[67whitetrashbird]

So I got a Torker 2 online for a pretty good price. I had it tanked and it looks better but still funky. Now I'm thinking of painting it light blue when I paint the block and heads. Is there any cons of doing this? Will the paint help hold heat into the intake? Anyone else run a painted intake and notice any problems after doing it?

[firebirdcrazy1959]

I painted mine red and it still looks good 10 years later.

[red76TA]

the only thing is that if you clear coat it it can yellow if gas gets on it
also some chemicals will discolor or stain the paint if they get on there, really depends on the paint

[Ron Genovese]

The factory painted all the cast iron intakes. Use a good engine paint & it will last for years.

[Raven Blayde]

My aluminum intake looked like crap every time I tried cleaning or polishing it, so I went the "Painted Route" last time (Silver). Bad thing- Silver DEFINANTLY shows every drop of fuel thats ever hit it (At least mine did anyway). It looks fine until you develope a gasket or fuel line leak-Then it sticks out like a sore thumb. I painted my intake again this time, but I'm going with a darker color to hopefully avoid this problem.

[screamingchief]

Bad thing- Silver DEFINANTLY shows every drop of fuel thats ever hit it (At least mine did anyway). It looks fine until you develope a gasket or fuel line leak-Then it sticks out like a sore thumb. I painted my intake again this time, but I'm going with a darker color to hopefully avoid this problem.

Please dont take this the wrong way Raven,,,but the way I look at this,,,I wanna know if there are any leaks,,,especially fuel,,,then I can fix them,,,not just hide them and forget about them till they get bad enough to burn the car to the ground...

I painted my TII the engine color for my '72 bird,have done plenty of others too,even the factory aluminum units,works fine,just make sure the intake is clean and free of any grease or such before you paint it.

I did mine to make it "blend in" with the other factory hardware,also ground off the "Edelbrock" script/logo for the same reason,now 90% of folks looking at it wont even likely realize what intake it is???

I'll include a few pics of the "mock-ups",final install is pending the port match and initial fire-up.

I use VHT engine paints,they're the best IMHO!

[glhs#116]

Well my 455HO has the factory aluminium intake. It looks like the factory painted those too. Could be a PO but looking at the apparent age of the paint, I'd say its original.

Sam

[GRX]

Best option IMO, glass bead the intake, have it painted with HiTemp "AlumaBlast", then bake in a 400* oven for an hour. Did this to all my aluminum intakes and it lasted for years. And looked like it was not painted at all.

[Raven Blayde]

[QUOTE=screamingchief]Please dont take this the wrong way Raven,,,but the way I look at this,,,I wanna know if there are any leaks,,,especially fuel,,,then I can fix them,,,not just hide them and forget about them till they get bad enough to burn the car to the ground...

I agree 100 percent! I wasn't suggesting that one should hide leaks or forget them. My only point was that even after you fix whatever leak you may have, the intake will still carry the "scars" with it until it gets repainted (at least mine did anyway). Good example- Back when I had trouble with my E-carb, I took it off and switched to a Holley. Every drop of fuel that hit the intake left a streak or run in the paint that remained there perminantly. Just pointing out that silver can have that downfall to it, thats all.

[myckee]

Once my intake was a couple of years old, it started looking pretty dirty, so I painted it with high heat aluminum paint. As others has said, one drop of fuel and the paint starts looking nasty. Re and re a carb and the intake looks like crap.

I then took it to the local powdercoating people, who also do a jet-hot like coating called Cerma-Krome, which is the stuff most people use on their headers. I had my intake done and it looks great. It gets dirty, becasue I am a slacker, but it will polish back up with hardly any effort.

[Raven Blayde]

Hey myckee- Just out of curiosity, what does something like that cost? Sounds like a heck of a good idea!

[myckee]

It was a couple of years ago when I had it done. I think it was around $100.

[GRX]

Originally Posted by myckee

Once my intake was a couple of years old, it started looking pretty dirty, so I painted it with high heat aluminum paint. As others has said, one drop of fuel and the paint starts looking nasty. Re and re a carb and the intake looks like crap.

I then took it to the local powdercoating people, who also do a jet-hot like coating called Cerma-Krome, which is the stuff most people use on their headers. I had my intake done and it looks great. It gets dirty, becasue I am a slacker, but it will polish back up with hardly any effort.

Wonder what paint you guys were using because I never had that big a problem with gas. And I changed my carb plenty. Perhaps it was the baking and beaded surface which made the difference.

That Cerma-Krome process sounds like the right ticket.