I have a 1954 Ford F-500 with a 239 engine and 1,877 original miles. Yes thats the actual miles. Im wondering what oil to use. It calls for 30 weight, should I use non-detergent oil? I am planning stripping everything and restoring the truck next year. I know, "if it aint broke..." but what repairs should I do when I have the engine out. The engine runs good. What should I do before I drive it over the next year? Danny

 

take your pick.

 

I would use Shell Rotella 15w-40, Chevron DELO 15w40 or any oil rated for a diesel to get the increased anti wear additives. (they didn't have 15w40 in 1955)
I wouldn't put NON-detergent oil in ANYTHING.


If it hasn't ran in years you might want to take an old distributor, remove the drive gear and put it in there to spin the oil pump so as to pre-oil the engine.

You can use a deep socket and extention too........D O N " T D R O P T H E SOCKET INTO THE ENGINE!!!

Use a drill motor to turn it. If you use a 15w40 oil in cold weather you'll get oil flow where it needs to be a little quicker..... There's probably not a lot of sludge in the engine after only 1800 miles but there may be corrosion....Not much you can do about that. With the valve covers off and turning the oil pump with a drill you can observe the valve train and determine if there's sufficient oil flow to the rockers.



Regards,

Rick

 

a detergent oil such as rotella will clean a engine up.but on old engines that only had non det oil in them are dirty.if it is dirty you could end up pluging the suction sceen in the oil pan.i just had this to happen to me in a 56 victoria.but my engine is very dirty it mite not happen to you.i did find rotell t in straight40 non detergent that would be real good for these old engines with solid liffters because its a diesel rated and the old detroits 8v-71 is rated for.

 

I would think that would be unlikely in an engine that only has 1800 miles on it... would have much sludge in it....

Also....If I was going to start using an engine like this it would be good to get a new pan gasket and clean the screen after running it with new oil in it.

All oils are detergent nowadays....since the 1930's...........unless you get SA type oil.

Here's what The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said about SA oil..... click here: SA OIL


The only thing I'd use non detergent oil in, is maybe a compressor......


Regards,

Rick

 

I'd use Mobil 15w-40 non-synthetic motor oil and a half bottle of STP oil treatment. Use the low-cost Mobil oil and change it often. You <b>must</b> use STP oil treatment or you will wipe out the cam. Use Wix or NAPA or MotorCraft oil filters.

Alternatives to STP oil treatment are GM EOS and WalMart TechLube. But get the STP, it makes things simple.

If you don't get enough oil pressure with the 15w-40, go to the 20w-50. Keep the battery charged and make sure you're using 0 or 00 gauge wires between the starter and the battery's negative terminal, and between the bellhousing or block and the positive terminal.

Good luck.

Paul

 

Is this an old fire truck or something? The low miles may be misleading as the thing probably has hours of idle time. If fire service it could have many hours of stationary running driving its onboard fire pump.

When I was a volunteer firefighter we had a F-600 pumper that was over 20 years old at the time showing 15,000 miles on the odometer. I've seen that one sitting at a fire with the exhaust manifolds glowing for a several hours at a time. They're tough.

In any case it sounds like a good find. 15w-40 or a good quality 10w-30 should work fine. How's the compression?

 

how about posting some pics of this truck?

 

i would use straight 30 weight detergent oil in that in the summer if your in a hot climate straight 4o weight but multi weight oils will work just fine non detergents was designed for air compressor and industrial use mostly old school engine builders used non detergent the first 500 hundrend miles for break in and switch over to detergent oil and you dont need additive and such. you can get straight weight oils through most parts stores

 

Virtually all gasoline engine-rated oils today have no zinc or zinc compounds in them anymore, for emissions reasons. These compounds were used to prevent wear at high pressure areas- most specifically the lifter foot-cam lobe interface; also, for that matter, rocker arm-valve stem contact. That is why Paul recommended the additives. Detergent oil, non-detergent, it doesn't make any difference. Now that most production engines use roller lifters, or no lifters at all, zinc is considered to be unnecessary...thereby screwing those of us who haven't been cooperative enough to buy new cars.

Currently, the alternatives are to A) use diesel-rated oil, such as Rotella or Delvac, which still have zinc compounds (though somewhat different than what was in the "old oil" available until recently); B) use racing oil- Valvoline still has zinc, supposedly, as well as the exotics like Red Line and Royal Purple; C) use additives, as Paul listed.

Using "regular" oil without any of these three alternatives may work, for a time...but why gamble? Add the ZDDP/zinc & relax.

 

My 56 F600 has yblock and had not run for 15 years till now.I put 30 weight non-deteargeant oil in .The 56 only has 21,000 miles and would I assume I should use rotella 40 weight non det. instead?It runs great and I do not want sludge.I know the original owner used non-det..THANKS

 

Since the Y engines did not have hydraulic valve lifters HD oils are not needed
to protect the camshaft. Some one posted that Heavy duty oils have been around since 1930, I don't think so, as the first real HD oils were ones that carried the MIL 2104A spec which appeared after WW2. In the early 1950's the
oil specs were ML, MM and MS, the MS meeting the 2104b requirements. ML
was for light service (no additives) and MM or medium service (some additives ) and the MS was severe and early on it was the diesel oil as well. I remember the first couple of engines I pulled apart with the zinc additives, you would find a paste like grey accumulation in the ridge around the drain plugs of the oil pan took me a while to figure out what it was as it wasn't magnetic. One day I cut
the top out of an oil can and there was a bit in the bottom then I knew.
kotzy