Engine cases powdercoat?

Nice job on that bike

powder coating scares me on anything that cant be removed to have recoated easily

I thought that powder coating the head and cylinders of an aircooled bike was supposed to be a bad idea. From what I have heard, the powdercoating serves as an insulator, thus trapping heat in the motor. I have no experience with this, but I have heard that it will lead to a bike that runs hot. As for the cases, I don't think that it would do too much harm. However, I second the thought of not doing it on a 73 Z1. That stuff is a bitch to remove, and if I was shopping for the bike to do an original resto, then I would seriously devalue the bike because of this. OTOH, you have owned the bike for 37 years. Are you gonna sell it now? Do what you want, but I wouldn't powdercoat them myself.

No, I'm not selling it . It's still my baby, too many memories there.

sure you can!
here's mine after powdercoat.

For removing powder coating, buy a gallon of the dissolver/stripper. It will eat it off and leave bare metal. Otherwise it will take forever with a wire wheel. Even a poorly applied coating like my brake lever got took hours to clean off. I tried propane torch, a scraper, and finally a wire wheel. I didn't have the stripper so that was out of the question at the time.

Kawasaki Man, those cases look good.

As for trapping heat, highly unlikely as it is bonded to the surface and is not much of an insulator. However, you can check the constants of aluminum and PC to be sure on the heat transfer qualities.

kawsakiman wrote:

sure you can!
here's mine after powdercoat.

Looking FINE!

What about jugs and head?

Good Fortune!

KawiConvert wrote:

For removing powder coating, buy a gallon of the dissolver/stripper. It will eat it off and leave bare metal....

Where is the dissolver/stripper available?

Good Fortune!

KawiConvert wrote:

As for trapping heat, highly unlikely as it is bonded to the surface and is not much of an insulator. However, you can check the constants of aluminum and PC to be sure on the heat transfer qualities.

A quick search on thermal conductivity yeilded this website: www.finishing.com/244/25.shtml

Looks like the powdercoat is substantially less conductive of heat than aluminium. Now this is just an internet find from some random person of unknown qualifications. We all know that what you find on the internet must be true. Now the amount of insulation it provides is minimal due to the thickness that the coating is applied, but for those who ride in the heat, it may be a consideration. As I said before, I have zero real world experince with this, and I don't plan on finding out. FWIW, I think that it looks killer on engine cases, but I live in Houston and I'm not taking chances on overheating.

Patton wrote:

KawiConvert wrote:

For removing powder coating, buy a gallon of the dissolver/stripper. It will eat it off and leave bare metal....

Where is the dissolver/stripper available?

Good Fortune!

www.eastwood.com/ew-powdercoat-and-paint-dissolver-quart.html

I've never used it, but I've had good luck with what I have purchased from them in the past.

testarossa wrote:

KawiConvert wrote:

As for trapping heat, highly unlikely as it is bonded to the surface and is not much of an insulator. However, you can check the constants of aluminum and PC to be sure on the heat transfer qualities.

A quick search on thermal conductivity yeilded this website: www.finishing.com/244/25.shtml

Looks like the powdercoat is substantially less conductive of heat than aluminium. Now this is just an internet find from some random person of unknown qualifications. We all know that what you find on the internet must be true. Now the amount of insulation it provides is minimal due to the thickness that the coating is applied, but for those who ride in the heat, it may be a consideration. As I said before, I have zero real world experince with this, and I don't plan on finding out. FWIW, I think that it looks killer on engine cases, but I live in Houston and I'm not taking chances on overheating.

I'm in the desert where we don't have that nice humidity to help transfer heat to/from the engine depending on which is hotter. Which is one of the reason's I'm installing an oil cooler. Better safe than sorry.

Think we are splitting hairs here. If Kawasaki painted their engines cases on the z1r and MK II black and whatever the stuff they used is still adhering to those fins and cases thirty years later I would think that there is no real worries. My friends z1r engine has 86000 miles on it and it is still going strong. Of course if the coating is really thick I am sure it wouldn't be a great thing to do but my cases I can tell you for sure are coated properly and the coating is thin. But do what you like. I paid to have mine done right and it was expensive.
I personally think the engines look great all aluminum as long as they are spiffy clean but the coating of black is so much easier to clean and look nice but it kinda hides the engine for my tastes a bit. Keeping up with all the cleaning when bikes get riddin so much is quite a chore. Black has to be much easier to clean if you ask me.