Engine block colour?

[alfavirusnz]

Can anyone tell me please the original crankcase colour of the Berlina 2c? There is no remaining paint on my block to give any clue.

Richard Jones
Christchurch
New Zealand

[Koos]

I think the crankcase is not painted its alu color

[alfavirusnz]

Koos thanks for reply. I am referring to the cast iron block which houses the bores-my slip if I referred to the crankcase. As you are probably aware the engine casing are not all alloy, that piece of the engine encompassing the bores being cast iron and it would have been painted. I am trying to find out what that colour would have been for my Berlina 2C which would probably have been the same colour as a series 1 coupe`s. I have absolutely no trace of paint on my engine block and colour brochures, ads etc for those cars don`t show it. I strongly suspect black but I`m sure someone out there must know for sure.

[Huib]

Black is right.

[b20swalt]

I honestly believe that the cast iron cylinder block was not painted at all. I have had many apart and have never seen any paint other than some orange splotches that were used to mark something or indicate something. That good quality cast iron just forms a rust patina that eventually gets covered with engine oil.

When I build a Fulvia engine, I paint the block with cast iron paint, sometimes called cast blast paint that comes in a spray can. It is a dark gray that looks like raw cast iron.

Walt

[alfavirusnz]

Thanks to both of you. b20swalt you may well be right regarding no paint as absolutely no trace of any and normally there is behind the starter and the other more sheltered parts of the block. I would think that the natural cast iron colour would be a very dark charcoal or black in appearance giving the impression it was painted.
My engines doen`t leak though and I regularly wash them so will need to protect in order to avoid that orange rusty look which is not good for a quality piece.(don`t have this problem on my Alfa engines though)

[Lancia-hf]

the cilinder blocks definately should have paint on them. It might be that the costcutters at Fiat descided it was unnecessary when they introduced the serie 2 but all (S1) 1100 engine blocks are black. I still have a factory new c1100cc ilinderblock with pistons in my partsbin. From the 1216 cilinderblock it became light grey.
William

[Randy Adams]

Interesting. My experience matches b20swalt's comments. I owned (and at one time or other took apart) two Series 1 Fulvia engines, a 1216 cc from a 1967 coupe and a 1298 cc from a 1968 Sport. Neither block was painted at all. I simply rebuilt them and popped them back together as was, unpainted. The iron grey paint is a harmless choice.

[ncundy]

This issues cropped up a couple of years ago on the LMC forum, this is what I posted at the time (my block, 1.6HF, had plenty of eveidence of being painted grey);

"This is a photo from a 1963 Lancia booklet (Straordinario Fulvia) covering the production facilities of the then new Fulvia (berlina). It is clearly black, so would more or less confirm your conclusion.

Later Lancia technical publications I have (S2 +) all seem to show grey (or possibly unpainted). Photos in various books covering the Fanalones (particularly Altorio) show grey (or again possibly unpainted). Like you, I doubt my engine has ever been out, so am pretty convident that grey was my colour, as black would seem to be your colour.

There is also a thread here on the subject if your Italian is any good , but it does suggest a RAL code (7035) for the grey.

When the change occured and if it is different coupes to berlinas I not seen anything conclusive."

Neil

[Geoff]

Might the factory have been inconsistent?