Engine Parts Colors

Which parts of the engine were painted the AMC blue from the factory on a 258? I know the intake, exhaust manifolds and water pump were cast color, I assume the timing case was pot metal color and that the valve cover was painted blue. What about the oil pan and head though? Blue or something else?

Thanks for the help.

 

The only unpainted parts on the wife’s are the manifolds and water pump. The pump isn’t a factory part it may have been painted from the factory.

 

Timing cover and original water pump were painted, as I recall. Not many 258s out there that still have the original water pump. Valve cover is the same color as the block. Same for the oil pan and head. Engine color.

Think about what happened at the factory. The long block was assembled and was painted all over, while it was hanging I presume. I would expect the intake manifold to be painted too, but it can't very well be painted when it's bolted directly to the exhaust manifold.

 

Yeah that makes sense. I'll paint the long block and probably leave the 2 manifolds cast color. Eastwood has a great cast color in a spray can that I have been using with really good results. The block paint I am using comes from Seymour and is AMC metallic blue. It was highly recommended on some AMC sites.

Thanks for the input.

 

I used the Seymour AMC blue, I thought it was spot on, In line tube sells it. View attachment 65457

 

That engine looks great. Is it Seymour EN-66? I bought it on Amazon in rattle can for $11 a can.

 

That’s the one, thank you!

 

My only real issue with the Seymour color was how "thin" it was. Took several coats to get a run free finish that hid all of the primer. On some parts, even 4 costs scratch easily.

Check out my DJ5 thread for pictures of my block.

J

 

It’s enamel so that may be part of the reason it’s so thin? I think given time to cure it won’t scratch so easily, mine set up just fine. Did you like the color match?

 

I don't know much about color match. My block was already re-manufactured, so it was already boiled down and repainted red. The only thing that was kinda close to AMC blue was the transmission, and AM General never painted the 727s that they received from Chrysler. Where that odd teal came from is anybody's guess.

It *is* a fun color when the sun bounces off of it:

 

I love the color, screams AMC to me!

 

Jeff, the block color you have now is probably right for your engine. Jeep changed to the solid teal color for '75 and I recall your 727 is from some newer year? Your DJ came with the Borg-Warner automatic as I recall. This is assuming that AM General simply picked the engines off the engine assembly line at AMC. These engines are built as a commodity for the cars and Jeeps alike - no real difference in them based on which chassis they went into.

I'd guess the manifolds were never painted. The one example I have shows no evidence of paint. Any paint is going to burn off the exhaust (cough, cough), and with the intake bolted to the exhaust, part of the intake too. Other makes that don't bolt the intake to the exhaust paint the intake, but I expect nobody paints the cast iron exhaust manifold(s). They immediately go to an even rust color. Cast iron seems to not expand and crumble like steel, so unpainted cast iron is fairly common (steering gears, transmissions, etc.) And the manifolds get rocket hot every time you run the engine, thus no moisture sits on them like in body panels and such.

 

The Jeep had the original 74 motor (which was a blueish something, although most of it was gone by the time I saw it) and the BW transmission. When I got rid of *that* cracked block for *this* cracked block (gack!), it was already red, but now it's blue again after rebuild. In 75, AM General ditched the BW and their oddities, going to the Chrysler 727 in bare aluminum color.

This is an affirmative. I took the time to prime (with high temp primer) and paint the exhaust manifold. All I got for my trouble was wispy sheets of paint sloughing off. I'm back down to bare cast iron. Sigh. Intake is hanging in there, but it is tightly coupled to the exhaust, so I believe it will be, as you say, a matter of time before I'm back to bare metal.

Learning experience.

 

Yeah, about the only thing you're going to get to stick to the intake/exhaust on a setup like this is going to be Ceramic Coating ($$$), or you can do "Manifold Dressing" which is basically doing a similar thing to seasoning a cast-iron skillet. You oil-coat and bake it, to polymerize the oil into the pores and onto the surface of the cast iron.