Topic: 1965 Engine Color

[Jack65K]

In a discussion on another forum and a guy said his San Jose Mustang with a build date of June 19, 1965 had a Ford blue engine block.  Were any 65 blocks blue from the factory??

[carlite65]

not to my knowledge.

[Bob Gaines]

In a discussion on another forum and a guy said his San Jose Mustang with a build date of June 19, 1965 had a Ford blue engine block.  Were any 65 blocks blue from the factory??

I haven't seen indisputable proof that any V8's were other then black however there is a Ford document describing the changeover to the blue for all car lines by a date prior to 66 production ending. I am out of town at MCA national and away from my files for the exact date . I believe it has been posted before. Hopefully others will be able to post. The Ford document keeps the discussion alive IMO.

[J_Speegle]

First of course the June date is likely the date from the door tag and not likely the real date but, lacking the VIN it does give us a general idea of when the car might have been built. With that said common belief as stated would be that all of the late 65 V8's were painted with a black engine with gold (except Hipo) valve covers.

I looked through my pictures and honestly have to entertain the slight possibility that San Jose may have receive a limited number of engine painted blue as a possible test of something. We know San Jose was used as a test bed for some other changes related to engines.  Would suggest that the possibility would be difficult to convince everyone of especially since this is a very long term and strongly held belief (black engine assembly)

Of course there may be a reason for this group of unusual findings but I found it interesting that the VINs were clumped in an approx 10,000 unit spread at one plant. Much easier to not go down the rabbit hole but we're here to share and discuss if there are discoveries. Would be interested in the owners cars' VIN to see if it fits the pattern.

Yes I can hear it now ... its possibly a can of worms



Believe the document Bob was referring to might be  in this thread

http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=5011.msg27955#msg27955

[NEFaurora]

I've never in my life seen an Original '65 Model year car with a Blue engine.  With that being said, It's "My Opinion" that Ford reserved the Blue Engine blocks only for the New '66 Year model cars and after....even though '66 cars started being built in Mid August of '65...(Aug. 16th for Dearborn and San Jose, and Aug. 25th for Metuchen).

I always love this Ford Vintage Ad...

[Bob Gaines]

First of course the June date is likely the date from the door tag and not likely the real date but, lacking the VIN it does give us a general idea of when the car might have been built. With that said common belief as stated would be that all of the late 65 V8's were painted with a black engine with gold (except Hipo) valve covers.

I looked through my pictures and honestly have to entertain the slight possibility that San Jose may have receive a limited number of engine painted blue as a possible test of something. We know San Jose was used as a test bed for some other changes related to engines.  Would suggest that the possibility would be difficult to convince everyone of especially since this is a very long term and strongly held belief (black engine assembly)

Of course there may be a reason for this group of unusual findings but I found it interesting that the VINs were clumped in an approx 10,000 unit spread at one plant. Much easier to not go down the rabbit hole but we're here to share and discuss if there are discoveries. Would be interested in the owners cars' VIN to see if it fits the pattern.

Yes I can hear it now ... its possibly a can of worms



Believe the document Bob was referring to might be  in this thread

http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=5011.msg27955#msg27955

Jeff the document I was referring to is a Ford Memo to SA I think which gives the change over dates . I will try and remember to look it up when I  get back from MCA National.