[gtobird]

I rarely build an engine, but the Pontiac engines I have done, I've always mounted the iron heads and valley pan, then taped off the machined surface of the heads that the intake mates to. I then paint the non-taped area on the intake side of the heads along with the valley pan before attaching the intake. The same goes for the iron intake manifold. I had always kept it bare metal on the machined surface. It's only recently that I read it's okay to paint the machined surface of the intake as long as no paint gets inside the ports.

That begs the question of whether or not painting the heads mating surface for the intake would also work. It would be much easier than taping everything off and I would think it would also help prevent rust from creeping out from the edges of the gasket.

I can see many arguments for not painting these surfaces, yet I see posts in other forums where people say they have done it with no issues.

I appreciate hearing from those of you that have experience painting these areas and what the results were (are). If you have successfully done this, I appreciate any tips such as whether or not certain intake gaskets work better on these painted surfaces than others. Once this engine is done, it likely won't be cracked open again in my lifetime so I'm not worried if painting these surfaces makes it hard to get these areas clean again if the intake is removed.

BTW, no need to get into discussions about paint burning off the outside of the exhaust ports. I have plenty of bad experiences with that and how to make it better with high temp paint in that area before painting the Pontiac Blue.

Thanks
Old Joe