MOPAR Engine Paint Colors

[afx]

Mopar Engine Colors Through The Years with the Mopar numbers:

 

Black - Mopar P4120753

1981-up 2.2L engines

1983-up 318 and 360 engines

All production Jeep engines

 

Race Hemi Orange  - Mopar  P4120751 (A bright orange color)

1962-1964 Max Wedge engines (413 and 426 Cross Ram)

1964-1965 426 Race Hemis 426 Race Hemis

 

Street Hemi Orange  - Mopar P4349216 (A reddish orange color commonly referred to as "Hemi Orange."

1966-1971 426 Street Hemis

1969-1971 High performance 383 and 440 engines

1970-1971 340 engines

 

Turquoise - Mopar P4120752 (Medium blue-green color)

1962-1971 All B/RB big blocks.

1969 LA 340's.

 

Red - Mopar P4349218 (Bright red color) 

This "red" color is NOT THE SAME as the "red" that MP sells, nor does commercially available (Krylon, Plasti-Cote) "Chrysler Red" paint match the original Slant-6 red color. NAPA sells an exact match of the slightly orangish red used on some 1960-1969  Slant 6 engines. It is NAPA Farm equipment spray paint, International-Harvester Red, made by Martin Senour.

 

Late 1960s Poly 318 engines and Slant 6 engines

1964-1969 All 273 engines

1967-1969 LA 318s

1968 340s

 

Blue  - Mopar P4349217 (Medium blue color)

1972-1983 All production engines except the 2.2

1969-1972 LA 318s

1969 340s

 

Blue  - (No Mopar number)   (Color code never appeared in manuals)

Slightly darker than the standard blue used on the 70's LA engines. Paint also turned Turquoise with heat. Even Galen Govier does not have a spec for mixing. This paint was used on a lot of 340' and other LA engines in late 69. Most restorers use Blue Mopar P4349217 (above) to repaint and

the judges agree.

 

Yellow  - Mopar P4529144

Mid 1963 to mid-1969 Slant 6 truck engines ONLY

 

Aluminum Silver  - Mopar P4529148

Most 1940s to early 1960 engines, including most of the early Hemis and 1950s Poly engines were painted this color. Silver was also used on all the flathead 6's except that the performance option in the 30's included a high compression head that was painted bright red.

 

Gold Metallic  - Mopar P4529149. Used from the late 50s and early 60s

"Golden Lion" engines

"Golden Commando" engines

DeSoto "Adventurer" engines

Edited April 5, 2018 by afx

[High octane]

Thanks JC as I'll keep that info handy for future builds.

[porschercr]

Good stuff JC.

[afx]

Here is MOPAR chassis reference in case anyone missed it. 

 

[Art Anderson]

Silver, as in "aluminum paint" was used by Chrysler Corporation, from almost their beginnings in the 1920's out to at least the middle 1950's, sometimes with flathead cylinder heads, and later OHV valve covers being a different color.  A Google Image Search can be your best friend in stuff like this, BTW.

Art

 

[1972coronet]

The air cleaner housings of 1969-1972 Ramcharger (Dodge) / Air Grabber (Plymouth) , and 1972-early 1975 High Performance engines was called 'Air Cleaner Orange' . Probably undetectable in-scale , but it is a different shade of orange never-the-less .

1969 340 engines are a "moving target" in regard to their colour : some early production 340s were Engine Red ; most were Turquoise ; and some late production 340s were Engine Orange . 

1971 340 engines were Engine Orange until spring 1971 (c.May 1971) when they were painted "1972 Blue" . Their air cleaners remained black .

1971 & earlier blue was more of a grey-blue than the 1972 - 1983 blue .

383s in 325hp and 330hp guise were blue ; many 1970 Barracuda and Gran Coupe with the 330hp 383 are incorrectly painted orange .

[Brutalform]

So glad I ran across this. Was looking for the correct 69 GTX Hemi engine color. Thank you...

[Snake45]

On 4/5/2018 at 7:01 AM, afx said:

Race Hemi Orange  - Mopar  P4120751 (A bright orange color)

1962-1964 Max Wedge engines (413 and 426 Cross Ram)

1964-1965 426 Race Hemis 426 Race Hemis

Does this also apply to the '65 Max Wedge Cross Ram 426? The images I've found on google seem to indicate it does, but I don't want to be misreading something. (About to start working on a Polar Light '65 Coronet.) 

[afx]

44 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

Does this also apply to the '65 Max Wedge Cross Ram 426? The images I've found on google seem to indicate it does, but I don't want to be misreading something. (About to start working on a Polar Light '65 Coronet.) 

Not a Mopar expert so I'll leave to someone else on the forum to answer.

[gtx6970]

On 1/18/2019 at 1:56 PM, Snake45 said:

Does this also apply to the '65 Max Wedge Cross Ram 426? The images I've found on google seem to indicate it does, but I don't want to be misreading something. (About to start working on a Polar Light '65 Coronet.) 

The 426  max wedge was not avail in 1965 ,

1965 was hemi only. 

[Snake45]

32 minutes ago, gtx6970 said:

The 426  max wedge was not avail in 1965 ,

1965 was hemi only. 

Fortunately, I haven't painted it yet, so I'll just leave it blue, and I guess it's a 383, then? 

[gtx6970]

Sorry. I dont remeber what is in the kit.

But there was a 426 street wedge available in the car (it was blue i believe) but it was single 4 barrel inductuon only. 

Only cross ram power plant avail in 1965 was race hemi. They were a light orange 

[slusher]

Great needed info, Jc!1

[jmk0303]

Great post. Thanks for sharing!

[gtx6970]

Hemi was a light pumpkin orange up to 1968. ( aka race hemi orange ) 

And maybe even some Very early 69 street hemi