Interesting Old NOS Parts

I find this interesting and I figured I would share this with you guys. I bought this old NOS F-20 engine block from Justin Weber several months ago. The block was covered in an unknown black protectant that was cleaned off. I found it really neat to find where they had painted the part number on the block in a yellow paint.

I've always had a facination on how these parts were made and often think of the people that helped produce these old tractors when I'm tinkering. I noticed the paint was not exactly the IH red that I'm use too, but like a faded red. I figured the black protectant changed the color of the paint some how. Then I noticed the paint was the exact color of my other internal engine parts from another motor. Then it hit me, obviously this paint is some sort of a primer and they painted the whole engine block after it was casted and cooled. Then they did the machine work to the block and shipped it off. Something interesting I thought I would pass on. Don't know of to many NOS engine blocks laying around these days that are 65+ years old.

This is a picture of the engine block still in the crate.