Larry,

I've been using this stuff for 5 or 6 years now on about every engine and engine part that I paint. I've gotten excellent results with it. It covers well, and dries fairly quickly, and the color is consistent from can to can. I usually sandblast most of the parts that I paint, and the Plasti-Kote sticks to a sandblasted surface so well that laquer thinner doesn't hardly affect it.

I've painted two Chevy engines (one orange and one blue), one Ford (dark blue), and a Toyota (Pontiac metallic blue), and I've yet to lose any paint off of them.

I had used Krylon in the past, but it is very soft, and tends to dissolve even in gasoline, which makes it just about useless for a gasoline engine! I've used VHT on headers, but not much else since it's so expensive (and hard to paint with in my opinion). I think Rustoleum is a pretty good paint as well, but it takes forever to dry, and that's a pain when you have to paint something on more than one side.

I think the key to getting the best performance out of any paint is to prep the surface before you shoot it. If you leave rust or aluminum oxide on the surface, the paint probably won't stick very long. I realize that not everybody has access to a sandblaster, but it really is the best way to prep a metal surface for painting. In fact, it's been the only way that I've been able to remove the paint from a surface that was blasted before I painted it.

At any rate, I wouldn't hesitate to use Plasti-Kote engine enamel, it has worked well for me on many occasions.

Randy