The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop engine component colors

You are going to find that the ford gray is lighter than the Filling Station gray. That is because the dark gray from the Filling Station is about as close as your going to find to what the original motor was painted. Over the past six years I've sought out many examples where remnants of the original paint was still on the engine parts and it was a very dark gray.

On the exhaust I would stay with the 3/8"-16-16 x 1 3/4" steel studs and I would use brass 'tall' (5/8") nuts . The original stud had 1" of thread on the nut side and 1/2" of thread on the tap end. You may have a problem finding those. The exhaust flange is 3/8" thick and the gasket will take up about an 1/8" when new. This is not a highly stressed area so there is no need for grade 8 hardware.
From the parts books 1929-1950, 1929-54 and 1929-57: All the Chevrolet parts books up to ‘57 list 1929 to 1957 pn. 837552 3/8-16-16 x1 ¾ studs for all of the 6 cylinder engines. In 55 with the introduction of the V8 their manifolds used pn. 3836174 3/8-16-16 x 2 1/8 studs. These had a ¼” pilot on the end with a 1 ¼” thread probably because of the donut packing. I'm sure you will find examples where the newer studs have been installed.
The stock nut was simply a standard 838780 3/8-16 x 3/8 nut.


It sounds like the engine is still together CT so you couldn't dip it even if you could find a shop that still had a dip tank. The cost of maintaining them along with EPA regulations has pretty much given way to Thermal Cleaning. Even the small time operators are using burn-out ovens around our area.
DG