Color of motors in C3s

[Keith G.]

What year did corvettes start coming out with blue engines.

[Russ S.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

I might be wrong but I think it was 77.

[Tom R.]

[Keith G.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

Looking at a 1977, #44xxx L82 with orange engine paint, chevy made 49xxx, right or wrong on the paint??????

[Tom R.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

Looking at a 1977, #44xxx L82 with orange engine paint, chevy made 49xxx, right or wrong on the paint??????

Yeah...late! Is paint original to the motor? For years, and decades and to this day, Chevy owners want an orange motor and with Chevy engine orange plentiful...easy enough to paint the block orange...so keep that in mind.

To my knowledge, there is not systematic study that correlates Corvette VIN derivative with the change in engine paint. Remember...engines were painted at the Flint engine factory...not St Louis.

[Michael W.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

Looking at a 1977, #44xxx L82 with orange engine paint, chevy made 49xxx, right or wrong on the paint??????

I understood that the colour change over happened in early Sept. 1976. The engine in the car you mention would be way past that date.

[Dan A.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

I bought a new Corvette in September of 76 and it had the blue engine. It also had the more attractive ( to me) brushed aluminum horn button that was discontinued for safety reasons. Oddly enough I never felt threatened by it.

[Peter G.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

What I remember and still see today....very early '77 cars had orange painted engines and would expect to see on the same car drivers side front fender no corvette flag and just a alarm switch bezel. It is very difficult today to see a 1977 Corvette with a orange painted engine. They were blue.

[Mark E.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

A bit off topic, but I really like the unique engine colors each GM division had back in the day. I like Chevy Orange (although my wife says it clashes with the Donnybrooke Green body ), but my favorites are the metallics- Pontiac metallic blue, Olds bronze and 455 blue stand out in my mind.

Adopting a bland, common corporate engine color was one of several trends that took away the eye candy of opening the hood during the '70s and '80s (less chrome, more wires, and smog plumbing are three others).

[Duke W.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

The "corporate blue" engine paint came about due to the "Chevymobile scandal". When owners of some Oldsmobiles found they had Chevrolet engines it became a national news story resulting in a class action lawsuit because GM didn't tell them their new Oldsmobiles had Chevy engines instead of an Oldsmobile "Rocket V-8". I recall that GM settled by giving all the "Chevymobile" owners 500 bucks and began including a blurb in all the sales literature something on the order of "engines are manufactured by various GM divisions and may be used in other divisions" vehicles."

The odd thing is that the Chevy 350 was lighter and simpler than the 350 Olds engine, which dated to 1948 and was the first of the new GM post war OHV V-8s. The Chevy small block was a newer design that took advantage of newer thin wall casting techniques and IMO was a better engine.

Duke

[Joe L.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

A bit off topic, but I really like the unique engine colors each GM division had back in the day. I like Chevy Orange (although my wife says it clashes with the Donnybrooke Green body ), but my favorites are the metallics- Pontiac metallic blue, Olds bronze and 455 blue stand out in my mind.

Adopting a bland, common corporate engine color was one of several trends that took away the eye candy of opening the hood during the '70s and '80s (less chrome, more wires, and smog plumbing are three others).

Mark------


The end of the division-specific engines at GM was a huge blow-----GM has never been the same since. The engine, the "heart" of the car was really what differentiated the various GM car lines. So, it's not surprising that several of the car lines have disappeared (Oldsmobile and Pontiac). All of the GM car lines became virtual clones, differentiated only by trim and minor body differences.

[Mark E.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

The "corporate blue" engine paint came about due to the "Chevymobile scandal". Duke

In the '80s, my brother had his 1985 L98 resealed under warranty to fix several oil leaks. The dealer told him GM went to black engine paint to make oil leaks less noticeable in an effort to reduce warranty costs.

[Duke W.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

Figures! I recall about that time that GM senior management decreed "no oil leaks", which led to redesign of gaskets, seals, and fastening strategies that included the new one-piece rear seal and four centerline bolts for the rocker covers on small blocks, but it took a while to get all the new designs implemented and debugged.

Duke

[Larry E.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

The "corporate blue" engine paint came about due to the "Chevymobile scandal". When owners of some Oldsmobiles found they had Chevrolet engines it became a national news story resulting in a class action lawsuit because GM didn't tell them their new Oldsmobiles had Chevy engines instead of an Oldsmobile "Rocket V-8". I recall that GM settled by giving all the "Chevymobile" owners 500 bucks and began including a blurb in all the sales literature something on the order of "engines are manufactured by various GM divisions and may be used in other divisions" vehicles."

The odd thing is that the Chevy 350 was lighter and simpler than the 350 Olds engine, which dated to 1948 and was the first of the new GM post war OHV V-8s. The Chevy small block was a newer design that took advantage of newer thin wall casting techniques and IMO was a better engine.

Duke

Also the Oldsmobile/Buick/Pontiac NASCAR race teams at that time "quickly" put the Chevy V8 in their race cars and
became competitive. Hypocrisy at it's finest! Larry

[Steven B.]

Re: Color of motors in C3s

A couple of weeks previous to official introduction of '77's I saw a white/white-red L-82, 4 speed with orange. I ordered my L-82 8/6/76 and it arrived with blue, which it still has and no fender flags.