What have you used to prep and paint your engine that worked and held up. I'm getting ready to paint mine and want to see if there is something new.
I wire wheeled mine to bare metal then painted with Dupont urethane, then pearl, then clear. It worked great. Its not in the pickup yet, but I have no reason to believe it won't hold up.
i paint all my engines with base/ clear dupont paint did 6 so far with no problems. prep as you would with any metal part.
if your engine is bare metal and all togeather, i use a cutting torch over all the iron parts lightly to flash the mosture out of the iron. u want it warm to the touch but no hotter. u can see the water leave the iron. next coat with a good 2 part epoxy primer then coat with the color of choice.i have done this miny times and the pain stays put until u take it apart an vat the block.
Most engines have some old paint on them. The best way to assure it will accept paint and stay on, is to Needle gun the entire cast iron and then wipe it down with a good thinner. Paint with a good primer and use One Shot paint----You won't have any problems if you do these steps.--TV
I never thought about heating the iron, that sounds like a good idea. In the past I have had good luck with activated enamel car paint or a good B/C system with very good results. It seems to work better if the overall thickness of the coating is kept as thin as possible.