FWIW, Galen's book says blue.

July 2nd, 1969 LM23P9B just under 445000

Windsor Ontario plant, assembled Jul 02, 1969. Definitely a late build.

anyone know another built that late?

Well the weird part is that orange was phased in for 1970 (and at the same engine plant) so why switch from turquoise to blue at the end of production? Maybe they ran short on turquoise towards the end and used blue that was on hand (for 318's etc.) In the interum before the orange showed up later on?

What color were Marine 340's? Were Marine 340's built at the Windsor plant?

2896 is July 2, 1969 for the '70 model year.

Yea John, typo, date is for July 69, but it could be a late 69 install, plus there's an E which dictates 1969 model year.

And everyone ASSumes that the engine was never touched since the day it was put in the car at the Chrysler plant. Is there a clear paper trail and is everything that ever happened to the car, or the one in the other picture known since it was new? I know of cars that had to have their original engines rebuilt shortly after new due to a variety of issues. There are many scenarios of why it may be painted differently than the majority of known original owner vehicles that are definitely turquoise...

It is the original engine and not one shred of evidence that it was ever turquoise. I'm going to paint it blue.

Well your mind was made up before you posted, good for you! Never seen a factory document that says in 1969 the 340 was blue or orange or any other color than turquoise. I hope somewhere down the line all these other engine colors can be verified other than word of mouth...

FWIW Jim, my comments are merely observations based on the information given in this thread. I have not come to any conclusions on this engine, just entertaining the possibilities.

Scott, I was talking about the OP not you, we are pretty much always on the same page when it comes to engine paint. I have another TSB to show...

ok, fine with me

SPD 625

http://www.moparaction.com/Article/JUNE/JUNE.html

Yea, that car has been HEAVILY worked over to clean off dirt/rust/detailed, etc. but like your example, it does appear to have originally had a blue engine.

Giveaway to me is the neg bat cable is blue. Maybe just maybe all the pieces could have been hot tanked when or if rebuilt( most shops wouldn't go to the trouble then), no way would they paint the cable too, it was unbolted and stayed in the car.

There is always the "never say never" with any Chrysler product, but once again a very late built car. I have seen a 69 Swinger 340 with bucket seats, fender turn signals, and rocker moldings that was a July built car and those options were not available on Swinger 340's. Could a few examples have been painted blue because turquoise was being phased out? Probably, but the vast MAJORITY were painted turquoise and Chrysler documentation still TRUMPS a few examples found in the wild... Can anyone find any TSB's that show a late-year switch to blue? I certainly haven't.

The great debate, I'm for whatever came off that line, no matter what the mess up, instead of making it like "99%" of the others. If someone is born with six toes do we wack it off just because the rest of us have five? Or do you think these oddball cars will upstage the more "normal" cars value like a miss-stamped coin? People go to all the trouble to apply paint dab marks, runs, overspray from what came off the line, I see no difference with the paint on this engine.

I'm for preserving history, not complying to a "norm" to gain acceptance. I think it's interesting to seek and document exceptions and variables.