maybe if you blacked the bottom line of the cover the shifter is on it would help that.

You could paint the finned area and cover first and see how it looks and if you don't like it or think it would be better with the unpolished sections of the bottom painted you can do them as a second step.

or do some playing with mspaint or photoshop to get an idea what it will look like.

 

A few of words of advice:

Whatever Yamaha originally painted engines with is some TOUGH stuff. Finding something in a rattle-can, (unless it's a 2-part, catalyst activated type paint) that will truly last is a challenge at best.

The original crankcases on the "silver" XJ motors were painted silver on the upper half, and left "natural" on the lower half. If you want a proper, stock finish then this is the configuration.

Early "silver" XJ motors had their cylinder heads painted as well as the cylinders, any that had silver 'jugs' were painted silver. Later bikes did not have the heads painted, just the cylinders. This too, varied from bike to bike and model to model.

Soda blasting won't hurt anything and any residue simply dissolves in water.

Personally, I strongly recommend thoroughly cleaning everything and then deciding if you need to repaint or just touch-up. (This applies to frames too.) I use 20% as my line in the sand. Over 20% screwed up needs repainting. Under 20% can be touched up.

Take a look:

NO REPAINTING of crankcases; just cleaning and polishing. Keep in mind the white bike (second pic) spent 4+ years outside year-round, in Michigan, and was one seriously gray-mottled corroded mess when I got it.

Only valve cover and cylinders ("jugs") repainted:




Nothing painted except the red highlights on the valve cover:

 

Fitz, do you have any tricks on polishing the aluminum? (as in everything under and around the engine) not sure what those things are called lol.

 

And those header exhaust pipes? How did you do that?! So shiny. Mine are grimey

 

I came across "Blue Job" to remove blue discoloration from chrome and as a chrome polish to remove the burned on rubber where my shoe bumps against the hot exhaust on my XJ1100 when I use the kickstand.

It comes as a miniscule amount of powder in a small canister. You will be amazed how little you get but you moisten a small polishing towel and lightly touch it to a bit of the powder and then use some elbow grease and the chrome will look as good as new. That tiny amount will go a very long way and you will be amazed how much better this is than other chrome buffing methods.

You can get it on-line and I got mine locally atthe Harley dealer, nobody else had it. Something like $15 for the container which only has maybe at most 3/4 of a teaspoon full of the stuff in a container big enough for 6-7 teaspoons worth. Did I say you get a miniscule amount?... But it works so well and goes so far that I'll definitely buy it again if I run out.

 

So the crankcase covers and exhaust etc are chrome, not aluminum??

Will this stuff work if I don't have "blue" discoloration? Its just..... dull and not shiny.....

 

No. In the two pictures of my motors the only things chrome plated are the exhaust systems (and the outer carb hats on the white bike.)

The crankcase covers, clutch cover, primary sprocket cover, alternator, etc., are all polished aluminum. The upper crankcases are the original painted silver finish.

The secret to polishing the aluminum is to first remove the original clearcoat. In most cases, it's still there and the greyed corrosion is behind it. You'll need to use Aircraft Paint remover (from the auto parts) which also attacks gaskets. This is one very good reason to remove such parts from the bike prior to stripping/polishing.

Then once the clearcoat is off, you wet-sand beginning with 800 or 1000 grit unless the corrosion is too deep. Then work your way up through 1200, 1500 to 2000 grit then start polishing and or buffing. Then it's just a matter of how chrome-like you want the parts. In my case, I don't want the full "can't tell it from chrome" finish, just nicely highly polished. So I do the final polishing by hand; and maintain it the same way.

For actual chrome, I use Turtle or DuPont brand chrome cleaner to get things cleaned up with; and Mother's liquid chrome polish for maintenance.

I've never tried "Blue Job" so I can't answer for its performance. Looks like it might be worth trying though: http://www.blue-job.com/

 

http://www.webbikeworld.com/r3/blue-job/blue-job-chrome-polish.htm
The comments section is interesting.