My '48 Int. KB-7 (Sanford)

[Joey Mack]

I am tempted to use 15W40 engine oil in Sanford. Its an inline 6 gasser.  Thoughts ??

[Geoff Weeks]

It is what I use, and much better than anything they had "back in the day". I put a PCV system on mine and it helped alot keeping moisture out of the crankcase.

[mowerman]

I am not even gonna make make much of a comment on that one, but it sounds like a great idea to me shell Rotella 

[mowerman]

And yes, geoff from what I hear oil has come a long way

[Joey Mack]

PCV?  Hmm, I may just do that too. Did you drill into the valve cover?

[Joey Mack]

Do you still use the sock oil filter ?  I was thinking about removing the filter and jus sealing the housing.  This is a parade/ local truck. 

[Geoff Weeks]

No, no change to the valve cover. There is (on mine anyway) a 1/4" NPT port that is hooked to the air cleaner in the original set up. I remove this tube and the flare adapter in the valve cover and use a thread in PCV valve in its place and connect to the vacuum port on the manifold.  So it draws air in through the fill cap metal gauze and the fumes out the valve to the manifold.

 As to oil filter, I have one, my 1942 has a Michiana with a paper element and two with a Deluxe with the "sock type" filter.  I can get the paper element from Baldwin filters, and have a few sock filters.  I had thought of making an adapter and fitting an industrial "Spinner" filter. The ones for trucks need air pressure to return the oil to the sump, the industrial versions are set for gravity return.

Unless you want to re-route the oil from the oil pump to the main oil rifle, full flow filtering is not an option. I think you know the relief valve is in the filter adapter, so you can't remove the filter adapter as you'll be removing the relief valve as well.

I think the socks are still available, but you may have to look a bit.

[Joey Mack]

I can still get the socks. I gues i was thinking about no sock, but leave the housing in place. 

[Geoff Weeks]

Although they are a bypass and don't do a great deal of filtering, I don't see any gain by not having it in there. 

[Joey Mack]

Ok.  I guess I wanted higher oil pressure, it only peaked at about 30 ish at idle around 15.  Of course this was with the original sensor and the dash gauge worked.  

[Geoff Weeks]

Since the filter provides a restriction between the main oil rifle and the sump, removing will not change the pressure. the restriction in the housing  limits the flow through the filter to the sump. a restricted filter would not change the pressure.

 You could try shimming the relief, but I would guess the bearing clearances are more likely. I can't remember if you went through the engine or not.

 Main bearing sets are hard to find and come in two types, thrust washer type and conventional rear main with thrust surface on the bearing shell. You can use either type, but you have to either remove the thrust washer retaining pin or notch the shell to clear the pin and leave it in place.

 On mine, I tend to think may be the oil pump shaft bushing may be worn and leaking pressure out of the pump past the shaft bushing. It tops out at about 40 PSI but hot it drops a bit.

[Brocky]

Joey, I am a firm believer in Shell Rotella 15W40. I run it in both my Diamond T with a rebuilt Hercules flat head six and my 92 Caddy that only has 135k miles on it.

[Joey Mack]

GW.  I was curious about the pressure issue. I did not rebuild the engine. When i had it running, it ran great, and the torque when i let the clutch out and when i stabbed the throttle,  was impressive to me .. I will leave it like it is. I hope I rebuild the starter correctly,  and then get it to fire up with my new wiring. Im hoping the distributor will accept 12 volt neg ground as it is. 

[Geoff Weeks]

It will, mine was 12 volt - when I bought it.

[Joey Mack]

Thank you for helping me again.  I have not done what I am doing to this truck on any other truck. At times, I tend to overthink things, only to find out that I am fine..  This is likely one of those times again..  

[mowerman]

Joey, I’ve had many old old cars in my time and it seems like those older engines had just about that same oil pressure. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it at all as far as oil pressure goes 

 

[Joey Mack]

GW. I stopped to think about a PVC.. I looked at the truck a minute ago.  I have a copper line coming from the valve cover going to the air cleaner.  I forgot it. I even blasted and painted it for installation.. 

[mechohaulic]

1 hour ago, Joey Mack said:

Thank you for helping me again.  I have not done what I am doing to this truck on any other truck. At times, I tend to overthink things, only to find out that I am fine..  This is likely one of those times again..  

"overthinking" is the signs of a real mechanic. any one can build . a real mechanic ALWAYS  has the back thought of - what if !! 

[cruiseliner64]

Guilty of the overthinking thing as well.When I was working as a mechanic I was always told my work was first class but I was too slow to which I replied you cant have both.I know time is money but in my world if you do it right first time then you save money down the road.Its why I love the restoration work...no time pressure..

Paul

[Joey Mack]

Paul,. doing a job over again wastes time and money for sure. The only pressure I am under is my need to drive this truck. But I do have to take care in these next steps. 

[Geoff Weeks]

One thing that came to me after a nights sleep. Have you had the pan off? These old engines with non-detergent oil allowed the sludge to accumulate in the bottom of the pan. The oil pick-up screen was designed to "float" above the bottom. (it actually pivots on its tube). If you haven't had the pan off, I would pull it and clean.

 On mine I wanted to re-bearing but being as old as it was thought I better look at the bearing size 1st. Dropped the pan and cleaned it out, sparkling clean. I put the pan back and it was a while before I found new bearings (may be a month of running) and was shocked at how much more junk had been washed into the pan again.

P.S. 15w-40 works great, just don't try and start it after sitting at -23F all night on 6 volts with that in the sump, like I did.  I was moving and we stopped at a motel, and the temp took a nose dive while we were sleeping. We had my Explorer also, so pull started it. 

[Joey Mack]

My plan is to pull the pan to clean the sludge.  

The coldest it gets here is 10 degrees, for 1 day.  I doubt i will have an issue there.. 👍

[mowerman]

I was gonna say the same thing there’s nothing wrong with overthinking and taking your time especially with the stuff that really doesn’t have to move. If you’re not sure about something it’s going to eat you alive if you didn’t do anything about it pulling the pan as a fantastic idea. That way you can take a look at everything in there.

[tjc transport]

i am also a firm believer of do it rite and you will only have to do it once.

when running the body shop, i would tell potential customers there is only 2 ways to do things, the rite way and the wrong way. good repairs are very rarely cheap, and cheap repairs are very rarely good. we only do things the rite way, and that is not the cheap way.