That looks really good! I can't wait til I get the opp to paint some of the parts underneath my street monte hood =)

I thought the Buttermore fix, sleeved the UIM. Kinda looks like yers is sitting on the LIM instead of inside the UIM?

Have you considered pluggin the coolant ports in the LIM and never having to worry again?

I asked him about it when I first got it, he said, just grab a socket equal in diameter and gently tap it into the LIM with a mallet. Been fine ever since.

Plugging the ports? Dunno. You will have to show me which ones need to be plugged. I'll post a pic of another LIM I'm working on so you can point to me which ones.

FWIW, the wonder in the Fusion (or other plastic etching paints)... you can do the paint on as a surfactant, rather than just a coat of paint. Soak the jebeez out of the plastic in pure ammonia. You'll notice the plastic is kind of tacky, even gooey on the surface. Hit it right away with the plastic paint.

YMMV, but I did it with a dashfront cover from the yard. To find out what happened, I took some steel wool to it after I gave it time to fully cure. Yeah, the paint came off with scrubbing, but I really had to scrub it. And it seemed the plastic had actually reacted with the paint.

I drive a White Curse, so I pulled all of the plastic gray/rough-surfaced interior trim. Once I got the first coat on, and near dry (not cured), I switched to an (Krylon) indoor/outdoor hard spray. Gave it layer after layer of black gloss. After a couple of cans, the trim was piano smooth black. Normal people probably think it looks sucky, and I think it looks good. But that'* immaterial, because the trim has held up great in 0* to 100*+ for 6 months now. And i have no reason to believe the finish won't hold up any less than if you sprayed it on metal porch furniture.

So if this story plays out like i think it will, you can do some pretty wild bleep with any plastic surface in the interior.

The other thing is that the initial coat gives you a wear layer that definitely isn't plastic (or the rest of my paint would have fallen off) and isn't completely paint (if you keep the layer thin). Most spray can paints have solvents to dig into the preceding layer, including medium hi-temp, or oil/fuel resistant etc. So it might be workable to get a hardnose paint, which can handle 250*, and it won't chip or peel off because of the weird wear layer composite.

That'* if it doesn't work just fine, straight up.

These two coolant ports. Either plug them here or on the UIM. When there'* no coolant, there'* no worry about kaboom

Ok, thanks Bill.

Any recommendation on what to use to fill them?

I'm not sure if I'm thread jacking or not, so I apologize in advance. Admin can move or delete my post if needed.

Just speaking of black paints, I did my 3400 intake and valve covers in a semi gloss. With a supercharger, I keep hearing that any sort of coating with hurt it'* ability to shed heat, kinda like the guys that say that sanding the texture off reduces the cooling surface area. Any truth to this? One of the reasons I havnt really done any cosmetic work to my engine other than trying to keep it clean.

MIKE1995, that does look good! Ive always liked an industrial look with my engines. Black paint, natural metal finishes and polished lines. Kinda what Lamborghini does. Some pinstripe on the lines on the valve cover would contrast well.

Your first post is completely acceptable.

Thanks Golgo, I'll have to photoshop some pinstripes and see what it would look like.


Not sure what effect painting parts does to effect heat transfer. If anything, it would at least help insulate the intake system from the hot engine bay IMO.