What was the Last Painted Engine?

"Boxer_4" (Boxer_4) 02/01/2020 at 18:05 • Filed to: None

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‘72 AMC Gremlin

*Factory painted engine in a production car. I’ll let everyone define what production car means.

Subaru still paints the aluminum intake manifold wrinkle red on the STI, and started doing the same on the manual transmission models of the BRZ/86 in 2017 ( which now gets an aluminum unit ). The block stays bare aluminum, however.

As far as completely painted engine blocks go , I don’t know the history there. I’m open for some enlightenment!

promoted by the color red > Boxer_4 02/01/2020 at 18:10

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Volvo sold redblock engines well into the late ‘90s. It’s not just a nickname, they actually painted the blocks red, t hough many of them are now black thanks to decades of oil deposits.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Boxer_4 02/01/2020 at 18:11

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As of 06-07ish the Dodge Hemi’s we re getting painted. At least the high performance versions were.

Boxer_4 > promoted by the color red 02/01/2020 at 18:18

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From what I’m reading, the redblock was produced until 1998 for European markets. What I can’t find is if they continued painting them red until the end.

At any rate, I believe I found an assembly line photo.

jimz > Boxer_4 02/01/2020 at 18:27

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Hellcat valve covers get painted hemi orange, and I know Cummins and Caterpillar still paint their truck engines red and yellow respectively, but I’m struggling to think of any others.

promoted by the color red > Boxer_4 02/01/2020 at 18:30

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I think so. This Mobile.de listing for a 1997 940 shows some red.

https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=292748208&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&isSearchRequest=true&makeModelVariant1.makeId=25100&makeModelVariant1.modelId=20&minFirstRegistrationDate=1997-01-01&pageNumber=1&scopeId=C&sfmr=false&searchId=6e9611af-cb97-e87f-e057-6f4656e46502

Variance > Boxer_4 02/01/2020 at 18:32

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I believe that all modern Hemi engines still get painted blocks, probably to keep the cast iron from rusting. Standard engines are black, Hellcats are orange, and Demons are red.

Boxer_4 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 02/01/2020 at 18:36

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I believe the Hellcat engines get a touch of Hemi orange, too, but just on the heads.

19JRC99 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 02/01/2020 at 18:53

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They still are. At least on the Scat Packs, and I believe the Hellcats do as well. 

feather-throttle-not-hair > Boxer_4 02/01/2020 at 19:22

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S2K valvecovers were still being painted until 2009. one of the last cars to get an engine that’s showy without having a dumb fake cover. 

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Boxer_4 02/01/2020 at 19:29

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Engines (usually cast-iron blocks) are still painted on most heavy- duty trucks, equipment and agricultural hardware. Volvo Penta and Cruiser (along with all the outboard manufactures, paint complete engines for the marine world.

For consumer cars and trucks, I’m not sure. Maybe the earlier generation LS iron block truck motors? Non LS GM small block crate motors still come painted black from the factory.  

dogisbadob > Boxer_4 02/01/2020 at 20:44

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Any iron block is still painted, mostly to help stop corrosion. Black and gray paint is still paint :p

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Boxer_4 02/01/2020 at 21:23

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I would assume anything still using an iron block would be painted. Just maybe not a fun color. 

kanadanmajava1 > Boxer_4 02/01/2020 at 23:08

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Ford’s I3 1.0l and V6 2.7l EcoB oost engines still use cast iron blocks so these are painted too. The V6's block is only partially cast iron though.

jimz > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 02/02/2020 at 11:02

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yeah, engine vendors consider the color part of their brand.

Although that’s been changing; a lot of the truck manufacturers now own their own engine families (Detroit Diesel is pretty much exclusive to Daimler, PACCAR owns DAF and has their own engines for Kenworth and Peterbilt, etc.) and they often don’t bother with any specific colors anymore. Besides, they’re buried under ductwork too.

Though back in the day, truck manufacturers could request engines be supplied in custom colors.  Up until the ‘90s, Cummins’ default color was a sand tan/beige, Cat’s was yellow, and Detroit Diesel’s was a grayish medium green.  PACCAR would, however, order engines painted white, International ordered red, and so on.  

jimz > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 02/02/2020 at 11:49

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(way past edit window)  I don’t think even cast iron blocks get painted much from the factory anymore, but I can’t speak for everyone.  They’re practically invisible anyway, and cast iron doesn’t rust nearly as fast as steel.