Paint removal from engine parts

[Mike G.]

Hi all,

Someone painted the aluminum intake manifold and power brake booster with silver paint on my 66 L79. What's the best method of removing the paint? I don't mind taking off the power booster but would rather not remove the intake. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Mike

[Edward J.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

Mike, The best way to remove the pant from the intake is to remove and bring to a machine shop and let them hot tank it. other wise you'll never remove all the paint its just to many dips and valleys and areas that cannot be reached. the booster try lacquer thinner and a rag, this may be a tough situation in some spots also.

[Joe R.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

Hi all,

Someone painted the aluminum intake manifold and power brake booster with silver paint on my 66 L79. What's the best method of removing the paint? I don't mind taking off the power booster but would rather not remove the intake. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Mike

Hi Mike,

Ed's advice is very good as usual. You don't say why you don't want to pull the intake, but I'm guessing you have never gotten that deep into the guts of a V8. It's really not very hard. I have average mechanical skills and managed to pull it off successfully on a 283 in my old 65 Chevy pickup out in the street at my old house. I did wind up having to do the job twice because I slid the intake slightly when I set it down. It did not seal the first time. I solved that problem by installing studs in the four corners of the heads prior to setting the intake down again. That way the alignment was guaranteed. I think the attached article by John Hinckley shows a different way. The only other thing I did wrong is I did not mark the distributor position before removing the intake. I had to play with the timing to get the engine to fire.

Here's John's article:

http://www.camaros.org/pdf/intake_swap.pdf

I did take my aluminum intake off my 427 to a machine shop, it cleaned up pretty good. If you want it to really look nice, you could have it reskinned. But you didn't ask that question.

Good luck and may the force be with you!!!
Joe

[Mike G.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

Thanks for the advise. You're right, I haven't been that deep into an engine and was hoping to avoid removal. I guess it would be a good reason to start learning...

Mike

[Joe R.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

Mike,

Sure thing, just read the service manual carefully and ask lots of questions here if need be. This a very helpful bunch here! Yes - there is no time like the present to learn. I used to maintain my wife and I's daily drivers. That's not a lot of fun because you have to have the car ready for the next work day. Hobby cars are a lot more fun and each job carries with it a great feeling of accomplishment!!!

Joe

[Donald H.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

Mike,

Are you aware that the 66 L79 had silver paint applied to the intake during production? The intake was installed on the engine before painting with the exposed surface of the cylinder heads (the area of the head between the intake and the valve cover) was painted silver. The thermostat housing was also sprayed silver at that time, as well as some coverage of the intake manifold bolts. I am restoring a 66 L79 and got a good description of Typical Factory application from Bill Calorico, the National Team Leader for the 66 judging team.

So depending on how much silver is on your intake, it may not have been a mistake by a previous owner.

If you want to remove the paint and do not want to pull the intake, I have used lacquer thinner and paper towels. I have some 10" long tweezers and use paper towel to make a sort of large q-tip with the towel and tweezers and soak with lacquer thinner and wipe the grit, grime, and paint off the intake. You can do a pretty good job of getting in the crevices with this technique. Of course, it's not as good and removing the intake for cleaning.

Don

[Robert D.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

Mike if you take the manifold off and want to do it yourself get a cheap soda blaster from harbor frieght a bag of baking soda from them and soda blast the manifold. I did mine and it came out beautiful. after your done rinse it out with water the soda melts away and the finish looks as close to brand new as i have seen. The great thing about baking soda is you could blast paint off any thing with it even polished pieces and it will not affect the finish of the aluminum it will just remove paint as long as the pressure isnt to high. it also will not etch glass so windows are safe. if you mask things off well you probably can do the manifold in the car then rinse everything off with water the excess soda will melt away but then you have to dry everything.
bob

[Mike G.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

Don,

I did not know about the factory silver on the intake. Did only the areas near the heads have the paint or was the whole manifold painted? The water neck has also been painted silver as they got some paint on the radiator hose. Thanks for the paint removal tips...I was also thinking a very light sand with a dremel tool in the crevices. If there is any additional info you can share from Bill Calorico, I'm all ears. I think my car is pretty correct but I still have A LOT to learn.

Thanks for the info!
Mike
66 roadster, triple black L79

[Edward J.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

Mike, The problem with using any abrasives is that the original finish will be lost, the intake manifolds have a thin layer that really gives it a smooth appearance and another issue is the use of abrasives, Is the under belly pan on the intake will be a storage bin for the abrasives, not good at all for the internals of the engine, this would have to be removed before blasting. The hot tank method worked on my 63 it sat in the tank for a couple of days and came out looking great. The machine shops use a biodegradable solvent today so it works but takes a little more time in the tank. I also did this with the valve covers.

[Mike G.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

Good point Edward. I guess I'll try a light paint remover first and then bit the bullet and remove it.

Thanks,
Mike

[Donald H.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

I don't think the radiator hose was there when the engine was painted, so I doubt there should be paint on the radiator hose. There could possibly be some on the bypass hose. My understanding is that the silver was not purposefully applied to the whole manifold, but just to the edges to allow coverage of the bare areas of the heads that did not get orange paint and to cover the intake bolts.

Here's a couple of pictures of my engine after restoration and before we dropped the body back on. They don't show all that well, and my car is now at the painters so not easy to get better pictures. Plus it hasn't been judged yet, so I'm not sure how my engine paint job will do under judging.

Don

[Mike G.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

Yeah, that's what I figured, the whole thing has been painted. Your restoration is looking great!

Mike

[Joe R.]

Re: Paint removal from engine parts

Don,

I did not know about the factory silver on the intake. Did only the areas near the heads have the paint or was the whole manifold painted? The water neck has also been painted silver as they got some paint on the radiator hose. Thanks for the paint removal tips...I was also thinking a very light sand with a dremel tool in the crevices. If there is any additional info you can share from Bill Calorico, I'm all ears. I think my car is pretty correct but I still have A LOT to learn.

Thanks for the info!
Mike
66 roadster, triple black L79

Mike,

Here's a thread on painting a L79 engine that should help you. In post 14 I added a link to another article by John Hinckley that has engine paint info.

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthread.php?112809-Exact-engine-painting-method-1967-L79&p=765919#post765919

Joe