[weranc55]

Originally Posted by Judge273

I'll be there too. GT-37 and T-37 together. One has a Tiemann painted engine, and the other is a original paint car the engine paint formula came from....

Wow two cars. I did that a few years ago and it was a PIA.

[Norwood]

lets have a party Saturday night

[trailwing]

Here's my '72 350 to dirty the thread up a little. Make sure you get overspray on everything like the factory did.





I painted it with Duplicolor and slid it into the corner. Oh the blasphemy!

[trailwing]

OK... My computer has two separate monitors, one older than the other. From across the room, I noticed that the same picture of my engine displays in different hues on the respective monitors. I guess I could take a picture of the two monitors but my camera may have color enhancement. I'd have to take several pictures with several cameras and compare them to the various other pictures taken with other posters' various cameras. That should work.

Bottom line... I guess you need a good truth sample.

[Bentwheelbob]

Originally Posted by trailwing

OK... My computer has two separate monitors, one older than the other. From across the room, I noticed that the same picture of my engine displays in different hues on the respective monitors. I guess I could take a picture of the two monitors but my camera may have color enhancement. I'd have to take several pictures with several cameras and compare them to the various other pictures taken with other posters' various cameras. That should work.

Bottom line... I guess you need a good truth sample.

Don't forget to close your dominate eye when you do this or you will certainly screw the experiment up.....

That said, there is big news on the Paint Test front - we have a new participant vying to be "The engine color that a lot of people really like for their "71 - '73 Pontiac engines". This paint is OER K89210 - $16.99 can and no 3 can minimum. I continue to throw money at this ""problem", and the OER paint I found arrived today. I've had really good experiences with OER and was anxious to try it once I found it was available. The new test painting is already underway and I have to say that I really like this color. It has more green than Tiemann and is lighter than OEM - sort of like the blend I was/am planning to make of the (Tiemann 65%/OEM35%). I've heard from a few people on the samples (Pm and public) and OEM is getting more respect than I expected. However, the opinions have been pretty sparse.

I will get the new sample finished this weekend and will rush new samples out to as many as I can on Monday. I want to make sure that the MCACN show has a good representation of my samples since I will be celebrating my kids birthday. I am running out of board though and will probably have to reduce the list - we'll see. Here's a few pictures. I'll post a few more tomorrow when the light is better and the paint cures. As it dries, the OER may darken and be more like the OEM. In the picture, Tiemann is 4, OEM is 5, and the OER has no number.

[sd455hota]

We just got a survivor HO A body in here last week. There's still some good spots of paint on the valve covers. Sounds like I have a set of samples coming from Bob. I'll get some pics with all colors together. As has been mentioned, this color seemed to change a lot over the years due to age, heat, etc.

[superdutybob]

7 pages on engine color! Really?

[transam1972]

I've got over 21 years in search of the ''CORRECT'' colour...I typed in.... pontiac 1972 engine color.... in internet search and lead me to an article where this guy claims some Super Duty engines were repainted (some in the car) due to emmisions additions..they went to a dark blue? anyone ever here of this?..best to read article....www.pontiacpower.org/enginecolorhtml

[superdutybob]

That's a fact. It was mandated by the EPA so that they would have a visual indicator of engines that had been updated.

[transam1972]

I dont know enough regarding this but does that mean 73 and 74 SD motors can have 2 differant color engines ,or did all this start before 73s were shipped?

[Brewster]

It started before production motors where released to the public.

[Held for Ransom]

Well, I tried taking pictures but the flash must have washed everything out. They all looked like the same hue. To my naked eye against an intake manifold, I thought OEM may be the closest. But, my thermostat housing is a different looking blue and comes closest to the Tiemann paint. Did the '72 housings have no flat spot on the side unlike the '74s, which did (I know they look nothing like a '70)?

My report, none were a match.

[70RAlll]

Originally Posted by Held for Ransom

Well, I tried taking pictures but the flash must have washed everything out. They all looked like the same hue. To my naked eye against an intake manifold, I thought OEM may be the closest. But, my thermostat housing is a different looking blue and comes closest to the Tiemann paint. Did the '72 housings have no flat spot on the side unlike the '74s, which did (I know they look nothing like a '70)?

My report, none were a match.

HFR I don't believe the 72 thermostat housings had the flat spot.I know 1971 did not..

[Mezzo]

Well I just received my engine paint swatch package from BWB. First I want to thank Bob for solving the initial question I raised the restarted this thread. He did a great job with this test and likely solved an issue facing restorers of these great muscle cars. I took the samples out to my 72 T/A sitting in my garage. I purchaed this car out of Austin this past April and have since then had to sort out a number of issues on this truly survivor car. What started this was the timing chain replacement and subsequent painting of the cover and water pump with engine paint purchased from The Parts Place. The top two I have chosen thus far is OEM and Tiemann. The OEM is a closer match but I was using a drop cord light. This weekend I will revisit under natural light to see if any of this changes and sumit my final-final results. My hats off to Bob. Thank you.

[YNOBIL]

Originally Posted by Mezzo

Well I just received my engine paint swatch package from BWB. The top two I have chosen thus far is OEM and Tiemann. The OEM is a closer match but I was using a drop cord light. This weekend I will revisit under natural light to see if any of this changes and sumit my final-final results. My hats off to Bob. Thank you.

Got my samples from Bob today also. It was already getting dark so I was comparing them under bad lighting but I agree that OEM & Tiemann look the closest to my motor. Will take non-flash photos comparing them to my oil filler cap tomorrow and then post the results.

[transam1972]

I received my samples and I am comparing to an original blue washer..I say Tiemanns..but will this paint lighten in time?..because my sample has..really until someone invents a time machine..both look good..but I choose Scotts... have to believe that funky blue/green comes out due to heat and age...green more so from heat?...so who has the low mileage original sample to show....not meaning to add yet another morsal of agony but are VHT SP122 or Duplicolor DE 1610 of any importance?..I am not certain if they are year specific 71 & 72 but felt they needed mention..sorry

[fiedlerh]

I dont know enough regarding this but does that mean 73 and 74 SD motors can have 2 different color engines ,or did all this start before 73s were shipped?

Per factory service bulletin number 73-T-21A: "Engines built after March 15, 1973 starting with engine number 532727 had a revised emissions system (two thermal valves near the front of the intake manifold and no EGR solenoid) and were painted this color. In addition about 700 engines before this number were retrofitted and repainted."

Engines that were already assembled when repainted will show signs of the lighter blue in certain area and touched up black brackets to cover up over-spray. Some engines after # 532727 appear to have also been repainted according to one owner.

If any SD-455 engines were manufactured before April 1973 they were most likely painted the color below and then repainted the above color when emissions equipment was revised. One early SD-455 example indicates that the engine was partially repainted the darker blue while in the car. However, factory documentation indicates production SD-455 engines were built after the emissions change.

Pontiac must have built a batch of SD-455 engines early in the 1973 production year for engineering and emissions purposes. They would have been painted the early 1973 color. Who knows what became of these early cars. One article indicated they were parked outside and several had their engines stolen. One guy from the northwest called me and said he has an early SD-455 73 T/A and it looks like the engine was repainted in the car. Another person contacted me and said his 73 regular Pontiac with an engine number not too far past 532727 was very obviously repainted the darker color with overspray on areas not normally painted blue.

[Mezzo]

BWB. I actually researched the OER paint as well. I was going to order it but it appears that you have done that. So thank you. Looking forward to the sample. I did take a look at the other five samples in natural light and OEM is the best match against the valve covers. I plan on removing one next weekend for a gasket change and will take pictures after the OER sample arrives.

[PB]

That oer looks good.

[Todd Mullin]

A little late to the party.... but last year I had RicksGTO send me a sample of the color of his OEM paint to match up to the new OER formula K89210 and it was dead on and only $16.00 a can. Todd