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GSF
28th March 2012, 19:28
I want to have a crack at dropping the engine out of the Bandit and giving it a lick of paint.

Does anyone who has done this before have any pointers before I drop the engine? I'm planning on giving it a bloody good clean, then a sand before applying some black VHT engine enamel or similar high temperature paint. Then polish the edges of the fins to bare metal for the silver-edged look.

I have seen some people say online that after painting their engines have run considerably hotter (usually after painting air-cooled twins). Is this likely to be an issue?
It's a 250cc liquid-cooled four cylinder. I'd imagine that the radiator does the lion's share of the cooling.

whowhatwhere
28th March 2012, 19:35
VHT paint generally needs a high heat to fully cure and I doubt the engine casing would get anywhere near hot enough. Used engine enamel on my last bike and that was fine, keep the VHT stuff for headers and exhausts.

GSF
28th March 2012, 19:41
Cheers, good to know.

Did you simply drop the whole engine out and do it all together, or remove clutch/alternator/sprocket covers and paint them separately?

The engine is factory painted, like a lot of the alloy on the bike. I imagine that I'd need to scuff the existing layer of paint up a bit to get a good bond with the engine enamel. I'm not very experienced with painting things so this is pretty new to me.