MTFCA Forum

Hello,

I just wanted to see what you all think of adding an extra quart with an oil change in more mountainous areas. I recently read that many people will use 5 quarts in their T's instead of 4 to ensure good oiling to the front of the engine when driving in hilly or mountainous areas. Does anyone think this is necessary?

Thanks and God Bless.

I think an auxilliary outside oiler would be a better choice. The "Texas T" oiler moves a lot of oil to the front of the engine. Overfilling the crankcase is not a good idea, and it may not help engine oiling on steep climbs

Over filling the crankcase robs a lot of engine power and forces more oil out of areas that do not normally leak oil.

Oil starvation on hard hills is a real thing, but "many people" are dead wrong if they are advising 5 Qts in the crank case. I'm guessing many people are on Facebook and their sum total of experience is with a game console.

If you live in hilly country, invest in a good outside oiler. If you DON'T live in hilly country, invest in an outside oiler.

I agree with the above. Overfilling will not put more oil in the front, it will still remain in the transmission area. The front second front oil line is best. I have some steep grades in my area, and have had no problem with the front of the engine I use the magneto oiler. Any other type will take modifications to the hogs head or other parts. But some think they are better.

Norm

OK,
This is one of my subjects to preach to. First I run two aux. oilers on my engines. One Mag & one in the left side of the hogshead. With this I caution
use steel lines not copper lines, if you use copper lines, replace them every 2 years or so. I have broken one and pumped most of the oil out of my engine.( fortunatlly did not distroy the engine ) If I had not added a extra quart it would have pumped all the oil out of the engine and I'm sure would have junked it.
I recantly built a spare engine just in case. You never now. When I went to start it on the run stand.( I like to run every engine for two or more hours before I put them away, Torque head gaskets ) I discovered I had no steel tubing left. So I installed fittings & some 3/8" clear reinforced tubing from the hogshead oiler to the front of the pan. When running the engine I was very disapointed at how little oil it flowed into the front of the engine until it reached operating temp. 180* + and was turning 1500 rpm + . I had never tested the flow before. Other than when the oil line broke. Out of curiosity I decided to add a quart more oil and found that the flow was greatly incresed when the engine was cold and by a even greater amount when warmed up. As I understand the effect of oil splash robbing horse power doesn't start untill 5,000 RPM for the crank. As far as the drag on the flywheel I dought that a extra quart of oil in a circulating T engine would be that signifacant if most of it is in the front of the engine. I have read that some early T racers ran 2 gallons of oil in there engines. So I'm not worried about running a little extra oil any time especially in the mountains.
J.M.H.O.
Craig.

I'm running a left side hogshead oiler from Langs. It came with CLEAR rubber tubing and instructions. When I ran the tubing two years ago, I made sure it was not chafing. So far, so good. bobt

I am running the "Terry Horlock" system on my T's which is a takeoff from the hogshead where oil sling is greatest into a 1/2" line to the front of the pan. No problems and we have a few little hills here in ET.

Running excessive amounts of oil in a T engine is asking for trouble. 3.5 to 4 quarts is enough. Ford recommended about 3.5 quarts for best results. Running any T engine hard before it reaches operating temperature is not a good idea. Lugging the engine at very low RPM with a heavy load is not a good idea, regardless of terrain. The engine oiling system operates best at operating temperature with a light bodied, high quality oil, such as a 10W30. All engines circulate more oil at higher engine speeds. The T engine will automatically increase the oil level around the flywheel when climbing any significant slope. Adding a good outside oiler will materially increase oil flow to the front of the engine at all speeds. The Texas T oiler is capable of over-oiling the engine by flooding the rod troughs with too much oil. Excess oil in the crankcase will impose excess drag on the engine at all speeds while contributing to carbon accumulation, oil burning, poor fuel mileage, low power, and excessive oil leakage. A good outside oiler will assure that plenty of oil reaches all parts of the engine under any reasonable operating condition with Ford recommended oil levels in the crankcase. In steep mountain country, I'd run a Texas T oiler and no more than 4 quarts of oil in the crankcase. Three to three and a half quarts would probably be best.

Racers may have had deep sump pans. I doubt a stock T engine would be competitive with 2 gallons of oil in a stock pan.

Lots of old discussions about about outside oil lines: types, pickup points and placement locations. There is no question that these can't hurt anything but what is the best setup and what do they rely on to work. The splash lubrication does have flow (dippers or magnets). I do see some issue on their effectiveness on steep grades BUT anything is better than nothing. Pictures open for discussion. There is a YouTube video showing a comparison of oil through the transmission oil filters, its about the only visual of oil movement in a running engine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXimnKoDPSI
Old image suggesting oil flow around hogshead. 2 o'clock may be most oil but 10 o'clock may provide the most push. --
--
These are showing several different accessories and how they connect to the engine and what they depend on to function.
The image with the the transmission flow was a discussion about modifying the transmission filter. Just a consideration if use a outside oil line connected to the transmission inspection cover. --
--
Finally, just some thinking about how the oil would flow depending on an incline since the system is pumpless.

An important thing about a magneto post oiler is to be sure the electrical parts don't block the entrance to the oil pipe. You might have to make a few adjustments to accomplish this. As long as it is open, the oil should flow very well. Best thing to use is multigrade oil because the single grade oil tends to be thicker when cold. Also the cooling system warms up the engine quicker without a water pump, but if you must use the water pump you might also install a thermostat.
This is a personal experience. Remember I live on a mountain and the approach is about 2 miles at 6%grade. Most places we tour also have hills and mountains including Death Valley.
This is the experience. I installed a rebuilt engine in my T and the first time I drove the magneto quit working. I had a magneto post oiler on it and I drove for about 10 years on battery. Later I rewound 3 magneto rings and decided to install one in my existing T, so I pulled the engine and found the funnel from the inside oil line laying in the crankcase. So I drove for 10 years with only the pipe inside without the funnel and the magneto oil line. Bearings were fine. I even took that car on the Canyonlands tour where we visited Bryce, Cedar Breaks, North Rim of Grand Canyon and Zion national park. There were a lot of grades to climb on that tour and I did not fill the oil above the top petcock.
Norm