Chev Engine Colour

[James Baxter]

I am seeking the advice of the experts again, please. I am having the engine of my C8A rebuilt. I would like to know what colour it should be painted once the rebuild is completed. Can anyone give me any advice on this please. Thanks in advance.

James

[Phil Waterman]

This topic has come up several times in the past, may be someone who knows the search feature on MLU can do a search for exact words engine color. Everytime I try I get all responses which have both words engine and color but not necessarily together.

Now as to engine color, all three of my chevy CMPs had engines that were paint all black. But more people seem to have found gray as the overal block color with acessories painted black.

[JohnSchade]

I'm a modeller and as such of course interested in engine colours as well as the colour of the vehicle itself.

Luckily I have this friend who is a collector/restorer of CMP vehicles, and his experience is that the engines were painted a light grey, but that some parts may be painted in black, like Phil said.

[Richard Farrant]

hello Jim,

I did a quick search on here and found a thread dated 2004, in the Softskin forum, titled "Factory Colours". A post by "Cletrac", Dave Pope, on 29th Dec 2004, states that when engines were new in the factory, they were Slate Grey, but after a rebuild they would be Khaki.

Sorry, not sure how to link that thread to this one.

[cletrac (RIP)]

Chev engines and transmissions were painted the same slate grey from the factory as the civilian engines. The fan, starter, generator, air cleaner, and likely the oil breather were black. When the truck went through a military rebuild, the rebuilt parts were painted khaki or possibly one of the other service colours, depending on what was available. I read somewhere that an engine's life expectancy in North Africa was under 15000 miles so it wouldn't take long for them to lose their factory colours.

[James Baxter]

David, John, Phil, Richard,

Many thanks indeed for your responses and advice. Most helpful.



James

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

The colour, from 1929 to 1954 (when the 235 came in across the range) was Chevrolet Gray, which was a blue-grey. The paint or an approximation is available from Chevrolet of the 40s. It does seem to fade though! The truck 235 was available from 1941 and I suspect that it was painted green, but I have never seen one! By 1952 when used in Powerglide cars it was Chevrolet blue. As to the GMC 270...gray/grey or black? Does anyone know?

[marco]

David,

I have seen GMC 270 engines which were a light grey colour and also quite some which were in olive drab.
Probably for the same reason as with the Chev engines.
When looking in CCKW and Staghound manuals, the assessories seem to be black.

In the photo one of my Stag engines can be seen in a light grey colour which is pretty close to the original I found on the engine.

By the way: I also have found a NOS Staghound engine which was in red-oxide primer, inside and outside.


Marco

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

The Staghound GMC 270 cu in engines were built in the Flint Motor Plant (a Chevrolet one) which assisted the Pontiac, Michigan Motor Plant. It is just possible that the two plants painted engines differently. I have no idea if Buffalo, aka Tonawanda, New York produced GMC engines...it is possible! Same with Olds' Lansing plant.


PS:

To clarify, Walkerville or Windsor Transmission Plant of the Canadian Products Division never assembled 270 engines, but they did 348 units, mid-August 1940 until June 1941 (17,000 or so being built). The 348 was suggested back in the summer of 1939 as a CMP engine, but they were only used in certain GMC and Maple Leaf trucks. The other engine was the Canadian Pontiac 224, and GMC Chevy-based 224 cu in six which was only used in GMCs in the truck version.

Interesting fact: 1941 saw peak Chevrolet six production at 106,935 units! Plus 10,464 GMC 348s!

[cmperry4]

Incidentally, Lorne Ertle, who is currently working on a C8A ZL pointed out to me while I was at his place the other week that while the engine block and all were painted grey, the sump (oil pan) was painted in the body colour, i.e. olive drab.