Color scheme O-300B

[T. C. Downey]

They switched to gold sometime in the 1960's...so I've been told.

Prior to that they were Type I cad, after that they were type II, Type I turns dark quickly, type II is golden in color and stays that way for up to a year or more. Type II is what you see on common hardware.

[hilltop170]

If you clear coat them, they stay pretty longer. This engine was from a late 1950s C-172 so we stayed with those colors.

Clear coated valve covers

[fpinan]

Here is my engine with it's new paint. I tried to match the picture in the original manual as close as possible (considering the picture was black and white).
Rusty Morris
N2935D

Hi Rusty,

I want seriously to congratulate for you plane ! Finally ! we have a first chance to talk via email together. !
Believe it or not , but you're responsable for my buy on a C170 !

When in started to look more in detail on this ship, after talking with some fellows at Oshkosh 2012, I jumped into some pictures of your plane I found on internet and than I said to me ! Man ! That's a piece of beauty here !!

This is the picture which really convinced me to buy this type of plane , it was on my computer screen forms long time .
And than when Mike Roe sent to me some pictures of his project, I was knock down ....,

So, finally , some valve covers was not black !
But it looks like it's a 54-55'model on the picture
My airplane is a 52 model , so I guess I will stay to he gloss black covers even If I love more the way it is on your engine.

I love your interior on your plane and I might ask you later , when I'll be at this point some questions about it.

Thanks again for your comment .
Fred

[GAHorn]

Prior to Cadmium plating they were simply painted black from the 1940s to the late 50s during the 172 production.

[fpinan]

Prior to Cadmium plating they were simply painted black from the 1940s to the late 50s during the 172 production.

Thank You !

[DaveF]

Here is my engine with it's new paint. I tried to match the picture in the original manual as close as possible (considering the picture was black and white).
Rusty Morris
N2935D

Rusty, can you read any printing on the orange battery box placard?

[rusty]

Dave, no printing at all on the placard. Several people have tried to come up with the answer no luck at all. Everyone thought the battery boxes were shipped to Cessna with the placard on the box. Cessna does not show a part number for the placard.

[MoonlightVFR]

after reading these posts I seem to recall purchasing aerosol paint that was named Continental Gold.

Painted cylinders and rocker covers.

[GAHorn]

I too have a few of those sales brochures and often notice details that do not match what actually exited the production lines. I cannot offer any explanation other than the brochures were intended to "dress up" the advertisement. Cessna did the same thing to many of their own brochures. (One of the amusing brochures I have depict an incredibly spacious interior .... They used "little people" to represent the aircraft in brochures to make the aircraft look better than reality.)

I'll try to post one or two of them.

[n2582d]

Prior to Cadmium plating they were simply painted black from the 1940s to the late 50s during the 172 production.

Here’s a couple of pictures from Air Facts magazine. The one with black rocker covers is from the July 1, 1949 issue. The engine with the silver rocker covers is from the March 1, 1951 issue.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

[C170U2]

I'm just starting an engine rebuild project as well and will be painting in the original scheme. I was planning on painting the case dark grey and the cylinders black. How have you folks gone about prepping the case? Primer? Any suggestions for the black paint? I have heard lots of different ideas but my buddies are trying to talk me into just rattle canning them with black BBQ grill paint.

[GAHorn]

Prior to Cadmium plating they were simply painted black from the 1940s to the late 50s during the 172 production.

Here’s a couple of pictures from Air Facts magazine. The one with black rocker covers is from the July 1, 1949 issue. The engine with the silver rocker covers is from the March 1, 1951 issue.

1E083B9C-3507-4DC6-A3D6-D0B6F6F985F9.jpeg

066BDBED-ED21-4A8E-9E4B-2774BFE9AF2E.jpeg

Note that those are CONTINENTAL advertisements... not depictions of engines as installed in 170's.

[n2582d]

George,
I understand these Continental advertisements are anecdotal evidence for whether the rocker covers were cad plated silver or painted black at a certain time in history but do you really think that Cessna would have gone to the trouble of repainting new engine parts? All the engine photographs in the various C-170 Owner's Manuals from 1948-1956 show silver colored rocker covers. (The 1956 picture is poor but appears to show silver rocker covers). Because of the Air Facts advertisement showing black rocker covers in 1949 I was surprised to see the 1948 C-170 Owner's Manual not showing black rocker covers. What evidence do you have to show that the covers were painted black "to the late '50s?"

1948 Owner's Manual

[ghostflyer]

It was about 30 years ago we had to replace a number of engines due to fuel contamination which wrecked many aircraft engines around the country .some insurance company was picking up he bill and were buying engines in bulk from different manufacturers. We replaced 3 O-300 continental engines in ,2 Cessna and the other I think was a robin. However I do recall as I removed the rocker covers on all engines that they were plain silver steel. Nothing on them . They had started to have surface rust on them. The crank cases were Continental gold and one engine had a different gold color accessory case on it
Continental was contacted over a couple of items and the answer was this was the last of them and be thankful that you have them . These engines hadn’t even been run except the multi colored engine. All log books supplied were at zero hours . They had been in storage “many” years . I painted the rocker covers in gold ‘rattle can’’.

[GAHorn]

j... What evidence do you have to show that the covers were painted black "to the late '50s?"

1948 Owner's Manual.jpg

I'm not trying to start a disagreement I'm only expressing what I believe to be true based upon many reads through historical texts, observations and discussions with owners and the three people I trusted most in historical matters of this sort, Cleo Bickford, Mort Brown and Bill Goebel who spent an inordinate amount of time researching these sort of details when he worked at Textron.

I doubt that there was any rigid rules applicable to the assy line that required inspection/adherence to rigid specs of this sort and we all know that variations sometimes appear, but it's my opinion developed from more than just a "feeling" or an advertisement photo.
Certainly Continental "Gold" was not applied to engines before the sixties and then was likely only a marketing idea.