New engine color thread BJ8

[Marvin Gruber]

Since I hijacked my own thread, heres the new thread. Today I cleaned the original matching number BJ8 engine for my late 67. There is darker blue color under the moss green paint. I know this engine hasn't had any previous rebuild. Everthing has checked std. I will go ahead and paint this engine moss green but if any knows if its suppose to be a different color, please chime in. The other engine probably will be painted the same color green.
Marv

 

[BoyRacer]

This is amazing. This is why this forum is invaluable.
I have a BJ8 engine that has 1000 miles or less on it that has never been rebuilt. There was a manufacturing defect in the ring gear flywheel assembly that caused it to rub on one of the rear engine plate bolts. No one - until I came along ever discovered the source of the noise.
Back to 1965.... the engine was replaced by the dealer and set aside. Parts were cannibalized but the otherwise complete long block was untouched.
The first paint on the block was the same color blue as Marvin shows in his photos. Then there is the usual Moss type color of green over that. The block was exposed to the elements over the years and a lot of the paint has come off, exposing much of the underlying blue color. Until now I could not understand why there were two very separate and distinct colors on this block that had not been in a car since it was new. Apparently, the block first got painted the blue color and then was painted the proper Austin green color... all before leaving the factory. My mystery is now solved. I tried to upload some photos of my engine but they were too big.

 

[Marvin Gruber]

Where is Steve? Bet he can shed some light on this.

 

[Patrick67BJ8]

Depending on how late of a BJ8 build, could the factory had engines from another BMC car that used that blue and then grabbed the blocks and added BJ8 specs and then repainted the engine the later color?

 

[BigGreen]

Back in 2013 Steve Byers and I came in contact with Clive Richardson.
Clive worked in the press office at the Healey factory upto the end.

This is a part from the e-mails we exchanged in 2013;

>>

I am pretty certain that JOP's (JOP 676E was the last press car; H) replacement engine was a brand-new production engine rather than a Gold Seal replacement. Bear in mind that, so soon after production ended, spare production engines would have been kept in stock, at the very least to cover any potential warranty claims. Tim Binnington/Show Shop had privileged access to any production parts required for any model, assuming availability. The engine number may reflect the fact that it was from spares stock, so had not been allocated to a car on the production line. I think Gold Seal engines at the time were actually painted gold; unless my memory is playing tricks, JOP's replacement was the production colour, a sort of bluey/grey, I think.

<<

 

[BJ8Healeys]

Where is Steve? Bet he can shed some light on this.

I be here!
Several years ago, I saw a BJ8 with my own eyes that had an engine that was definitely blue, not Healey Green, and it certainly looked to be original paint. I did a survey on the Healeys e-mail list to determine if there were any other cars out there with similar blue engines. As a result of the survey, I collected photographic evidence of blue engines which were found on chassis 28207, 28265, 29339, 30342, 30352, 31238, 37747, and 42700. The shade of blue appeared to be the same in all cases, which would be extraordinary if the paint on all of them was applied after the cars left the factory.

Except for cars still owned by the original owners who could vouch for it, it would be difficult to state categorically that cars were shipped from the factory with blue engines, but as far as I can determine now it appears some were. At this time, I can't definitively answer the question "Why was this done?"

 

[Marvin Gruber]

Now, blue or green? One of each maybe.
Marv

 

[HealeyRick]

Depending on how late of a BJ8 build, could the factory had engines from another BMC car that used that blue and then grabbed the blocks and added BJ8 specs and then repainted the engine the later color?

The only other car using the C series motor that I could find was the Wolseley 6/99 with the same motor color as the Healeys

At this time, I can't definitively answer the question "Why was this done?"

"Hey Alf, we're all out of the green paint for the Healey engines." "Just get some of that bleedin' blue stuff left over from when we painted the lathes on the last shut down and use that."

Plenty of stories about them stretching the paint on Spridget engines when they ran short by adding white or black, they probably just used what they had around figuring no one would really care.

 

[BJ8Healeys]

.......I tried to upload some photos of my engine but they were too big.

Posting photos of his blue engine for BoyRacer.

 

[bob hughes]

As well as the Wolsley there was the Austin Westminster and the Vanden Plas Princess using the 3 litre engine, and the earlier 2.6 litre C series was in the Morris Isis as well.

Not sure if the engine was blue in any of them though. A lot of these second hand engines are on the market as base material for the rebuild into Healey engines.



Bob

 

[Marvin Gruber]

I finally got the remaining two BJ8 engine blocks back from machine shop. Both had to have a cylinder sleeved. Machine stripped and cleaned blocks. Both had blue paint underneath. So all three engines had blue paint. I'm starting to think maybe the blue paint was used as primer.

Marv

 

[bob hughes]

Now there is a nice blue engine off my BJ7, always wondered as the sump and rocker cover were also blue

https://i84.photobucket.com/albums/...439&1458057166364&1458057170243&1458057175219



Bob

 

[Keoke]

WEll.

One of my 1966 BJ8's had a blue engine too.
I assumed it was some re builders color code and never followed it up,who da thunk it.-layful:

 

[EV2239]

It can't be, but that blue colour looks the same as the paint applied by our Ministry of defence to whatever mechanical it rebuilt. The Healey engine paint is a metallic, so I expect that once the metallic particles have gone, the blue is what you're left with because they were only ever painted the one colour. You can buy about ten different versions of it from any of the specialist suppliers.

 

[RAC68]

Blue used by the Ministry of Defense?

When considering the Healey was initially built primarily for export and to create foreign exchange for England, if the color was acquired cheaply as war surplus, I could appreciate it would be used to decrease production expense. However, if this was the case, I would have expected that the blue would have been acquired in bulk and made the standard engine color. Or, maybe the engine had an issue in production and pulled out for the fix and the blue was used as a conveniently available color or to identify these problem engines.

My Healey BJ8 Phase 1 came through with the throttle rod front bracket a simple piece of angle metal with a hole for the engine mounting bolt and one for the rod. Although this angle bracket seems to have been painted the same metallic green as the engine, all other BJ8s used a bracket with a nylon insert for smother operation and less ware. I still have this bracket on the car and I expect that during the build, they may have not had the proper bracket immediately available and didn't want to hold up the car's completion.

Could this have been the same issue resulting in blue engines? Maybe the color was the preference of some of the executives and used as a demonstration. We can hypothesize for ever, however, unless someone has the real answer, any thoughts are pure speculation.

Ray(64BJ8P1)

 

[John Turney]

.... We can hypothesize for ever, however, unless someone has the real answer, any thoughts are pure speculation.

Ray(64BJ8P1)

Yes, but that's the fun - right?

 

[Dandare]

In the early 1980s I purchased a NOS late (high dipstick) 3L block and pistons and the colour was as shown when I built this engine up in 1997 for my Wolseley 6/90 which originally had a 2.6L C Series.
The only vehicles that would have had this engine as original equipment was the appropriate Healey and the Wolseley 6-110 MkII and Austin Westminster A-110 MkII.
This was in Sydney Australia.

Danny

 

[jjs64bj8]

My 64 BJ8 early phase II vin number is referenced in this thread, 28207. It was an export car delivered to West Germany, has separate glass turn signals and parking lights in the front and back, did not have overdrive, the Heritage certificate says it had a steering wheel lock but it must have been removed, but the steering shaft has a machined groove, etc. etc. So the car is somewhat different than most.

Now for the engine color. When the engine was removed and cleaned for rebuilding the engine block was found to be the same said blue color, yet the oil pan, valve cover, timing chain cover, generator bracket, valve lifter covers were all Healey green. Could not find any evidence of Healey green on the block. Also the engine ID plate number was missing, so we assumed the engine block had been maybe boiled and rebuilt earlier, but could not really determine that that was the case. Unfortunately we have no past history of the car before purchase. Here is the picture of the engine block remove from the car and cleaned up for the rebuild. I did send this info to Steve many years ago.

So was this original or had it been repainted in the past? I think it was rebuild before... But?

jjs64bj8

 

[bob hughes]

jjs64bj8

After all this time I would be surprised if the engine had not been rebuilt at some time, the number on the pistons would have given you a clue possibly.



Bob

 

[BJ8Healeys]

Also the engine ID plate number was missing, so we assumed the engine block had been maybe boiled and rebuilt earlier, but could not really determine that that was the case.

If the engine serial number plate is missing and the two rivets that attached it are still there (or the stubs of the rivets), then the engine has almost certainly been disassembled at some point and the block cleaned in hot tank chemicals. The chemicals will dissolve the aluminum plate. The rivets are removable (they have a thread on the shank), but engine shops would likely not know about the vulnerability of the plates or the need to remove them. I've seen just an incredible number of BJ8 engines that are missing their plates, and once they are gone there is just no way to identify that engine ever again. If the rivets are missing, leaving the holes empty, then the plate was probably removed and never found its way back onto the engine.