Can anyone give me a couple tips on how to paint my CAI black and not make it look crappy? I want it to still be shiny but black... I got it from WestImports and it is a SIMOTA CAI... just had to throw out an add for the guy... great deal, 80 bucks and works like a dream... so what paint, how to paint... stuff like that would be great, thanks!

 

I would imagine just some regular old rustoleum would do the trick. Make sure to sand down the metal really good first though. If you can find some ceramic insulating coating I would do that first then paint over it, keep your intake charge cooler... doubt it would do much but it'd be cool.

 

Fantastic, thanks!

 

I dunno about you guys, but I know my intake gets real warm, most likely from the header. I'd say you may be better off with High Heat paint with a High Heat Ceramic sealer. I think you'd be good to go with that.

 

i think you're better off just leaving it alone.

 

Well it wouldn't get hot enough to need engine paint, would it? I am still going to try to paint it and if it chips off then I will go back to chrome... or heat tape it.

 

I had a chrome AEM Short Ram....I used a 320-grit sanding block, some adhesion promoter, Duplicolor MetalCast metallic base coat, and Duplicolor MetalCast Red on top. I've had it this way for about 3 or 4 months now, no probs at all as far as chipping, peeling, whatever. Unless they've seen an AEM shortie that's actually red, no one can tell the difference.

 

THERE WE GO!!! A full answer!!! Can you post a pic of your short ram for me? This might be super dumb, but did you use a paintbrush of spray from a can? if you used a can, how far away from the intake were you to keep it from looking clumpy (many clumps or bubbles)?

 

I rattle-canned it. Spray about 8 inches away from the intake with a nice sweeping motion, and it should do you good. Anyways, I'm also pretty sure that they have a black MetalCast paint, in addition to the red, blue, purple, gold, and maybe a couple of others. I also used the red MetalCast on my valve cover (for about 2 1/2 months) with no probs, although I eventually went with black for that. Technically, the MetalCast isn't high-temp spray paint, so I would like to add that I did use a final coat of high-temp clear on top of the red for the valve cover....but none on the intake, and like I said before, I haven't had any probs with it at all. I'll see if I can track down a digicam and take some pics for you. Hope this helps.