Aaron:
Obviously the factory had good paint days and bad paint days. The primer coat
for the 18V engine is a lightish red and both the Moss Motors 1980 LE and my
1980 have very, very poor black paintjobs over the primer coat. In the case of
the LE there is virtually no black paint on the block of the engine, leaving
the block primer red.
I thought my 1980 engine had been rebuilt, till I saw the LE engine compartment
which is virtually pristine.
Officially from 1972 18V engines on, all of the engines were to be painted
black. Obviously only those on good days got a full paint job.
Personally I frown on many changes made during the 70s -80s by the factory and
take it upon myself to paint all my MGB 4 cyl. engines maroon.
Kelvin.
>
> This brings up an interesting question:
>
> I have a '75 B. From the factory, I understand the engine
> was black.
> So of course, it is red (and the wrong shade of red at that).
>
> However, the everything above the head gasket is from a
> '71-'73[0]. At
> what point would the proper color become red, rather than black?
>
> It doesn't really matter though, I had to repaint the head when I got
> it back from the machine shop. It is MG red. The engine will be MG
> red too, as soon as I have some reason I have to pull it,
> hopefully not
> anytime soon.
>
> [0]: during my recent valve problems, I mistakenly thought
> the head was
> even earlier.
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