going to start giving the engine some attention soon and wondering how best to prep it and paint it. at the moment its absolutely filthy and still has almost all pumps, pipes etc still attached, my thoughts were to use some heavy degreasing soap to clean it up using a paint brush and then blasting it down with the pressure washer is this a good or bad idea?

after its clean and been stripped of all parts not wanting painting what is the best way to prime it? i can get hold of some red rust preventative type spray paint from the local smiddy would this work?

I have ordered some color correct blue engine paint from The Paint Man website according to them it is "A traditional single part Synthetic Coach Enamel paint " i was going to just brush it on.

does this sound like the correct process or do i need to alter anything or anyone got any tips / advice?

You need high temp engine enamel. Coach paint is no good. You could also use brake caliper paint.

i did speak to the bloke at Paintman and he said it is an engine paint that is suitable and does not need a primer, any one used their paint's before?

tomhop said:

i did speak to the bloke at Paintman and he said its is a engine paint that is suitable and does not need a primer, any one used these paint before?

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Ok carry on you know best. I have looked at their site. I see nothing reference engine paint.

Exactly what I did with mine before I rebuilt it. Degreasant and Road film remover and a hot jetwash. Then I stripped it down and cleaned everything, had all the manifolds etc media blasted. Then painted the block with engine paint

this is where i found the paint on their website

Have a look here, there may be lots of helpful stuff as well as painting.
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/300-tdi-rebuild.312704/page-26

I followed the same procedure. Just before painting I sprayed the block down with Halfords Surface Cleaner aerosol just to make sure no grease / oil had settled in the nooks and crannies.

I've used the paintman's engine paint and I'm very happy with it so far (I haven't started the engine yet so I can't say for sure if it'll stick).

All of / most of the paintman's stuff is made by HMG (company in Liverpool if I remember correctly). Their colours are also available through frosts.

For degreasing my engine blocks more often than not I've painted them after they've been through an industrial dishwasher at the engine rebuilder's place. I guess this is equivalent to treatment with a pressure washer. Despite their visit to the industrial dishwasher I've always gone to town on the blocks with engine degreaser (stuff you get in aerosols - I would use Gunk if I could get it here) and then with brake cleaner for the harder to reach parts where a bit of pressure is needed to blast away muck.

The best stuff gets saved until last - Eastwood "pre-painting" stuff. This is very expensive but really helps to make stuff stick. If you apply it and wipe clean with bog roll you can see when the grime is no longer there.