Hello- I have a 1960 Monterey with a 460 in it from an f250. Yesterday on a short-medium long trip (20+miles) on the highway I noticed it was running a little bit hotter than usual but not hot enough to really warrant any real concern but just curiosity. Off the highway it cooled down to normal and I noticed the same on the way home. I thought it might have been the radiator cap as I had changed it so I went back to the old one and that helped slightly but not back to normal.
Then this morning I topped off the coolant and checked the oil. The dip stick isn’t correct as it shows being full at only 5quarts and that is what it was at this morning. So I added about another quart and drove all day today with no problem.
So my question is, what exactly is the oil capacity on these things? Is it 5-7 quarts or so? I have to guess the level because of the incorrect dip stick so I thought I’d ask. And- did running with about 5 quarts of oil hurt anything

? Thanks!

 

I am going to say 5 qt should be good and if you did not hear any lifter ticking or other noise you are ok.
Take it no oil pressure gauge to know what it was reading.

Now 1 thing to keep in mine with the 5 qt is was it done by the bean counter or what?
I say this because what if your computation had 5 qt oil changes and you had 6 qt changes, they would be cheaper in the long run of the car / truck.
Now if that 6 qt motor run only 5 qts what damage could happen?
Well few motors may burn up bearings as oil dose not drain back fast enough to the pan at higher RPM (long high way drives) and run dry.
Bean counters went with the 5 qt to be even with the others and deal with the few burned up motors.

And dont say it would never happen as it did. Early AMC ower manuals listed 6 qt and was changed to 5 qt and a few motors did burn up.
It is now known to run 6 qt at oil changes to keep your motor safe.

BTW the 300 six guys have this talk also, I run 5 qt at changes but I also have over drive and at 70 MPH tuning 1800 RPM so dont think I have to worry on running the pan dry with high RPM LOL
Dave ----

 

My first question is, are you sure the oil pan is out of the F250? If so, presumably it's from a 2wd because a 4wd pan might not fit the car chassis.
Is it a rear sump, double-sump, or front sump pan? The difference might be why the dipstick shows full at 5qts, because the cars probably took 5qts.
But I'm not a 460 expert by any means, so maybe others would know right off the top of their heads if you have a pic to show us.

Overfilling was ALWAYS frowned upon when I was growing up. Done it a time or two though, and overfilling an old engine by a quart probably does not do anything more than rob some power up high. But it does cavitate and agitate and aerate the oil, all of which are bad things. How bad depends on the individual engine.
The power robbing aspects are well documented and recently done on a dyno in the program Engine Masters on MotorTrend. Every time they dropped it a quart they gained quite a bit of power. Even in aftermarket high-capacity pans.
A real eye-opener for sure.

If your pan happens to be a match for a 460 in a passenger car, perhaps your dipstick is correct after all. In my Hayne's book it lists 460's in trucks as having either 7qts or 6qts. No specifying vehicle other than year though, so maybe I'm wrong and even the 2wd pans were higher capacity. Maybe google passenger car 460 applications to see if the capacities show up.

Good luck.

paul