I got the original 3.4L XK engine back from the rebuilder (see attached picture) and I am busy building it up on my engine test stand prior to installation.
The oil filter canister is in decent shape but showing it’s age (see attached picture) and I plan to paint it this week.
I was thinking of painting it the same duck egg green enamel paint that I sourced for the head. What color was it painted at the factory? What other colors might be appropriate?
Paul
I can’t remember I’ll ask about. Sorry to be picky but the core plugs? Don’t think they’d have been that colour? Are these ones passivated? Originally cadmium if anything AKA clear zinc. Don’t think I’ve ever done a mark eight. But did loads of MK 7s and MK 9s
At the factory. Some of me colleagues are still above ground! I’ll ask one of them who MIGHT
Remember for you.
Is that just rust on the canister in the photo?
Or is it “ pumpkin orange” paint remnants? If so, my guess is that COULD be original.
Nigelplug,
I am not sure what color the paint on the canister is now. I thought it might be primer. I have a spare XK150 3.4L XK block that has a dark blue oil canister and that got me thinking. I will paint the head the duck egg light green enamel I got and if I have any left over I will probably paint the oil canister the same color to liven it up. After all it is only paint and it might contrast nicely against the black block and sump.
Paul
I am not sure about the core plugs. I have a few questlons for the machine shop and I will ask them about the core plugs.
I am not restoring this car to concours standards like some of my other Jaguars. I am doing this one entirely for fun, and I like the look of the gold core plugs. So they are definitely staying that way.
Paul
I don’t know if this is true for Mark VIII, but we have found on XK120, 140 and Mark VII that the entire oil filter was painted by Tecalemit in a copper color.
I found Plastikote FM8112 Ford Desert Tan Metallic is about as close a match as anyone could ask for.
Paul
Please dont paint it Duck egg green, it has to be a Browny color as Rob is showing in photo, and core plugs look like they are brass, they are softer and the edges form better to any irregular edges of the hole,and they dont rust.
Rob,
Thanks. Yes, that looks to be very much like the color on the oil filter canister now. I am afraid that regardless of how correct that color might be, I could never bring myself to repaint it that color now. 
I might go with black, silver, grey, or possibly duck egg green. But that color just doesn’t do anything for me except make me wonder “What could they possibly have been thinking?” With the rest of the XK engine being so beautiful that is the color that Jaguar decided to paint the oil filter canister?
Paul
Morris,
Thank you for your input. I am still considering colors for the oil filter canister, but that brown color in Rob’s picture does nothing for me, especially on such a beautiful engine. I will provide more pictures and a “oil filter canister color reveal” in the future. It will be tasteful and appropriately elegant, but definitely not that brown. 
Paul
Perhaps Tecalemit was using up a few drums of paint left over from other jobs. 
I guess it’s a matter of different tastes. Personally I can’t stomach duck egg green cylinder heads.
My camera may not capture the true color. It’s really more of a copper metallic color. Search Ford 1990 Desert Tan to see if you can find a truck painted that color.
Rob,
I am not crazy about the duck egg geen cylinder head color, but it is what it is. I have the enamel paint and I will paint the cylinder head duck egg green in the next few days.
Attached is a framed picture that I have hanging in my garage that shows the oil filter canister with a gold color. I took the picture at an angle to minimize glare, and the colors lose something when the picture is taken. But you get the idea that it isn’t an unattractive brown. I am still evaluating my options. Gold seems a bit much. Maybe a hammertone silver will look OK?
Paul
Hammertone looks good, and original and I think if you can get a color similar to that shown in the early engine pic shown by Rob Reilly above, that would look good & original, although it may not be perfectly correct for a MKVIII
Hi Paul,
I had trouble locating the Plasti-Kote colour, so I had a spraycan mixed up of what I thought was closest…(Holden Persian Sand Metallic)
(for my XK150)
Paul,
For a Mark VIII, thus a 3.4 litre engine fitted with a ‘B’ Type Cylinder Head, make sure you choose a ‘Duck-Egg GREEN’ colour, noting that in the 1960s this original colour as applied to later ‘B’ Type Cylinder Heads was more what I would call a ‘Duck-Egg BLUE’
The Tecalemit Oil Filter Cannister and Head Assembly is an FA2708, which is same as early XK150, see attached photos of an original…….
Two things to note, the FA2708 had only a painted Cannister, with the Head left natural aluminium, as opposed to earlier XK140 Oil Cleaners that had both Cannister and Head painted…
And be very careful matching colours based on photos and on-screen appearance, never accurate, and indeed easily adjustable, so best to find an original with good paint and match the physical colour, but in words its an ‘opalescent’ mid brown, and I say ‘opalescent’ as it is very subdued metallic effect, and not similar to a modern ‘Metallic’ paint, so be a little careful if you go for a pre-mixed rattle-can metallic paint…………………
Note also, FA2708 Oil Cleaners do not have any plaque/label attached to the aluminium head, but instead have a white label painted/screened on the side of the Cannister, and I have no idea if available or not as a reproduction decal/sticker or similar, not that I can imagine a decal lasting long given the heat of Oil Cleaner Cannister…
The colour in that photo is not as it was on the real engine. That, I think is a piece of art work.
In all my years at the works I never saw an oil filter that colour
All returned engines from Jaguar Reconditioning simply had it painted with the same paint as the cylinder block. So there’s quite a few black ones still out there.
I am glad that I asked the question about the oil filter canister paint as there have some helpful inputs. Although I have typically restored my Jaguars for JCNA Champion Division concours I am not doing that with my 1957 MK VIII. I am doing this one for fun, so hopefully you will appreciate what I did today with the block. I saw the gold Jaguar logo and 3 1/2 litre in the poster that I posted and decided that was what I wanted to do. I am still undecided about the oil filter canister color.
Paul
Roger,
Thank you for the detailed response and helpful pictures. The filter head on my engine does not appear to have been painted. I have a little more cleaning to do on it but other than that it appears in good shape. I planned to leave it unpainted and I am glad to hear that is how it left the factory, shortly after the fire in 1957.
Paul
Nigel,
Cant comment on factory reconditioned engine/oil cleaners, not something we see/ever supplied in Australia, albeit I do note that the later FA.2741/101 Oil Cleaner as fitted to later XK150 was painted black originally by Tecalemit, noting that although the Mark VIII Oil Cleaner was definitely painted an opalescent mid/brown colour, you really cannot colour match from photos on a digital screen.
JonV2,
Now that is not a bad color at all. Of course the colors in digital images can be a bit deceiving. Where is the world did you get that decal?
Paul
