Powdercoating/2pak painting engine.

[Five Miles Out]

Did a bit of a search here and on google but couldn't find any great answers - sorry if its already been answered. How will powdercoating or 2pak painting a n engine be? It's an air cooled sr250 - will it overheat. Also will I need to remove gaskets - will they be affected by the heat?

Thanks guys!

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

Powdercoating or painting an engine does not cause overheating so long as the paint or powdercoat is not laid on excessively heavy.

To powdercoat an engine, it must be completely disassembled and the individual parts masked and coated. It takes some additional skills to successfully powdercoat the finned parts, (cylinders and heads.) The charged powder is attracted to the fins long before it penetrates to the root of the fins. There are a few tricks for doing a good job, like rotating the part and applying the powder from above with very little charge voltage so that gravity can carry the powder down into the fins.

 

[Five Miles Out]

Thanks for that! I wold be getting it done professionally so they should know what to do re fins. Any reason why I need to completely disassemble the engine?

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

It has to be baked in a 400 degree oven, for one. The powdercoat would fuse across the joints between parts. That would cause numerous problems like chipping along the joints, especially if the engine is later torn down.

It would be impossible to properly coat the fins with a entire engine attached to it. The cylinders/heads have to be held horizontally, and rotated as they are coated. No powdercoater would take the job of coating an assembled engine.