[tom s]

I have not talked to Lance as I think he still has a crate engin so have no real proof.I always paint mine the 69-70 metallic blue.I did see a factory 303 complete short deck engine and it was black.The 301-383 V I'm building now will be black.Tom

[tekuhn]

Lance is who told me he believes the correct color is the early SD455 blue, or something very close. His black '70 has the engine painted with it. I assumed he was basing that on the color of the crate engines he has seen/owned, but perhaps he has uncovered some other evidence that was the planned production color.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Factory pictures, and the picture on cover of May 69 HotRod magazine, are all Black.
Except for the Intake

I'd do Black , or the 66-70 Blue Metallic

Last trip to the moon, i couldn't bring back any dust.
Next trip i have a better plan

[brians]

Answered your PM before I saw this was still going so will state the same stuff here

Had to asked my father on this one and he is almost positive the first was black but does not remember the second being black because he remembers painting it black.
He painted all of his engines black back then.

The first one was in 1970 and very hard to get a hold of and was told if anything broke he had to return it.
No components were available.

Second one was not until mid 1971 thru regular dealer order. That is when the crate engines and components were truly available.
So only by the speculation, the regular crate engines may have been the 71 color.

Brian

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Great history lesson Brian
Thanks for checking into it and sharing the info.

Never had heard anything about the non-public-availability until 1971.
Very Informative

That helps make sense of the possibility of a non-metallic pale blue being used on the complete crate engines - if majority weren't assembled until later in 1970 or early 1971.
Maybe thats a part of a missing link.
I always figured they were all assembled in 1969, only as just a general assumption

[tekuhn]

The majority of the crate engines that I have seen all have the casting date of A210 on the blocks.

[tekuhn]

BTW - I spoke with another person recently who owns a 1970 RAV crate engine, and he said that his engine was painted the '66-'70 metallic blue. He also said there was overspray on the distributor. He stripped the paint off and the purple and yellow markings were present on the bare block casting.

[turbo69bird]

Realize this is an old thread but wanted to add what I could to the topic , sure looks black to me. These pictures were taken in late 71 or 72 .