I went for the black cases/polished covers look too on the 650 engine I´m rebuilding, using PJ1 wrinkle paint.
I took the engine completely apart and thoroughly cleaned everything before I glass bead blasted it - contrary to popular belief bead blasting won´t remove grease and dirt, parts need to be clean first. And don´t even think about blasting without disassembling, the media goes
everywhere - even though I blocked all passages and bolt holes before blasting I had to remove the worst media residues with compressed air, then wash the parts twice with soapy water and twice with a pressure washer, drying them with compressed air between each wash before I was satisfied there was no residue left.
Before painting I set the engine up as an empty shell (painted the oil pan seperately), heated it thouroughly with an electric fan heater, sprayed it down with paint thinner for a final degrease (don´t touch it anymore at this point), painted it twice with PJ1 wrinkle paint (paint gun, not rattle can), let it sit for a day, then baked it in the oven (not the one I cook in) at app. 200F for a good hour to cure the paint.
Can´t say much about heat dissipation or durability as it´s not assembled yet (pics are just the empty shells set up for a photo), but the finish seems very hard, took quite a bit of filing/sanding work to remove the paint from the head fin edges. Doesn´t look too bad either if I may say so myself: