I dropped my intake at the blaster today to have the paint removed. I have the "silver" VHT engine enamel to put down but couldn't find a high temp etching primer. Does etching primer result in a more durable finish? Eventually I'll powder coat the manifold and cam covers but for now paint will have to do.

Thanks

Mike

 

no matter what you paint the the outside with make sure to wash the insides of the intake with simple green or some other grease cutting detergent rinse them off with hot water ,
use compressed air after rinsing with hot water .
wash the parts at least two times and dry them twice to inspect the first cleaning attempt.

I have only gotten the intake and cover PCd and didnt use any base primer but did the wash routine

 

ammon man what kind of media are you using plastic or glass? Glass usually takes the paint of alot faster but can result in some metal smearing. I would recommend doing a few cycles of blowing it off with air, clearning it with MIBK (wear eye protection, respirator, and gloves this stuff is dangerous), then final clean with distilled water and blowing that water off (probably excesive but I dont like fish eye / orange peel). Some of thoose nice engine paints require it to be places in an oven to bake the paint. I am not sure if anyone had any notes on the temperatures they took their intake manifolds to but it would be nice (to prevent warping). If you have time to do the research I would search for a paint that requires a lower baking temperature and when baked and dried it is chemical resistant to the majority of fluids your car contains (so it doesnt smear / peel off paint when your car leaks). I thought VHT made a high temp primer. Good luck

 

A short handled toilet brush will get in the runners and scrub the hell out of them.

I got a lot of media out of mine after powder coating...gritty black stuff.

 

I will be doing a multi-wash routine first at the car wash with a power washer, then a couple of complete submerged baths with lots of compressed air in between to get ALL the blast media out. I am having a local powdercoat shop do the blasting. They are using aluminum oxide at low pressure. The VHT engine coating calls for +200F for 20 minutes to heat set the paint. They do have a high temp primer, but as far as I can tell it is not an etching primer. I don't have access to any of the chrome pickle solutions recommended for prepping magnesium. Etching primer is the closest I can come.

Mike

 

ahh if the powder coater is stripping the parts, why not have them PC the parts as well then you will be done.
If i had a choice I would prefer Powder over paint.
Buy the color powder you want to use and set aside the extra for when you decide to do the cam covers.

Less on and off of the intake will reduce the possibility of dropping in foreign objects/.dirt into the cylinders,
and also reduce the amount of wire harness damage that will be done by extra cycles of removing said parts.

 

IMO powder coating on this Al/Mg alloy is way too risky. The alloy is very porous once stripped, and will quickly absorb moisture, grease, and oils. Any grease/oil/water that is still in that metal will come out during the baking process at powdercoating, which will result in nasty bubbling, and once it's PC'ed it's hard to fix.

I've already been here, i wanted to seal my pieces after offgassing and asked these guys about using self etching primer before powdercoating and i couldn't find any self etching primer that was (or told me it was) compatible with coatings.

Check out "olmann"s writeup on painting these pieces, his turned out fantastic. Search up "intake refinishing" in the 928 forum.