1959 Mercury 312 engine color

Stephenorf

Stephenorf

Senior Member
I've confused myself looking online & searching threads for the 'correct' color to paint the block/valve covers/air cleaner on my 1959 Mercury Menterey with a 312. Is it green block with blue valve covers & breather?

TIA
 
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Colour of one of the available 1959 Mercury Engines - from the Sales Brochure
 
fordyford said:
The pictures are NOT 312 Y blocks. Look at the location of the distributer.
Keith
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Mercman never claimed they were a 312. As stated "one of the engines available".
Both pictures are MEL series engines. Either a 383 or a 430.

Sal
 
The red one is a MEL 383 and the gold one is a MEL 430 I had a 59 Monterey and turquoise comes to mind 312
 
big job said:
The red one is a MEL 383 and the gold one is a MEL 430 I had a 59 Monterey and turquoise comes to mind 312
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That's what I was thinking. On the 1959 312, I thought the block was some shade of green, with red valve covers and air breather. I'm curious if anyone has the Krylo/rattle can color code for the green/aqua or red paint....if red and agua are indeed the factory colors.
 
mercman from oz said:
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Engine Colour - 1959 Mercury Park Lane - Photo from Internet
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Thanks Mercman. I noticed when I was researching that Mercury seemed to use different color combinations depending on the CI displacement of the motor. I see a lot of 1959 Mercury Montereys with the 383 'Marauders' that are all done up, but I'm not sure if the colors are the same for a 312. Also noted, that trucks with 312s also got different colors than the FS passenger cars. I'm not positive about those things, but it seems like it mightbe fact based on the internet searched I've executed.
 
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What I remember was that they were a light blue on the air filter housing and the rocker covers.Ford used engine color to ID engines for quite a while. The color can change with different applications too. It is hard to find engine color information after the point that they started offering multiple types of engines. The 312 was a basic Mercury Monterey type engine in 1959. Most of the fancier design Mercury cars were being offered with the Lincoln Y-blocks and the big MELs except that 1958 was the last year they used the Lincoln 368 engine.
 
Hirsch Automotive in NJ sells engine paint. Maybe a call to them will help you. And you can get the paint there if they have it.
 
So I found this site that has some specs on the Mercury 312 Y Block.

https://motor-car.net/ford-engines/item/13818-ford-y-block-engine

This information is also repeated on Wikpidea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Y-block_engine

But these only gives paint details for 1956. Interestingly the data notes how the 312 motors got different colored valve covers and air claeners depending on the HP rating of the particular motor.

in 1956:
THe block and heads were gold
The 210HP version got red valve covers & air cleaner
The 225HP version got blue valve covers & air cleaner
The 235HP version got argent silver valve covers & air cleaner

I'm assuming the 1959 312s used different color schemes to denote the various HP ratings but I can't seeem to find anyting conclusinve on the 1959 model.

Still searching, any help is appreciated.
 
rotorwrench said:
What I remember was that they were a light blue on the air filter housing and the rocker covers.Ford used engine color to ID engines for quite a while. The color can change with different applications too. It is hard to find engine color information after the point that they started offering multiple types of engines. The 312 was a basic Mercury Monterey type engine in 1959. Most of the fancier design Mercury cars were being offered with the Lincoln Y-blocks and the big MELs except that 1958 was the last year they used the Lincoln 368 engine.
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Thank you. I'm finding it difficult to nail down the color combo used for my 1959 312. The valve covers have blue under red and the original air cleaner is long gone. I don't see any paint on the block, but will have to inspect more closely to see if there's any left.
 
1956 was the hay day for the Y-block. After the FE and MEL blocks came on line it was reduced to the basic line up for Mercury. Ford's basic engine was the inline 6-cylinder but the 292 was still available for a time. Pickups and trucks were the last to have them.
 
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