Joined: Wed Nov 10 2010, 04:57PM
Location: Victoria, BC Canada
Posts: 324
ive been looking at 2 1970 300s, 1 has an orange block TNT 440, the other is a non TNT 440 blue block. is this right ? should the non TNT car have an orange block too ? i'm just wondering if the original motor has been swapped for a later blue one.... thanks, mark
Joined: Wed Jun 21 2006, 09:38PM
Location: OK
Posts: 899
Chrysler Blue was standard across the board, starting in the 1972 model year. It was first seen (on B/RB engines) in the 1970 model year, and NOT on all engines. Some 1970 engines are turquoise (last year), which after years of heat cycles, looks a lot like worn blue.
Orange was for the Commando/Magnum/TNT engines during that time, so your non-TNT engine will be either turquoise or blue.
No matter what you see - every 1970 Imperial Division or Chrysler Division 440 is only painted Turq-Blue. This also applies if it has the "HP" Option.
As time has pasted The Turq-Blue may have faded. Also sometimes it is wrongly re-painted The later/ Newer used Chrysler Blue because of not knowing or the person thought "... it looked good".
Joined: Fri Jun 04 2010, 10:30PM
Location: Illinois
Posts: 464
If you do a little online research you'll find that all 3 colors (blue, turqoise and orange) were used. Mine was a 70K mile car and at first I thought it was turqoise. But after degreasing and pulling the water pump housing, timing cover and oil pump off, it was clear it was blue, not turqoise. But like Rodger says, Imperials may march to a different drummer.
It is true that some 1970 440's were painted in other colors --- but none of them are OEM to an 1970 Chrysler Division 440 ( which only recieved The Turq-Blue ).
Joined: Fri Jan 21 2011, 05:50PM
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 342
@Rodger..you are correct about Imperial 440s. however, Chrysler (corporate) 440s did come in different colors. According to offical Chrysler policy in late 69 all "TNT" 440 engines were to be painted orange. After 71 all were painted blue.
Joined: Fri May 18 2007, 04:59PM
Location: Vegas
Posts: 82
I don't know if this is of any help, but I cut & pasted it from one of my answers to an old post.
" There is some confusion about wether wagons had HP engines or not because (according to my collection of 65-73 FSM's and Motors Manuals) Mopar offered five big block engines in C bodies from 1968-70:
(1) 383 2bbl/290 horse, 256* cam (2) 383 4bbl/300 horse, 256* cam, dual exhaust (not used in Chryslers) (3) 383 4bbl/330 horse HP, 268* cam (335 horse in B bodies) (4) 440 4bbl/350 horse, 256* cam (5) 440 4bbl/375 horse HP 268* cam
"
I'm not certain, but I don't believe that the 375 engine was available in wagons.
However, your list excludes the 350 horse coded 440 that was quite common, which had dual exhaust w/HP exhaust manifolds, twin snorkel air cleaner, but 350 horse cam. I believe that this was part of a towing package, but I can't say for sure, however everyone I have run across had a towing package on it.
This was common enough that the market is still rich in cheap used HP exhaust manifolds, particularly the drivers side (which was unique to the C bodies). Much more common than what would be coming off HP engines (the passenger side was the same as a Roadrunner style HP manifold).
To throw another wrench into the works, some of the 350 horse, dual HP exhaust, dual snorkel engines were painted orange just like the TNT engines. They just didn't have the TNT pie tin on the air cleaner, and were coded as a 350 horse engine.
My 69 300 vert came this way, and I had a 70 300 4 dr. at one time that was this way also.
Why? I can't say, but at least in the case of my 69, I was only the second owner, and I knew everyone at the dealership, including the owner (I even worked there as a lot boy at one time). And no one knew why.
I always assumed that they just installed the 350 horse cam in an HP motor to achieve the higher - low RPM torque for towing, but I did a valve job several years ago and the springs were not HP springs, so that assumption was wrong (not to mention that the pad was not stamped as HP).