Correct Engine Color

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charliec

charliec

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I have a '68 340 Dart. I told the machine shop to paint it Hemi Orange. I told the paint shop I needed a rattle can of Hemi Orange. They are not close to the same. I can't tell which one looks more "Cheby", but the machine shop came closer to the color that the engine was when I bought the car many moons ago. Which looks more like "Hemi Orange" to you? What is the correct color for the '68 340?

EnginePaintColor.20240721_165649.jpg
 
Interesting, must be a Dart thing. Most 68 340's in Barracudas' were red (my dad's early build 68 340 Formula S in fact) and turquoise happened sometime in late 68 for the 69-model year..,but it's MoPar so...........your experience may be different.
 
There are two distinct Hemi orange colors. One is Street Hemi Orange, which is what your engine is in the picture. The other is Race Hemi Orange, which is what the oil pan is in the picture. Street Hemi Orange has more red as opposed to more yellow like the Race Hemi Orange.
 
1968 gts 340 hemi orange
1969 340s turquoise
They dropped the ball with the blue imo
 
I am not familiar with 68 small blocks, but I believe there is definitely a controversy about color. Red, turquoise, or orange.
I think it probably depends on time of year of assembly, and which assembly plant.
I'm pretty sure Mopar used four different shades of orange.
1. Race hemi, on max wedges and pre-street hemi hemi's. Very yellow orange.
2. Early street hemi orange 66/68? Hemis only (I think) pretty straight-up orange
3. Street hemi orange 69 up 340, 440, hemi reddish orange. (NOT much different from chevby orange
4. Fram orange, used on air cleaners to match a Fram element.
This is what I've found, and I think is correct. I may be full of ship.
 
The Hemi Orange (or Street Hemi Orange) was never used on the small block. All small blocks (273,318,240) in 68 were red.

The only issue on color was in 69.


Alan
 
So, black was never an option?? The 340 in my car is a 68 casting and it is black... I take it that the previous owner painted it his own color?
 
As always with Mother Mopar, if a car was built very early or very late in the model year when the color changed over, it is possible that an early 69 could have a red engine or a late 69 could have a Hemi orange engine.
 
wawarnick said:
As always with Mother Mopar, if a car was built very early or very late in the model year when the color changed over, it is possible that an early 69 could have a red engine or a late 69 could have a Hemi orange engine.
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It's not only possible for early '69 to be red, because some were. I've never seen a hemi orange engine in a 69 model year car, although there were late castings in 69 for 70 model year cars that were hemi orange.
 
Looking around from various sources online, there seems to be some slight year differences, but like other people have pointed out, they could be early or late in the year color changes.

engine colors 1960-1973
 
A56 said:
It's not only possible for early '69 to be red, because some were. I've never seen a hemi orange engine in a 69 model year car, although there were late castings in 69 for 70 model year cars that were hemi orange.
Click to expand...
.... assuming you're referring to a small block. There were LOTS of hemi orange big blocks in 69.
 
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