Air Filter Cylinder Colour

[Philk]

Having looked through the various reference books, I've been unable to confirm whether all S1 3.8s had a black air filter cylinder housing or whether they were changed to silver ahead of the 4.2 S1 was introduced.

Last night I was watching on BBC iPlayer the earlier recording of "The Car's the Star" on the E-Type which, for some reason, is currently available. This showed a clip of what appeared to be a promotional film for the 4.2 S1 and this showed that car with a black air filter cylinder. Does this answer the question insofar that all 3.8s and some of the early 4.2s had black cylinders? I've attached a screen grab below.

[keithmac]

My 4.2 S1 was made in January 67 and has a black air cylinder. I recently sanded it to bare metal and it was black right down to metal. Not a definitive word , I know, but a good indicator .
Regards
Keith

[mgcjag]

Hi Phil....have you looked at the service bulletins in the Knowledge base technical section...also you can search xkedata...it has many Es listed (and you should put yours on there)...you can get a very good idea of when things changed over by viewing photos of cars by date and chassis number... Steve

[Heuer]

The filter canister was semi-gloss black on all 3.8's and early 4.2's. After that they were silver.

[Philk]

Hi Phil....have you looked at the service bulletins in the Knowledge base technical section...also you can search xkedata...it has many Es listed (and you should put yours on there)...you can get a very good idea of when things changed over by viewing photos of cars by date and chassis number... Steve

Hi Steve

Yes - mine is there and I did a trawl forward and backwards from that point. Quite a few cars have had theirs painted silver. However, I had not gone into the 4.2s which would likely have showed up some black cylinders..... Phil

[Mark Gordon]

Silver on my 3 March 67.