Just thinking of giving the heads and poss engine a spruce up while I'm doing the rebuild as the heads do look a bit .... Was just wondering what paints and colours work best
I used steel wheel silver paint on my last engine and remarkably it was very close to the factory colour. It has stood the test of time well with no flaking or bubbling from heat etc. If you wanted to go more exotic you could use the correct engine spray paint but that would probably triple the cost. Grigio Steel, which is a Ducati colour (darker silver used on frames) could also be used but you would need a decent and preferably heatproof lacquer. After that there is powder coating.
No as primer is not generally heatproof, I rubbed down the original finish, which amazingly had not flaked off anywhere and then carefully masked up the engine and painted it. I should add that this was done out of the bike and on an engine stand which allows the engine to turn completely upside down if necessary, so spraying it was quite a straightforward job. But if you had to do it without something to manoeuvre it around it would be a lot harder.
