Painting and air cooled motor?

The discussion/disagreement on the painting of air cooled motors has come
up in a motorcycle discussion group and I am interested in knowing what the
pros and cons are.

IMHO the paint on the surface of an air cooled motor is making a barrier
between the metal and the air thus delaying the transfer of heat.

the other popular school of thought is that unless it is an insulated paint
then it will not affect the cooling of the motor. Also since it is a high
temp engine paint then it may assist the cooling acting similar to thermal
paste on CPU's and other such electronics.

Any input on either side of the disagreement? I assume there to be several
engineers in this group that could lend insightful data as well


N8