stripping/refinish 900ss motor - leave it together?

[TAftonomos]

My ol' 900ss is now awaiting a refinish/refresh.  TRYING to do this on the cheap!

First order of business is to completely refinish the engine.  Poor thing has battery acid stains, grease, and grit everywhere.  Since I've heard of the never ending rebuild (I might have invented it), and in effort to save time.....thing it's feasible to pull the engine, hit is with aircraft stripper, wash it, and paint it without tearing it all apart?  I've heard horror stories about broken studs, so I"m hesitant to pull the heads and jugs off since there is no budget here for pistons/ring/rebore/replate.  I havn't checked on prices, but 4V Gaskets are pretty pricey...so in the event I need to pull it apart are the 2v's as expensive?

I plan on using the VHT engine paint that people have had so much luck with.
Other part of the plan was to replace all the fasteners with stainless from monsterparts.com

[ducpainter]

There aren't many gaskets on a 900. Just a base gasket and some o-rings between the cyl/barrel.

If you have the older studs that were prone to breaking you'd want to replace them before they break. It's much easier and cheaper than having a broken stud removed after the engine is painted, but you may get lucky.

If you wash the motor you will get some water in it...it's inevitable. It will have to be removed soon or you'll get some rusting. It is the correct way to clean for paint though. I've done them by cleaning with solvents and had good results.

[TAftonomos]

Sounds like pulling the jugs and heads won't be a terrible thing then.  I'll just mask off the holes, and strip/refinish like Stud did with blackfog.