Valve Cover bolts

Do any of you read first, jeeezus? This information is all on my Restoration Tips Page.

Engine Painting:

The engines in the 65 442 were painted Bronze only. The engine was painted after assembly, as complete units, less the brackets, pulleys, fan, power steering pump, air conditioner pump (if equipped), and other accessories, which were installed after the paint was applied.
They were painted assembled, complete with heads, intake manifold, water pump, valve covers, and oil pan in place. The distributor, thermostat by pass hose and manual bell housing were also mounted and received some overspray in the process.

There is alot of misconception about how original equipment Olds engines were painted. One thing you can say about Lansing and the people who built Oldsmobiles is that they devised excellent systems for building cars and for the most part stuck to the regimen or procedure. So there isn't really a lot of variance in the way engines were painted prior to installation. The trick is learning just what procedure they used. I do know based on the evidence I have and the employees I've talked to that the engines were fully assembled but not "dressed" when they were painted. What I mean by that is that the engine had assembled to it all the necessary components for the type of assembly it was to be except for those components that were determined by option. Components determined by option were installed at final dress which came after final assembly and test run. The components you'll find on a pre-dressed final assembly would be the exhaust manifolds and bolt locks, the distributor housing and hold down (without cap), wires and spark plugs, the fuel pump and fuel lines, water pump sans pulleys, complete starter and wiring harness, filler tube and cap (pre'68), water outlet and coolant bypass hose and clamps, nipple cap and clamp (heater delete), oil filter and mount, cast alternator bracket (standard), bellhousing (sychomesh jobs)or flex plate (automatic jobs), valve covers, bolts and brackets sans grommets and crank dampner sans pulley. There were no carbs installed until final dress. Cap, plugs and wires were installed prior to test run but before dress. This procedure was not ideal but worked for the majority of engine builds. There were always retrofits or conversions that more than likely had to be dealt with at final dress (ie chrome valve covers on W30's with unpainted cad plated screws, air conditioning and heavy-duty cooling.). If one studies how the engines were painted you can see that engine color was applied fairly evenly but there were light areas where paint was to be avoided. Those areas to avoid would have been the exhaust manifolds, main housing of the fuel pump and starter. Running the paint was common too. I'm sure the engine painter had seconds to paint each engine as the line dept moving and that is after he decided what color he had to choose first! So basically there is little or no paint behind these components. If any Olds line employees can correct me or fill in any gaps please do so. Now that you have got your engine painted that nice bronze color then you install it in your chassis with the running gear then send the whole chassis assembly into the "black out" booth where all those nice NOS components get a hit or miss coating of running, glossy, gooey asphalt based rust preventative which usually coated all or part of the bottom of the motor. Yes, most engines were two tone.Color on top and black over color on bottom. I matched my olds engine color to some paint charts and was happy with the results. It's alot of personal preference when picking a suitable bronze to use. There are alot of bronzes out there. All '67 engine enamels were 0 degree gloss or flat.

NOTE: Add one thing, the oil filter was installed and would have some over spray on it, as would the other items you mentioned like, the starter. You are also right about the consistency of how things were done by line workers and management in seeing that the cars built in Lansing were built more "By the Book". This is evidenced by the warranty submissions by dealers for adjustments, repairs, etc. from other assembly plants as compared to the Lansing plant. I know, I saw the product reliability stats and Lansing usually was 1/2 the charge backs than other plants! Even though there was always the union (UAW) verses management tension thing , there was a lot of pride in the work place at the Lansing Assembly Plant. As I was exposed to upper level management both in the Service Dept. and Engineering I can say first hand there was extreme product loyalty. I just don’t buy that so many mistakes were made when all these people on this site claim this special part came on his/her car. Ya mistake were made but cost were keep so close as the profit margin was so close on GM cars. That’s why olds had so many inspectors at each assembly station not only for quality control but for Cost Control. If the wrong part was put on the cost factor for that item went out of site to correct the installation or that the part cost was not figured in to the actual cost.

The manifolds were not installed when the engine was painted (at least from 68-73 when I worked there). A shield was held in place briefly over the exhaust ports when that area was sprayed. I did see some very light over spray of engine color at the edges of the frt. edge of the frt. exhaust port surface and at the rear edge of the rear port. When the engine was fully dressed after painting is when the manifolds would be installed. I am sure this light over spray burned off when the engine was run in at the engine test station. I never saw a fully dressed engine ready for the engine test area with engine color on pulleys, brkts., exhaust manifolds, (alumn. intakes for w-cars in 70'), carbs, ignition wires and dist. caps, fuel lines, etc. However, I do know the dist housing was installed at the time of painting and could have some over spray on it. This is evidence by the fact that I do have some small and big block dist. with some engine color on them at the base of the dist housing. You will also find that the engine painter sprayed very little amounts of engine color at the rear of the engine, especially in the bell housing area, why I do not know. I think they cut corners because of the amount of time they were allowed to apply the material. Inspectors in the engine paint station would not have allowed sparse painting to been done in other areas of the engine as the rear of the engine was somewhat out of view, tucked up and under the firewall. Remember the engines were also on an assembly line in the engine plant that moved at a certain, constant speed! Only the W-car engines were treated differently, as the engine was painted without some items not installed, like the intake and they where on individual assembly carts and not part of the moving regular engine assembly line.