Orange paint inside oil pan

[taylordw71]

Hello all, I noticed when I took my engine apart for complete rebuild it was painted inside with an orange like paint. I have been told it was for a smooth surface for the oil to return quickly to the pan, not sure if that is true or not. My question is how important is it to put back on once my parts have been hot tanked? this process removes all paints from the surfaces and i am ready to reassemble the engine. but before i do i want to know if it is nessary to repaint these surfaces and with what?


Thanks in advance.

Dana taylor

[Don Moyer]

Dana,

I would list painting the inside of castings as a "nice to have", but not a really necessary feature. Perhaps some other folks will weigh in on this one.

Best regards,

Don Moyer

[Davis Modlin]

I just had my block and everything else hot tanked, And as soon as I recieve the remainder of my parts I will start reassembling my engine. As for the paint on the inside of the block I don't think I don't think I will be repainting it.
When I was rebuilding V8's years back, I never found any engines that had paint on the inside of the block. So I can't find any reason to do so here. As for hot tanking the engine, I found that it didn't remove the paint all the way off (left the Zinc Chromate primer intact) and didn't even touch the rust. So this weekend I will be grinding rust.

Davis
E29
Holy Guacamole

[taylordw71]

Thanks guys for the advice, I didn't think it was a big deal to paint it but if I were to ask now was the time. The machine shop that hot tanked my block also resleeved my cylinders and redid all my valve seats. Which brings me to another question? The machine shop resurfaced the block to a smooth surface, I have read that it should be rough to the touch or the gasket will leak. I have also read that there are 2 types of head gaskets that can be used one is a two piece set where the other is a single gasket. So what should the roughness be on the block and which gasket set is best?

Thanks again

Dana Taylor

Can’t wait to get this beauty up and running again.

[Don Moyer]

Dana,

There is currently only one head gasket in common use for the Atomic 4. It is the steel-reinforced graphite gasket manufactured by Victor Gasket Company, and they should be used in pairs.

In recommending the use of two head gaskets, we are following the original recommendation of Universal Motors as well as the manufacturer, both of whom recommended using Atomic 4 head gaskets in pairs, mostly to retain the original compression ratio.

The relatively low design compression ratio of the Atomic 4 (6.3 to 1) was based on the thickness of copper-clad asbestos head gaskets which were in common use throughout most of the 1960's and earlier. The thickness of these copper-clad gaskets (now virtually unavailable) was approximately equivalent to two of any of the after-market head gaskets available since that time, including the current steel reinforced graphite gaskets manufactured by Victor (.088" for the copper-clad gaskets, and .045" for the Victor gaskets).

Best regards,

Don Moyer