M35A3 Engine Paint Question

[Rustygears]

My '95 A3 has what I believe to be the original Cat 3116 in it. The engine's original Cat paper inventory stickers are on the block, the computer printed engine data sticker is on the top of the valve cover (and its number matches the block inventory number), so nobody has repainted the engine since Cat built it. The engine is a semi-gloss enamel OD green - almost a JD tractor green, not the CARC flat green used on the truck body.

I have seen a few photos of A3s with the green engine, but I also see many at GL, etc. with classic Cat yellow (!?).

I recently bought this truck and it seems that sometime in its past, someone did some work on the thermostat housing (like replaced the thermostat) and it looks like they hot-tanked it because there is absolutely no paint on the housing and now its a little rusty to boot.

I'd like to repaint the housing to match the original green block color. Does anyone know the correct paint/color that will match?

Thanks in advance!

 

[goodguyzy]

from what Ive seen the first trucks have the green motor, mine is a '97 and has the yellow, don't have a clue of why the color change, but it seems to take place around '96 (my guess)
sorry don't have answer on paint color

 

[mktopside]

from what Ive seen the first trucks have the green motor, mine is a '97 and has the yellow, don't have a clue of why the color change, but it seems to take place around '96 (my guess)
sorry don't have answer on paint color

Mine is a 95 (sn 501103), so the first 20% if you will. I have a green engine with all the cat stickers.

There was a thread around here explaining it. The guy basically said that cat wasn't equipped to paint anything else other than yellow, and that since the engines went down the factory line individually as they were ordered and not in batches, they couldn't switch back and forth for paint. He said Cat would send them out to a contractor to paint them green. I guess they just stopped caring after a while, or the army wanted their engines faster. However, there doesn't seem to be a connection to engine color and year. There are older trucks with yellow engines and newer trucks with green.

FWIW my engine says it was built in 93

 

[flyxpl]

mine is about a 96 with serial 1840 , still has the green paint .

 

[glcaines]

I believe mine is a 98 and it has yellow paint on the engine.

 

[shovelheadmike]

I was.told by a Cat mechanic who was an army mechanic in Desert Storm,.that all original engines are yellow. All green engines are replacement crate.engines--as mine is.

 

[shovelheadmike]

And, mine is a green engine in a tan truck.

 

[glcaines]

I was.told by a Cat mechanic who was an army mechanic in Desert Storm,.that all original engines are yellow. All green engines are replacement crate.engines--as mine is.

I've seen a lot of A3s with the green engines, with relatively low miles. I find it hard to believe that there have been that many failures of Cat engines to account for all the green engines.

 

[mktopside]

I was.told by a Cat mechanic who was an army mechanic in Desert Storm,.that all original engines are yellow. All green engines are replacement crate.engines--as mine is.

Does it say somewhere on your engine that it is a replacement?

 

[dittle]

I've seen a lot of A3s with the green engines, with relatively low miles. I find it hard to believe that there have been that many failures of Cat engines to account for all the green engines.

Depends on who you listen to. The 3116 "Take-Out Engine" sayings may have some truth behind them if the paint color differences are what people are saying they are.

 

[shovelheadmike]

I've seen a lot of A3s with the green engines, with relatively low miles. I find it hard to believe that there have been that many failures of Cat engines to account for all the green engines.

When the trucks get a new engine, they also have the mileage reset to zero miles. That is how they keep track of when PM is required.

So, I would expect the green engine trucks to have low miles.

 

[mktopside]

When the trucks get a new engine, they also have the mileage reset to zero miles. That is how they keep track of when PM is required.

So, I would expect the green engine trucks to have low miles.

Well, I have a green engine, had 8100 miles and 550 hours on it when it left service.

Anyone got a yellow engine with a lot more miles?

 

[goodguyzy]

looks like i opened a can of worms on this one, my post on the engine changing color was based solely on the pics from GL, Ive been looking at the serial numbers to see how high they got and saw that all "early" models had a green motor and all "late" models are yellow. BTW did y'all see my thread on more A3 made than thought?

 

[Rustygears]

Paint color please?

The discussion over the last 24hrs has all been great debate, but back to my original question - what is the semi-gloss paint color and a source for a match (like a rattle can)?

Thanks!

 

[goodguyzy]

these A3 threads seem to do that, have you tried rapco? they have the colors online, just hold the laptop up to the engine

 

[glcaines]

The discussion over the last 24hrs has all been great debate, but back to my original question - what is the semi-gloss paint color and a source for a match (like a rattle can)?

Thanks!

Is there something on the engine that is painted green that can easily be removed and taken to a paint shop and scanned? Or a small chip of paint that can be scanned? Once you know the color you can get some mixed and loaded into rattle cans or use a sprayer.

You might also try calling Cat and see what they say. You never know.