John,
You are correct. I'd forgotten that some six port head engines were installed
while cars were still being built at Longbridge. What I should have said was
to my knowledge no BN4's had 2 port head engines painted Morris green. And
from Derek's comments I gather that the use of Morris green engines ended some
time prior to the end of production of the 1st batch BN4's.
While this may seem like a trivial point to most Healey enthusiasts, as the
owner of two different transition cars (my previous BN4 and my current BN7 with
100/6 badges) I am keenly interested in seeing the details of these oddities
documented. There is nothing quite so frustrating as to be told by otherwise
knowledgeable Healey enthusiasts that features you know to be original on your
car are "wrong". Thanks to Roger and Gary's excellent book and this
magnificent list, I know that I am not alone in owning a Healey that does not
quite fit with the conventional wisdom of what is "correct".
On a related topic, one lister mentioned having or seeing a BJ8 with a blue
engine. This topic has come up before, and the sheer numbers of people
reporting the same made me wonder if some BJ8's did indeed come from the
factory with blue engines. Any comments?
John Peak
'59 BN7
John Soderling <jsoderling@astound.net> wrote:
John,
I believe some of the last 100-Six cars built at Longbridge with the
six-port head also had the darker green engine paint. My Erika, Longbridge
BN4 #49069 with 6-port head (10 December 1957), originally had a darker
green color engine paint according to the fellow that did the restoration
(only restoration done on this car) in 1992.
Vrooom vrooom,
John
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Peak"
To:
Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2005 6:18 PM
Subject: Re: Engine and Manifold Colors
> Gary and Rich,
>
> I believe Gary is correct that only the "transition cars", those built in
> Abindon prior to BN4 #68960 with the six port head and the Longbridge
> style top and interior details had the Morris green engine paint. I don't
> know if all these transition cars were this way but can say for certain
> the the one I owned, #56204 most certainly was. It was built in late
> January 1958.
> To my knowledge all the Longbridge built BN4's had Healey green painted
> engines.
>
> John Peak
> '59 BN7
> Former owner '58 BN4
>
> Editorgary@aol.com wrote:
> Though often argued about, we've never found any reason to believe that
> factory six-cylinder Healey engines were ever painted any color other than
> what we
> call "Healey Engine Green" which is the light metallic silver-gray green.
> (Clausager says it was called "Steel dust grey" for you triviots). The
> only
> documented exception were a few of the first 100-Sixes assembled at
> Abingdon during
> the transition from Longbridge to Abingdon), which were painted the darker
> Morris green.
>
>
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