1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

[Eric V.]

I've been reading Ken Kayser's history of Rochester fuel injection, and noted on page 201 (and in a couple of other places) that the thermostat housing, aka upper water neck, was changed to cast iron with cadmium plating. Ken states that the finish of the water neck had been a subject of controversy. I have never seen any of the '57 FI models that had what appeared to be original water necks that appeared to be, or have been, cad plated. My 1990 NCRS '53-'62 master judging manual states the water neck on '57 FIs should be painted aluminum. What is the current judgement on '57 FI water neck OEM finish?

Eric V.

[Edward L.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

I believe the latest '56-'57 manual states that the cast iron housing was cad.

[Mike M.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

ed's right on. cad plate the cast iron outlet.mike

[John D.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

I have a ton of those outlets out there on restored 57's that are painted silver.
Guess they are wrong. Meanwhile it sure would be nice to see some evidence of cadmium plating on the originals I have seen and collected over the years.
Barry Holmes if you are looking in. Your thoughts on this cast iron outlet as you and I have discussed this a lot the last 20 plus years.

[Barry H.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

Eric, I have only personally seen a few low mileage orig engine FI cars, my 57 S/N 329x 45,000 mile 283 HP was painted silver. (as well as area between aluminum intake, & valve covers). Saw 57 S/N 332x, 19,000 mile 250 HP FI, Powerglide with the same treatment. There was also 57 S/N 347x, 18,000 mile origional engine 2X4, 245 HP with the same (thermostat housing & head area between intake & valve covers painted silver). I am presently following up on a local 22,000 mile orig 56, will try to observe before Winter sets in. Barry Holmes

[Edward L.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

As I indicated in my previous post the current judging manual states that the neck should be plated. I was surprised when I first read this passage, since I was under the impression that this piece was originally painted silver, and when restoring my very ealy built '57 I continued with the practice.

I just got off the phone with a friend who owns a known original '57 with a October '56 build date. The outlet shows no evidence of any plating.

Additionally, there is no paint between the head and intake manifold on this 245HP car.

I am currently restoring a '57 in the Vin #3100 range. Additional thoughts would be appreciated.

[Mark S.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

Late 56 cast iron water inlets were painted silver. I have a couple examples of that. Once again, it seems like people are changing the judging manuals on written information instead of looking at originals.

[John D.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

Barry, Thanks for your imput. You know the Chevy's used a ton of cast iron outlets over the years. Various configurations, etc. You might wonder why they singled out the 57 for plating and no others. Now maybe "no" is the wrong word.
63 to 65 Corvette cast iron top water outlets. Painted silver although I have seen bubba's zinc/cad them. JD

[Eric V.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

Thanks to all who responded. I am in the process of freshening up my '57 passenger car with 4800 injector, and I painted the water neck silver when I initially restored it, and wanted to correct that if necessary. Not 100% sure what to do now, but I'm leaning toward leaving it silver.

Eric V.

[Michael H.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

Barry, Thanks for your imput. You know the Chevy's used a ton of cast iron outlets over the years. Various configurations, etc. You might wonder why they singled out the 57 for plating and no others. Now maybe "no" is the wrong word.
63 to 65 Corvette cast iron top water outlets. Painted silver although I have seen bubba's zinc/cad them. JD

Painful as it may be, I must agree with JD. I know almost nothing about C1's but I can assure everyone that the natural cast thermo housing on 63-65 FI cars were lightly sprayed with dull aluminum, along with the area around the housing and the area between the intake manifold/adapter and valve cover on the cyl head.
I have to guess the housing and head area were probably painted with the same dull aluminum paint on C1's with aluminum intake manifolds.

[Chuck S.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

[quote=Eric Vrem (123);454825]Thanks to all who responded. I am in the process of freshening up my '57 passenger car with 4800 injector, and I painted the water neck silver when I initially restored it, and wanted to correct that if necessary. Not 100% sure what to do now, but I'm leaning toward leaving it silver.

Eric;
Mine is cast iron, could be plated but hard to tell, maybe painted but well aged.

[Barry H.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

John, The problem is that the longevity of the factory "low grade aluminum engine paint" was very short, & a cleaning with any solvent including kerosene would wash most of it off. You have to look very carefully in all the nooks & crannies around the intake gaskets to find it on older engines. I worked on mostly 56/57s since 1974 & can honestly say I have never seen a cad plated 56/57 cast iron thermostat housing, ether on a car, or for sale in a swap meet, & I combed most of the meets in that time period, Bloomington, Cypress Gardens, all Carlisle's, Dover, Erie, McDorman, Canfield, Randolph, plus many of the smaller ones around Pgh. This is just my opinion. Barry Holmes

[John H.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

I can't offer any wisdom on what's correct, but being familiar with the Chevrolet manufacturing system, I can't imagine the 5018 cast iron thermostat housing being cad-plated. These things were cast by the thousands every day at Saginaw and sent to Flint V-8 for machining and installation, and Flint V-8 would have to have sent them outside for plating after machining, which would have been VERY expensive, and Chevrolet wasn't into doing anything that was expensive without a defined Engineering requirement.

[John D.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

Nice to see that Hanson is learning some good info from old JD. Or at least agreeing. Yeah wonders will never cease.

Meanwhile getting back to the Chevy pass car with a 4800 unit on it. Car owned by Eric.
I will try and make this short since have to go for nice free turkey dinner at my bros.
I would expect a 4800 unit to have a seamed aluminum top water outlet. Not a cast iron one.
Now for an eon Barry Holmes and the local solid axle guys (there are a ton of them) have argued about the cast iron outlet versus the seamed aluminum one.
After many years the judging manuals, judges, team leaders, car owners,-should have said most of the world finally agreed that not all 57 Fi units had an aluminum outlet. I hope I have this right Barry.
Here is how I handle the outlet situation on 57 FI's.
4360, 4520 get cast iron outlets (although i prefer to run from the poc 4360 FI unit.
4800, 4960 and all of 58 FI get the typical 233 seamed aluminum water outlet.
But this is just me. I guess I am going to have to pay the 50 bucks or so and buy the new 56-57 judging manual to read up on the new info. Happy Thanksgiving, JD

[Michael H.]

Re: 1957 Fuel Injection Thermostat Housing - Painted or Plated?

Nice to see that Hanson is learning some good info from old JD. Or at least agreeing. Yeah wonders will never cease.

I'm sure you could teach me a lot about the old C1 FI units. Not much else though.