Slappin the Paint

May 2, 2009

To the best of my recollection, my plan was to paint every engine component that I removed. This way, I could more or less colour document what I have had to fix (or at least remove). some of these parts were gummed up with nearly 20 years worth of old oil, and it showed.

I started by popping off the rocker covers, which needed new seals badly. They had been leaking (mainly the passenger's side, noted in picture below) through a homemade silicone gasket and were now well into lubing the manifolds. Although this prevented a lot of rust in that area, it did make for a rather great plumage of smoke once the engine warmed up, not to mention smell.

To my surprise, the rocker arms, seats, and springs were astonishingly clean and free of gummy buildup (which often appears either as black or white buildup). The fact that it was so clean meant the engine is likely pretty clean inside, and bodes well for longevity. It also means i likely have less crankcase gasses, which aids my cause in the e-test depertment.

With the rocker covers off, I took the wire wheel to them and polished off all the old paint, which was peeling and allowing rust to pit some areas. I used some leftover paint from a school project (which happened to be high heat orange) and gave them both a nice healthy coat, same colour as the air-box.

I then moved on to paint the distributer cap, AIR manifolds, and the oil vent filter.

With my new cork rocker gasket installed, and a new exhaust gasket ready to go in, i began reassembling everything, with the obvious intent of sealing the oil and exhaust for good this time. The colour combo of hot orange with gloss white (mixed with a dash of accent red), makes for a pretty good bit of colour. In time more stuff will be painted as it's fixed.

Lastly, I grabbed the mega rusted Y-pipe and began stitching it back together. the old weld seam fixed up no sweat, but i had to cut and patch a lot of the rest of it, so flow is probably less than ideal through that area. Then I gave it a thick coat ofhigh heat white, to match the manifolds.

Note the Grenade/Ammo box.. good for a few BHP.