I am going to be painting my 3.4L longblock over the holiday weekend. Since this is going in my Kit Car and I want it to look as nice as possible I thought I would ask about the best process and products here.

For the most part the block and heads are clean, but there are some spots where there is some surface rust (surfaces around spark plugs) and minor corrosion (around freeze plugs).

What can I use to control the rust? Keep in mind this is on the heads.

Should I use a primer? What brand?

How many coats of paint?

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I always use high temp Rustolium. I clean up the rust with one of the rust converters. Don't know about the "minor corrosion", I'd try a wire brush and see if that took it off. A chemical solution would be next.

Make sure it's free of rust/corrosion, grease and oil before you paint.

Remember that "painting" is 95% preperation and 5% painting.

if I had my engine out, Id consider powder coating it, last forever and look great. Ive seen some intakes and valve covers, heads done. they look incredible.

Yeah, those are great suggestions for the rust and corrosion. Most important thing is making sure the surface is 100% clean. That is very important, the paint wont stick worth a darn, or you'll get fish-eyes or orange peels. A self-etching primer should be used. It's just another form of prevention, mostly used for when you have metal that has had chemicals of some sort on it. Like if you "dip" a peice of metal (to strip the paint). As for paint, 6-8 coats or more, really it's your preference, but at least 4. Dupont Centari, or PPG are both great paints. You may also want to check to see if they have some sort of special oil/grease/grime resistant paint especially for engines. just my $.02