400SB---Should it be blue?

[Ben B.]

Well I bought a '76 Silverado longbed of my buddy the other day, he says it has a 400 in it, and I ran the VIN and it came back as an original 400 SB. Were 400 SB's in '76 model years painted blue, or is this not the original engine?

 

[u2slow]

Light blue was a stock colour... my Dad's '79 454 is the same.

 

[FRIZZLEFRY]

If its a Ford blue it will make more HP and live longer.

 

[79k20350]

If its a Ford blue it will make more HP and live longer.

Ban the bastard

 

[Muddytazz]

I just got done painting my SB350 before the install a GM Corporate Blue

 

[SchnorrCS]

In my opinion, there is only one color for any Chevy Motor. Orange.

 

[resurrected_jimmy]

In my opinion, there is only one color for any Chevy Motor. Orange.

Its gotta be go fast orange to be worth a flip...... but when I opened this thread I thought we were gonna talk about actual metal color so my response was going to be blue is better than cracked

 

[pauly383]

As far as I can recall , they were orange until the A-bodies changed in 78 . Then it started being corporate blue . And now they are black .

For awhile Pontiac , Chevy's , and Olds OHV V-8's could of been found in any divisions cars . Then the Pontiac disappeared with the new 80's Camaro and Firebird getting Chevy v8's , v6's , and Pontiac 4 cyl's . The Olds disappeared when the g-body died off and the 307 went bye bye . And all that was left was the Chevy's .

OK , I didn't mention Caddy's , newer Olds , and Diesels , because I only believe in RWD muscle !!!!

 

[diesel4me]

mine is blue too....

The 78 400SB I had in my 74 K20 came from a K10 Suburban originally,it still has the OEM blue paint in a few places on it..

I think they changed from orange to blue in 1977,but I've seen 1976 cars and trucks with blue motors that were 100% unmolested too..so who knows??

Confucious say: Better to have Blue Motor,than to have BLEW your motor!

 

[u2slow]

The Olds disappeared when the g-body died off and the 307 went bye bye . And all that was left was the Chevy's .

[hijack]

Did you forget about the Caprice? 307 availability thru '90. My buddy's Dad didn't find that out until he got his '90 Caprice wagon home from the dealer!

[/hijack]

 

[pauly383]

I didn't really forget , but I don't remember drooling over them when I was 15

 

[Muddytazz]

IMO, orange is the worst color in the world. I got soured out on that color cause back in the 70's, my mom had 3/4's of the inside of the house we lived in orange....the color took 30+ yrs to go away. I HATE orange

 

[pauly383]

But Chevy orange isn't as orange as it is red ??

 

[89GMCSuburban]

True, it's more red than actual orange. Blue was also a color on reman engines from GM. The 350 in the 67 which came from an 80's van is blue.

 

[blazin_blazer]

most of mine

gets either a hi temp body color or the b-b-q 1500 degree black, but i paint it before i install anything so those pretty brass freeze plugs show up:-))and run the chrome ac delco timing cover with the bowtie cost $15-18 bucks and get a chrome oil pan from ebay for like $25 and it looks like you've spent some money on it! usually use the anodized moroso valve cover for like $60 in a complimentary color...leave the intake aluminum...they look good and its easy to spot a leak if you keep it clean! but the motor looks so good it usually leads to a pretty deep engine compartment cleaning(accsesories and all)actually have chrome alternator brackets and the thermostat housing and a braided stainless radiator hose also with a brand new zz4 water pump and balancer on them, as i have a connection to them as pull offs for like $40 for both...(i've ran the #'s and the water pump is like $80 and the balancer is like $180).. they come from where they putt'n zz4's in the motor cycles...they use electric water pump and a tci rattler. so then i have to clean all the accesories also because i cant bring myself to take that gem off the engine stand and drop it in that black muddy hole...no wonder an engine swap takes me so long!!!