[TheWhiteElephant]

Thanks so much for the kind words, folks. I'm a big believer in elbow grease, and I didn't want to pull the engine in my driveway (see my above comments). I don't have a cherry-picker and I don't have a big garage or shop to work in, so I made the decision to basically take EVERYTHING off the engine while it was still in the truck.

Then I just cleaned, and scrubbed, wire-wheeled, scrubbed some more, and masked what I didn't want sprayed. Yes, I had to get under the truck to paint the bottom of the engine. I carefully masked the engine mounts and sprayed around them. Since I changed the oil pan, valve covers, and timing chain cover, I was able to paint around those without having to mask them. Aiming carefully and going over in several coats helps.

Make no mistake about it--good quality rattle can spray paint and hard work go a long way. I'm on a pretty tight budget, but it still takes some cash to replace what really needs to be replaced. I appreciate the comments.