I know this has been asked to death but I'm looking for a definitive answer

what color should a 1969 cutlass 4BBL air cleaner cover be?

Red or Black

 

Red is for high compression motors and black for low compression.

 

Factory 4bbl are high compression, red for the 400, black for the 350.

 

Assembly Manual has all that detail, right?

wildaboutcars.com

 

Yup!

 

my car is basically all original and has a red cover, the same mechanic worked out it for 40 years before I bought it, so he must have replaced it with one from a 400 at some point.. thanks

now if I want to paint it black is it gloss or flat?

 

My 70 4bbl 350 has red. My 70 2bbl 350 has black. My 68 high compression 2bbl has red. My 72 low compression 4bbl 350 has black.

Red is for high compression motors and black is for low compression. In most
cases 4bbl is high compression and 2bbl is low, but not always.

 

more confused than before after reading this

 

All high compression motors 2bbl or 4bbl used red air cleaners. All low compression motors 2bbl or 4bbl used black air cleaners.

 

His is a Cutlass, there were no high compression 2bbls on the Cutlass in '69, All 1970 Cutlass air cleaner canisters were black. LI Olds, refer to the assy. manual for reference.

 

The 69 assembly manual doesn't have the colors like the 68 manual does. (at least not that I can find) . Section 6-1 page 151 is the 69 air cleaner usage page. Totally different than the 68.

 

I have several '69 350 4 bbl air cleaners and they are all red...