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1978-81 aluminum intake manifolds, including the thermostat housing, were painted dull aluminum color. Believe in 80-81, L48s were being shipped with the aluminum intake that added 5 horsepower.
Hunt! I was at my buddies house over the weekend...He has a L-81 that he is 'UN'-L-81-ing....back to analog.
His manifold was sandcast aluminum. No Paint. HOWEVER we begin to have a great answer for the poster....They were painted ALUMINUM COLOR to cover casting blemishes....as time and tide affects paint...turned grey!
Would it be fair to say...."on some manifolds that may have been discolored, they painted them?"
On my L-82 (same manifold) it's aluminum, NO PAINT.
half kiddingly...chevy did some strange stuff to get the units out the door!
Hunt! I was at my buddies house over the weekend...He has an L-81 that he is 'UN'-L-81-ing....back to analog.
His manifold was sand-cast aluminum. No Paint. HOWEVER we begin to have a great answer for the poster....They were painted ALUMINUM COLOR to cover casting blemishes....as time and tide affect paint...turned grey!
Would it be fair to say...."on some manifolds that may have been discolored, they painted them?"
On my L-82 (same manifold) it's aluminum, NO PAINT.
What year?
half kiddingly...chevy did some strange stuff to get the units out the door!
And they did!
My first observation/question is whether the current owner is the original owner?
Secondly, I used the 20-year old 1978-79 NCRS tech manual as well as the more recent 80-82 manual and both stated the aluminum paint.
But let's also consider that engines were assembled at Flint engine assembly plant and at the rate and requirement for engines, all would have been processed the same way. As I recall, the engine color (GM Corporate blue) was painted with the manifold in place and after the manifold had been painted. Thus we would typically see blue overspray on manifolds as well as the thermostat housing.
After the last post, I recalled a 78 B2Z L82 we looked at in Lakeland this past February...low-mileage and a nice original car. Here's a couple of images, the first shows the thermostat housing and engine paint overspray. The second shows the passenger side engine lift bracket but note the color and brightness of the manifold...quite silver.
My 79 l82 is painted silver cast.
pretty good match as clean aluminum vs paint is hard to tell.
vht hi temp engine paint silver is a pretty good match.
the only blue trace i seen was on the round hooks that i assume held engine ?
