Has anyone ever seen or heard of an acrylic paint that you can use in the valley that is below your intake where your lifters are at. I seen it on Horse Power they painted the valley with some kind of paint for a better oil flow or something it didnt seem like it would matter too much, i just wanted to see what everyone on here thought about it.

 

I remember that from back in the 80's or so. But I believe they used Imron back then. Acrylic paint is too generic now days. You have acrylic lacquer, acrylic enamel & acrylic urethane none of which I'd put inside my motor. But then again I don't look to keep my motors at high RPM's for extended periods. Lately I've heard more about simply deburing the block to promote drainage back to the pan.

I'm surprised they didn't show gas porting the pistons. And I think they painted the tops of the pistons white back then too. I think that was to "reflect" the heat away from the pistons.

Anyway, these were engine building 'tips' in the hot rod type magazines back in the 80's or so. Or the twisted versions from my memory. And I didn't know anyone was promoting painting for drainage on street or street/strip engines anymore. On strip only engines maybe, but I think you'll find different opinions on it.

Don

 

The stuff was called "Glyptal". It was actually made by General Electric as an insulating paint for their large generators' windings, and as coating for inside of their big turbine/generators' oil reservoirs. It dried hard and very oil resistant, and oil would run right off it back to the drain ports.

Is it essential? No. I think you could get about as much benefit from deburring and smoothing the area around drainback holes. Plus, even though I know what Glyptal is and how it behaves, I'm still a little leery of paint chips breaking loose and getting back to the oil pickup screen.

 

I've usually used Rustoleum. The purpose of the paint is twofold. First, it helps oil drainback. Second, it seals in any potential small sand particles from the casting process. Now, one could argue that after 30+ years, the sand should be pretty much gone, but I still do it.

 

I use it on all my motors....I believe I get it from Eastwood.

I also paint the bottom of the intake manifold also......As they said it insulates the heat from the intake and assists oil drain back GOOOOOOOOOD Stuff