Got the TR4 engine back from the machine shop right when the weather turned cold. Naturally they felt a need to spray it black. Don't know about anyone else, but in my view a black engine in a racer is about the worst choice. Being a 50 year old brit car I'll assume it's likely to leak - I just want to find it quickly. Spent a good chunk of time today trying to heat up the garage well enough to get some battleship gray on it.
The flip side to that coin is not necessarily so good either. I specifically had a machine shop NOT paint my block because I was afraid they would paint my resto-454 with black. As a result, they left it bare.... and it got surface rust on the humid ride home.
From now on, I consider their rattle-can efforts just a "primer" coat. Then I can mask and paint whatever color I want 
I'd consider a bit of surface rust to be a good thing. The POR-15 system (Marine Clean/Metal Ready/POR-15/final top coat) likes a bit of rust to grab on to.
I like painting the belly of the beast random colors. Just painted the transmission red while I had it out. Why? I wanted to.
For the oil leak thing, I've been tempted to paint a block white. Sure, it'll attract dirt like a mofo, but any reason NOT to?
J308 wrote: For the oil leak thing, I've been tempted to paint a block white. Sure, it'll attract dirt like a mofo, but any reason NOT to?
Because you could have painted it baby blue. 
Point taken.
For street I'd go original black. For track I prefer Rebuilder's Gray as the colour that it is easiest to see oil leaks against.
On my MG powered race cars, I tend to stick with MG red as that is fairly easy to spot leaks.
Yep. I painted my block some Ford gray, which is basically battleship grey. Black is too boring.
I was thinking through the best practical colors for different things on a racing car.
Chassis- a color that makes cracks visible
Body/interior - won't bake you out on a hot sunny day, body highly visible to other drivers.
Engine- shows leaks
Suspension- again, shows cracks
Yup, I am agree.
In reply to geckowraps:
Nice to meet you, Agree!
I also like being able to simply see. A black engine in a black engine bay; it's just plain hard to see anything there.
Kinda like working in a black shop. Doesn't matter how many lights you've got, it's just dark.
My paint was driven by a certain look I was trying to achieve. I would miss a leak from 50 ft but why would I be 50ft away from my car?
I painted my entire frame satin black. Also the engine, diff and transmission.
It's called a light guys.... If you are as familiar with your car as you should be the only person it's hiding a leak from is people at shows.
As far as cracks... If you are doing a walk under inspection of the car like you should, you'll see it either way.
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