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BJ8 engine paint color.

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Marvin Gruber

Marvin Gruber

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Getting ready to start rebuild on a late BJ8 engine. I've been told the later Healey engines were a little different color of green. The one I am building does seem to be a little bluer green color.

Marv
 
Marv, I used the colour that Moss Sells. I think it was identified for the Healey. I actually don't have much to compare it to but it is a nice, somewhat, pale green. It's held up well too. Been on there two summers so far with a few wash downs.
 

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Marvin,
You are right. The BJ8 engines are a different color. I have one that I am detailing and want to refresh the paint with the correct color. Anyone out there who knows the proper color and source for the paint?
 
BoyRacer said:
Marvin,
You are right. The BJ8 engines are a different color. I have one that I am detailing and want to refresh the paint with the correct color. Anyone out there who knows the proper color and source for the paint?
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There was actually a couple of variations for the BJ8;s(and maybe the 3000's).
The MOSS stuff is a good match. The late Doug Reid had a color that he sold for about $17 a can and it had a hint of a metallic olive to it. My engine had that color but the motor mounts had the moss color. I did switch motor mounts from two different BJ8 engines.
 
I've used the green that Moss sells as well on a couple of earlier 3000s and 100/6. I'll try to post a picture later. I sat an early 3000 valve cover on my engine and I could tell a difference.

Marv
 
BoyRacer said:
Marvin,
You are right. The BJ8 engines are a different color. I have one that I am detailing and want to refresh the paint with the correct color. Anyone out there who knows the proper color and source for the paint?
Click to expand...

Richard -

I can't help you with the BJ8 color, but Cape Int'l makes the best acrylic enamel paint in the correct metallic green color for the earlier models. With a little automotive paint acrylic activator added the adhesion and gloss will last for years, even under race conditions.

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Dougie, I'm highjacking my own thread. I have a triple carb set up and some XKE hd8 carbs. Can I use them on the BJ8 motor without any major mods.

Marv
 
Hi Marv-

To run triple SU HD8's successfully, you really need the right hi-pro cam, some major port work in with the head, not to mention larger values.
 
dougie said:
Hi Marv-

To run triple SU HD8's successfully, you really need the right hi-pro cam, some major port work in with the head, not to mention larger values.
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Additionally, the individual manifolds themselves need to be opened up; stock was 1-1/2".

I looked into doing this before I put the Webers on, so early-mid 1980s. The stock manifolds looked like they'd easily be bored out to accept the HD/HS-6 (1-3/4") carbs, but my feeling was that there wasn't enough meat there to open them up for the 2" HD-8s, and still leave enough surface for the gasket to seal. In any event, I didn't go through with it, as the Webers (plus the strength of the Dollar versus Pound) only cost me about $600.00 to put on the car__and they have accelerator pumps built in!

[/highjack]

There was speculation that this Longbridge engine may have been the earlier/darker Morris green (like on Spridgets) but in the end, rather than try to support that argument__without irrefutable proof__to paint it the color that people expected to see on a Healey's engine.

So I give you: Moss Motors Healey Green!!

IMG_1331.jpg
 
So without doing any mods, which is better. The two original hd8s carbs or triple hd6s? Is there going to be that much noticeable difference with the tri carbs. I have thought about selling them.
Marv
 
I like and use the Moss Healey Green paint Too.
 
Randy,

There is no doubt that some 100-Six engines were painted Morris Green (dark green). This appears to have happened when the six port head was introduced, which was also the same time as production was moving from Longbridge to Abingdon. The dark green part lasted from November 1957 until around the end of February 1958 when the metallic light green paint was used again. Nobody knows the reason for using the dark green paint. Your integral head engine is painted the correct colour. I know of no examples of these being dark green.
 
DerekJ said:
Randy,

There is no doubt that some 100-Six engines were painted Morris Green (dark green). This appears to have happened when the six port head was introduced, which was also the same time as production was moving from Longbridge to Abingdon. The dark green part lasted from November 1957 until around the end of February 1958 when the metallic light green paint was used again. Nobody knows the reason for using the dark green paint. Your integral head engine is painted the correct colour. I know of no examples of these being dark green.
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Jim, aka healey blue should be glad to learn that!

I guess I never looked in the right place__or posed the question in the right circles__because I never knew the dark green paint had so clearly defined parameters of use!

The car Jim restored, the engine of which I pictured, was built February 12, 1957, according to the BMIHT Certificate.

Thanks Derek, that was a fair bit of schooling, ending a lot of speculation on my part.
 
Yeah:

I HAD AN OVERHAULED LATE bj8 WITH THAT BLUE COLOR ENGINE IT MUST BE SOME ONES TRADEMARK ????
 
Marvin Gruber said:
Picture of BJ8 motor with a Moss green painted valve cover.
Marv
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Keoke said:
Yeah:

I HAD AN OVERHAULED LATE bj8 WITH THAT BLUE COLOR ENGINE IT MUST BE SOME ONES TRADEMARK ????
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Interestingly enough, back in the 80s, I built a few Healey engines while my day-job was at an electrical contracting company that was also a BIG Onan generator distributor__they'd never have missed a case or two of aerosol touch up paint.

I still have a couple of cans, and I'll have to compare the color to the engine Marvin's got; Alabama isn't much of a stretch from Louisiana, and I know for a fact that one of "my" engines wound up in Hoover/Bessemer (unfortunately, that BJ8 was later totaled, nearly taking its driver with it...).

So Marvin, how much of the history of that engine do you know?
 
Roger,
that all sounds very familiar. Lane was/is the guys name that engine came from two owners back. He wreaked a very fast white BJ8 on off ramp on interstate in Birmingham. Nearly took him out. I bought and repaired 3/4years back. Sold it to a friend of his and now understand he has bought it back. This engine I planning to build was a spare of his. Already bored .040 over. Cam lobes measure .010 taller than a std cam I have. So if this is a prior engine of yours, what else do I need know about it. I did get a vin tag with spare parts. Never have looked to see if they match.
Marv
 
In checking a BJ8 engine that has been stripped of its manifolds, that blue paint is visible on the section of the block just behind the exhaust manifold. The regular engine green has been sprayed over this color on most of the engine. There's also some blue visible on the rear face of the head, just above the backplate. This engine has never been stripped or repainted.
Bob
 
Marvin Gruber said:
Roger,
that all sounds very familiar. Lane was/is the guys name that engine came from two owners back. He wreaked a very fast white BJ8 on off ramp on interstate in Birmingham. Nearly took him out. I bought and repaired 3/4years back. Sold it to a friend of his and now understand he has bought it back. This engine I planning to build was a spare of his. Already bored .040 over. Cam lobes measure .010 taller than a std cam I have. So if this is a prior engine of yours, what else do I need know about it. I did get a vin tag with spare parts. Never have looked to see if they match.
Marv
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Roger?

Anyway, yes, Layne Perkins! I built the engine in the car he wrecked, and it is quite possible that I built up his other engine (from another BJ8 that got rear-ended the 2nd day he owned it, back in the 70s) too; I know we talked about it, just don't remember if I ever built it.

About all I remember to distinguish one of my Healey builds, was that I would take the fitting for the rockershaft oil circuit (the adapter that screws into the head, not the piece with the tubing on it) and weld it up, then drill it out to a smaller size. That kept from flooding the rocker box with oil at high RPMs, robbing the mains & crankpins.

At some point, I started stamping all my builds with a 5-pointed star punch__must've been absconded from a Texaco offshore platform__maybe about 3/4" tall. Usually on the back of the cylinder head, or somewhere with a flat surface. It was around that time, but who knows when it was implemented??

IMG_7260.jpg
 
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