engine paint

[Lyndon S.]

On a car like the 71 LS-6 with it’s aluminum heads, that did not get paint. Yet it came with a orange block and valve covers. My question is when and where did those components get orange paint? Was the heads just masked off and shot with orange paint? Did the service valve covers of the time come painted orange and they used them? And what about the block. With all this talk about a ORANGE thermostat housing in a early post was orange and was not depending on the expert. I was looking at the pictures of the LS6/ZR2 for sale. And got to thinking about those engines and how they would have painted them. Now with the earlier aluminum head cars they just shot the whole block orange along with the heads?

Kelly

[John H.]

Re: engine paint

Kelly -

The heads were masked off, along with the intake; the LS-6 engine was painted in the same booth and by the same process as all the other engines. A neighbor has an all-original unmolested LS-6 (automatic), and the thermostat housing is NOT orange.