I have an ‘80 L82 I been working on, it wasn’t till I bought another project 81 that I remembered the engines are supposed to be blue.

Did the Vettes ever get a black block? The engine is numbers matching and looks original, there are no signed of ANY blue paint.

My 81 has blue overspray on the valve covers and intake manifold.

the black L82 motor looks original and about as good a condition as the rest of the car, old and weathered. There is no blue paint under the chipping black paint and no blue overspray anywhere like the 81.

with all the goofiness I found when these cares were built, is it possible the engine came from the factory painted black ?!?!

a little background, my ‘80 is an L82, white, solid tops, dark blue cloth (rare), FE7, auto (of course) with cruise, power windows and cassette… if any of that matters at all.

 

I doubt it came factory with black paint. but my 77 came with the blue/green paint and I found it so ugly. my block, bellhousing, etc. went black years ago.

 

I'm glad you specified auto. A bit closer to April 1st, I'd be worried that this was going to be another engine code "ZBD" claim, the long-lost 1980 L82 4-speed.

If you are 100% sure that block is original to the car, it must have been repainted. If it was rebuilt, the block could have been treated in such a way that no blue paint remains, but the factory painted everything, so I'd be surprised if there wasn't some blue paint left somewhere if you dig. I don't think any 80 valve covers got blue paint, but the water pump, oil pan, harmonic balancer, gasket edges, almost the entire assembled engine was painted at Flint. There are photos on this Forum and the internet that show the extent of the paint, but my search skills fail me right now. There are also very low-mileage cars (usually 78s), that are well documented that you can compare to.

The only other remote possibility is that you have a crate engine that was restamped. But repainting during a rebuild seems most likely.

Can you post a photo?

 

Eric...in AUGUST 1982 black became the new blue.

Obviously, your engine should be blue. The blue is imaginatively named 'Corporate Blue'.

Overspray was common and correct. The engines were painted, call it, 3/4 complete. You will find lots of overspray that 'seems' unsightly, but is correct.
Pulleys were added later...so no overspray on them.

While we are on the subject of overspray. Near the end of the line was a 'chassis black-out' station....where liberal amounts of semi-gloss (satin) black paint was applied to the underside....god actually knows exactly WHERE.....spritzers choice!

Cheers Unkahal.

 

Is it back underneath too? No blue under it (minus the oil pan)?

If so, it was most likely rebuilt. Or at least some if not major work performed. As guys mentioned, all engines back in that era were light blue. GM replacement (Target) engines in the day were black. Usually they had a chrome foil sticker on the valve cover. But guys would often ditched those and put the Corvette valve covers put back on (bc they were better quality than the rebuilt engines).

I used to buy quite a few used pickups back in the 90's. If you opened the hood on a used tk (or car) and saw a black engine, that was 'good'! Even better if it had a GM sticker on the valve cover. It meant you were probably getting a pickup (or car) with a relatively new GM engine (not a rebuild). So it was kind of a good selling point if the engine was black back then, when all the rest were blue.

Back in the day (as they say), if ya took out an engine and did something to it, you had a decision to make: Blue or Black. Blue meant there was new blue paint on the engine. Owners/mechanics etc would often mimic the black so others (buyers) knew it was 'probably' rebuilt. That added value. And back in the day rebuilders figured out that black engines show fewer oil leaks than light blue engines, i.e. fewer come-backs from frivolous oil leaks. And, of course, black paint is cheaper and more ubiquitious than the blue, and doesn't 'stain' like the Corporate Blue engines would.

Anyway, because your engine has the right #'s, there's a good chance that it was out and probably rebuilt (or major work performed). It could have been re-stamped, but I doubt it.

Nice looking car BTW!!

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I think I found the smoking gun, the original water pump was also painted black. I was shocked that there is NO overspray and no signed of old blue paint. I guess this block must have been stripped and repainted. But no blue on the bell housing, valve covers, intake manifold, old black paint shows no signed of blue …

I was hoping black signified something rare … I guess this just means this car has some “history” …

did I tell you guys the car came with a 4 speed but was converted at the dealer …. JUST KIDDING !!!

 

is that also where they sprayed the thick rubberized coating? Looks like the tried coating the wheel wells and rear spare tire carrier, but in effect was splattered everywhere … it’s not the same as rust proofing undercoating, but it’s thinner like truck bead coating, but not nearly as tough… it’s ugly stuff nonetheless.

 

Now hold on there. I thought I read somewhere that Zora himself once had the factory secretly pull aside an early 80's Corvette, with his factory connections (since he had previously retired), and had the engine painted black just prior to halloween one year. You know, Zora could be a prankster. Well as the legend goes, he showed up at the costume party as, the Black Knight (I hope I have that right). It was quite an entrance with side-pipes and all. Even had a logo secretly painted on the white Vette's door. Turns out, a lot of high-level GM brass was in attendance, including an also-retired Bill Mitchell. There was a lot of shop-talk and reminiscing over 'the good old days'. It was a dark evening, kind of spooky they say ...but the moon was full and bright that night.

Well, at one point later in the evening after they had all imbibed copious Michigan Brews, he took them outside and there in front of everyone, he popped the hood with the flair of the real Black Knight, and everyone gasped! A crowd had gathered. Standing with their hands over their mouths, onlookers were shocked that there in the engine bay WASN'T a blue engine as they had expected, but indeed a mill painted BLACK to match Zora's costume.

Needless to say, the car was a major hit, and those lucky enough to attend left with a story they shared with friends and grandchildren. So it's kind of a famous event, and even more famous car. Sadly, as a lot of you knowledgeable Corvette guys know, the "Boo-er-Vette" mysteriously disappeared and seems to have been lost to history. Did it go back to GM, or was it sold or wrecked? There have been a lot of rumors of it's whereabouts, but the real 'Boo-er-Vette' hasn't been seen since. Maybe someone else here knows more about the whereabouts (???).

Well, recently, a guy with the last name of Bezo's dispatched a team of investigators to track down that long lost (and extremely rare) Boo-er-Vette, but have come up empty. Perhaps that could be yours?




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Both of my 80 L82 are blue , both numbers matching

 

Yea, finally found some blue paint, case closed. There was a little overspray of corporate blue on the lift loops …

BTW: Black looks so right, Orange isnt bad but the blue looks horrible … tempted to rip out the 81 motor, clean and paint it all.

I guess the blue screams economy motor to me. But the L48 is exactly that, economy and not MPG economy. L82 needs the black and those finned covers.

 

I'm glad you got to the bottom of this, but you are 100% wrong about GM Corporate Blue.

I've painted blue bits as I've added them, and even tracked down down patinaed L48 valve covers to unbling some poor choices a PO made with my 79. If one of my cars ends up with a hopped up Gen 1 SBC, an LS3, or even a Tesla motor, It will still be painted blue.

 

perhaps I can offer you an amazing Coorporate blue L81, very rare one year only!!! I’ll trade for a black ZZ6 ;-)