I want to mask off my gasket surfaces (with masking tape) and do some cleanup and painting. Might take several weeks before I can reinstall heads and other pieces (timing cover etc)

Will the masking tape protect the mating surfaces from rusting?

My garage is heated but I don't like to run the heat constantly. Right now i have a thin coat of engine oil on the mating surfaces but tomorrow I would like to strip that off and start cleaning and masking.

 

Probably not. Might even make it worse.

Try a thin schmeeeer of white lithium grease, after the cleaning. Works pretty good at masking for paint as well.

 

Thanx for the response. Now Im thinking about just buying a pair of burner gaskets. ($25 on RA) That way I can clean this weekend, have everything ready for paint, then lightly remount the heads. With heads mounted i can the take on block cleaning (wire brush, sand paper etc) and not worry about contaminating cylinder area. (Removed heads in the first place to check cylinder wall condition on this used motor - turns out to be good, still has nice cross hatching) Thoughts?

 

A thin layer of grease or even Vaseline Would work. My 4.8 block developed slight surface rust on the deck after a couple weeks while waiting for the 706 heads to return from Texas speed. A simple quick hit of a wire wheel and it was gone…

 

Thanx. I think im just gonna lightly mount the heads with fresh gaskets so I can proceed with paint, after cleaning everything up, bolt holes etc. That will also keep stuff out of the cylinders, water jacket etc. That aught to keep the rust away, no?

 

The warmer of a place you can keep it, the lower the amount of rust you'll encounter.

 

My experience thru the years is when you heat a room/garage that's been cold, the metal in the garage 'sweats', and moisture forms pretty quickly. Think cold glass on hot Summer day....

 

If you keep at a set temp it will not sweat and it will keep the humidity down. My garage in the winter is always below 50 % humidity but once it starts warming up and you get those humid or rainy days it goes above 60 % so i run a dehumidifier.

 

I have a mitsu heat pump so it self regulates humidity. I think sweating is associated with fuel fired heaters (propane, heating oil etc) could be wrong but I do know my heat pump self regulates the atmosphere.

At any rate, I dont like to run it constantly, so it is usually off. with work/school i am not in the garage as often as id like to be.

My heads are installed and cylinders lubed so I am not concerned ATM. On the intake surface I have a thin coat off assembly lube. Thicker than oil but thinner than grease was my thought on that