Ever since I rebuilt my engine with the stock front sump pan, I have always ran it a quart to quart and a half over full as per the "FAQ" at the top of the page.

Ever since I rebuilt my engine, it has been an oil guzzling fool - about 1qt per 1,000 miles.

About four thousand miles ago, I checked the oil and it had sucked down to just a shade above the original full mark. I was busy and didn't get around to adding oil for another two thousand miles. When I did, it was still just a shade above the full mark. I figured my engine must have finally got broken in all the way and happily added another quart.

Fast forward a thousand miles and the oil had sucked down to just a shade over the original full mark.

I ran it another thousand miles until now and the oil is still just a shade above the original full mark.

My engine has no leaks to speak of - just a sweat around the distributor - and therefore must be sending the oil out the tailpipe.

Why does my engine burn any extra oil that I put in it to make it overfull but doesn't use a drop when I don't run it overfull??

 

The extra oil results in more oil froth in the crankcase, and more of that gets past the rings. More oil being beaten into a frenzy results in more of it going out the PCV as well. That's my theory.

 

I agree on the froth/foaming over filling causes. Over filling is OK for race engines but not needed on a street engine in my opinion..

 

If your rocker arms and shafts are in good shape, I doubt you need the extra oil.

One of the common misconceptions (in my opinion) about FEs is that the oil feed to the heads feeds "too much" oil and to either restrict the oil feed or just run more oil in the crankcase.

I've found over the year talking with people here that those with good rocker arms/shafts clearance (not too loose) don't have any over-oiling issues.

In your case, I bet the oil level is high enough that it's intermittently hitting the crank as it spins, getting whipped up into the cylinders, and it's just burning it.

Fill it to the full mark and let it do it's thing. Unless you're running high RPMs a lot, it's not going to help anything.

 

FAQ edited to add a caveat about adding more oil.

 

Dad used to have a 59 Ford car. He always filled it to the factory spec at each oil change. It always threw out a quart within a few hundred miles and then stayed at that level.... did that it's whole life. Guess the oil found its "happy place."


For your rebuild, did you stroke it or modify the heads in any way to affect oiling?

 

My stock 352 never had an over oiling problem and neither did millions of other factory FE's that I know of as long as the return holes were flowing free.. After rebuilding it into a 390 I did have more oil to the heads then I liked and ended up using restrictors. I assumed the only difference was using an HV oil pump that may have caused this???

 

With 40 years of ownership of trucks with FE engines I never put but 5 qts in.

Try that one time and monitor what levels it keeps.


John

 

My 428cj takes 5 qts. To put it exactly at the full mark. It is still at the full mark when the next oil change comes. No restrictors used. No reason to over fill an engine under normal conditions in my opinion.

 

It doesn't hurt to use restrictors in the heads as the newest original rockers are 40 years old and most likely have some wear allowing access oil to build up in the head.
Most after market heads have restrictors built into them.
I used HV oil pumps years ago, I know better today. Running a HV oil pump will cause the oil filter to bypass more unfiltered oil to the bearings.
Had a lifter failure on a new race engine, the HV pump causing the filter to bypass sent metal fragments straight to the bearings destroying the crankshaft.

 

Been running a HV oil pump in my 428 for over 20 years now and have never had an oiling or wear problem.

 

I've used HV pumps on the last 5 FE's and the last 4 Y blocks with no issues. The one FE that I had a little to much oil to the heads was using adjustable rockers and solid lifters.

 

I know a lot of guys use hv or hp pumps but I have always had good success with a standard pump. We did use a restrictor in the head and drilled the passage at the oil filter. Ran sweet for years.


John

 

The thing with HV pumps is that if the rockers/shafts are worn, you WILL flood the heads.

If they aren't, well, everything's good

 

I never said HV oil pumps caused oiling or wear problems, just that if there is a problem they can compound it.
I use head restrictors in all FE's, stock or performance, drilling the filter pad is also a good thing to do on all FE's, but normally I only do it to performance builds.
IMO HV oil pumps are unnecessary, they pump more oil than the engine needs for lubrication, they pump more oil than the filter can handle so more unfiltered oil is pumped into engine than would be with a stock pump. If the engine has worn rocker system flooding the head or metal particles getting in the oil a HV oil pump can compound the problem.