I'm wondering if anyone has an exact time when Chevrolet started painting engines blue, instead of orange. A friend recently bought a very early 77 car (August 30,1976 build) with an original orange engine. A few years ago, I heard there were some early 77's made with orange engines, but now I'm curious to find out when the change occured.  Maybe someone with an early 77 has an original blue engine that will help narrow down the date.

There is no exact date/serial # for when the change took place, but it was actually in '76, but for the '77 year model, I believe. This has been discussed here before a while back, but I can't remember what forum it was in. There has also been a discussion of when they went to black for the engines.

Basically, I believe the really early '77 engines might still be orange, but it's also possible that you could have one car on the line with a blue engine, and the one after that orange. It would depend on where the particular engine was on the assy line floor at the time it was needed for a particular vehicle.
I'm sure there is a VIN break at one point, to where all engines after that were blue. Perhaps someone here has a little more info....perhaps an NCRS Judging Guide...

Thanx Gene!

I changed mine to Chevy Orange in 2004

Ok, well this car was built on Aug 30th. So that makes sense.  Thanks!!

On a related note, in the auto supply stores, I've seen there's two different chevy oranges in the same brands of paint.  One is a little darker than the other.  Which one goes for which years?

Phil

When did they stop the blue block?

 Not hat it concerns Vettes much but in the late 80's Cars and Truck Built in the USA were Blue and in Canada Black. My 89 3/4 ton was a Black Engine Cause all 3/4 Tons were Canadian Built then.

Now, being the curious one that I am...Why did they change from orange to blue?