Painting the Oil Pan

[sethkestenbaum]

I am preparing to drop the oil pan on my 1929 and would like to clean/paint the pan before reinstalling. What is the "appropriate method" to prep the pan for paint? Do you paint the entire pan or just the "bottom"? Thanks

[glenn in camino]

Primer and paint the whole outside if the pan. I use Rustoleum products.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I used DP90 and DCC 9000 and painted inside and out. Be sure to knock the dipper tray out by dropping the pan upside down on the grass. You may have to slam it some, but it works every time.

[Charles Coe]

I would clean it to get all the oil off, prime bare metal, sand smooth, & paint with gloss black enamel on the outside only.

[luckyal]

I power wash the entire thing both inside and out but I only paint the outside. I personally see no merit in painting the inside and if for some reason the paint does not adhere on the inside you have a problem.
Al

[Tom Wesenberg]

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The paint on the inside of the pan helps protect the metal from the acids in the oil. I've seen lots of pans with pits and holes from the acid and water in the oil pan. A lot of industrial engines are painted on the inside, and the only time I can see paint coming of would be if the metal wasn't prepped correctly. I've also seen some foreign car oil pans painted on the inside. Maybe VW or Volvo, I don't recall which ones had the painted oil pans.

[sethkestenbaum]

What about powder coating? Would this be a good time to try it?

[Mitch//pa]

i powder coated mine only the out side and it turned out really nice. one problem with doing that is the drain plug nut is soldered into the pan and from the heat of the oven it melted out some of the solder. i just had to add more solder to it and was fine but definenty something to consider if going this route..if you do go with painting it i would use a black high temp engine spray paint. if it was my project i would only paint the outside....

[sethkestenbaum]

Thanks. I didn't think of the solder.