I know that powder coated engine covers can reduce natural cooling and can lead to the cooling system to work harder. Is this an issue tho’ only for those in the warmer world or is it a risk too for us chilly (temperate at best) Brits.  Reason for asking is I’ve inherited a pair...

I would not be too concerned about it where you are, it's mainly air cooled engines that I have seen suffer failure from overheating. I wouldn't do it here in Oz where we get daytime temperatures over 40°C quite often in summer.

Thanks Rick. It can get to 40c here too. But only near pizza ovens.

I would just give them a coat of black satin finish engine enamel. Much easier to repair in the event of a drop.

Agree on the paint, but they were PC when I got them...

tinyspuds wrote:Thanks Rick. It can get to 40c here too. But only near pizza ovens.

Mmmmm, pizza.

Seeing as ovens have been mentioned:

I followed advice on this forum and, after rattle-canning a set of covers (etch primer followed by smoothrite) I cured the paint in the oven whilst the wife was at work. 120 centigrade for 40 minutes, or some similar, completely arbitrary amount. Made a great, durable job. Much better than air-drying alone.

And I'd like to mention that, in posting this, I have managed to stay completely on topic...TIMES TWO! (paint & ovens). I'm rather proud of that.

And, once again, risked Mrs 846 finding out!

Just wanted to add  point(s) that I wasn't aware of until they bit me in the sensitive areas. If you are doing the powder coating yourself (DIY man here) 1.) the powder coating as applied before being put in the oven has to be much thicker than ordinary paint. 2.) And for that reason you don't want to put it where there are sealing surfaces, Like on engine cover where it mates to the engine. I purchased a DIY powder coating machine and made a curing oven out of an electric oven that had been discarded. Due to the size of the oven I'm somewhat limited in the size of objects I can powder coat. But my first small project was a rusted mail box I wire brushed the rust off the outside and powder coated the outside. Turned out quite nice EXCEPT that over a period of several years it started to rust. I hadn't electrostatically sprayed enough powder on. About the second point I had the frame of my Silver K75 powder coated professionally and have found that through holes and mating surfaces have grown smaller or are out of alignment because of the thickness of the powder coat. Just a heads up and of course YMMV.

All noted. Thanks JJ.

I wouldn't be concerned about using them, the covers on k bikes are not designed to cool the oil, that job is handled by the flow of coolant through the engine block and the sump with its cooling fins. Also I have seen many k bike builds with powder coated engine covers and never have I seen any mention overheating issues due to it. On top of that, the covers don't even get that much oil submersion compared to the sump. In any case, you wont have an issue with cooling using them.

Wiz

Thanks Wiz.