I changed my water pump Saturday afternoon, ( not my idea )! When I removed the old one I noticed there appeared to be orange paint under the blue. I remember reading somewhere that Chevy changed from orange to blue engine paint in the early '77 production run. My car is an early '77. Was that the original pump at 103000 miles and 36 yrs??? Did GM have a bunch of water pumps already painted orange when they decided to switch to blue? Was the pump already on the block and therefore my block is orange underneath also?

 

Don't know the answer, but I would like to know. I always thought the pumps were painted while on the engine. does the block or heads have orange paint underneath? Maybe the whole thing was orange and GM sent a memo to the plant to repaint them all blue after the lawsuit

 

What is this lawsuit you speak of? I am wondering why GM switched color??

 

well, long story short. Some guy in the 70's bought an Oldsmobile. He got it home and popped the hood (why he didn't do it before he purchased it, I don't know). Anyways, he saw an orange (Chevrolet) engine under the hood instead of Gold or blue (Oldsmobile) he sued GM stating he paid a premium for and Olds so it should come with an Olds engine, not a cheap Chevy engine. he won the lawsuit and sometime in the '77 model year GM paint all engines GM Corporate blue and stated any GM division engine coulds be installed in any brand. sometime in '82 they started painting them all black

 

here's a quote from Wikipedia:

''Oldsmobile sales soared in the 1970s and 1980s (for an all-time high of 1,066,122 in 1985) based on popular designs, positive reviews from critics and the perceived quality and reliability of the Rocket V8 engine, with the Cutlass series becoming North America's top selling car by 1976. By this time, Olds had displaced Pontiac and Plymouth as the #3 best selling brand in the U.S. behind Chevrolet and Ford. In the early 1980s, model-year production topped one million units on several occasions, something only Chevrolet and Ford had achieved. The soaring popularity of Oldsmobile vehicles resulted in a major issue in 1977, as demand exceeded production capacity for the Oldsmobile V8, and as a result Oldsmobile quietly began equipping some full size Delta 88 models and the very popular Cutlass/Cutlass Supreme with the Chevrolet 350 engine instead (each division of GM produced its own 350 V8 engine). Many customers were loyal Oldsmobile buyers who specifically wanted the Rocket V8, and did not discover that their vehicle had the Chevrolet engine until they performed maintenance and discovered that purchased parts did not fit. This led to a class-action lawsuit which became a public relations nightmare for GM.[19][20] Following this debacle, disclaimers stating that "Oldsmobiles are equipped with engines produced by various GM divisions" were tacked on to advertisements and sales literature; all other GM divisions followed suit. In addition, GM quickly stopped associating engines with particular divisions, and to this day all GM engines are produced by "GM Powertrain" (GMPT) and are called GM "Corporate" engines instead of GM "Division" engines. Although it was the popularity of the Oldsmobile division vehicles that prompted this change, declining sales of V8 engines would have made this change inevitable as all but the Chevrolet (and, later, Cadillac's Northstar) versions were eventually dropped.''

 

I love the blue block years. here's a few shots of mine

 

as to the OP, looks like the color debacle was explained earlier.

there is probably no way to really tell.

 

Chip some paint away and let us know.

 

Always orange through the 1976 model year. Possibly orange through August 23, 1976 and the beginning of the 1977 model year. Sometime between 8/23 and 9/7/76, Flint switched to corporate blue. Always blue after 7/7/76.

It is possible your engine was initially done in orange, then painted blue while in Flint. Use the engine assembly date on the pad as a guide.

 

My 1974 smallblock's origional water pump lasted 110,000 miles. So yours could be origional, as well. The Corvette used a heavy duty water pump with a 3/4" shaft and bearing, same as the medium duty trucks.

 

The was a class action lawsuit against GM brought on by some 1977 Oldsmobile owners because their cars came from the factory with Chevrolet engines in them. As a result of the suit, GM directed all division to paint their engine GM Corporate Blue.

Here is a link to some info on the suit. http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/...0/1190/394288/

 

After careful examination I see hints of orange on my block also!

 

pretty cool. must have been built right before the lawsuit stuff and resprayed before installation