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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / engine life

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Posted By Discussion Topic: engine life     trjford8 11-23-2009 @ 6:52 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 4215 Joined: Oct 2009 I agree with Bob on this. I bought a 38 Deluxe Club Coupe with only 31,000 original miles on it. It had the original upholstery and a one time repaint of the original color. It was an eastern car and showed no signs of rust, so it obviously was not driven much in the winter.It was sold new in Pennsylvania. The car was tight and not a rattle anywhere and steered and drove like a brand new 38 Ford except for one thing. It used a quart of oil every 60 miles. After I owned it for a while and went on some tours I quit checking the dip stick and added oil by watching the trip meter in the speedometer. When the trip meter got to 60 miles I stopped and added a quart. I removed the motor and had it rebuilt. The block was very clean(water jackets) and not a crack was found anywhere in the block.It was full of sludge from sitting all those years and the tops of the pistons were loaded with carbon.I've seen several barn find cars and after they have been running for a short period of time they all need a rebuild due to excessive oil consumption. supereal 11-23-2009 @ 8:37 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 "Barn find" cars almost always require an engine teardown, as most were simply turned off and parked, or stopped running and were sidelined. At the very least, the seals have long since deteriorated, as have the belts, etc. The valve chamber and oil pan probably have a collection of sludge that, if unremoved, will finish off the bearings quickly. The carb and fuel system will have remnants of evaporated gas, and the dirty valve stems will likely cause at least one or two valves to hang up, and we haven't even gotten to the cooling system. Even if, by some chance, a long silent engine can be started, it is unlikely it will go far before irreversable damage. Stroker 11-23-2009 @ 8:13 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1460 Joined: Oct 2009 I apologize to all for being so verbose, but I'm still trying to sort out the question. If the question is could a person expect to simply fire up an engine that has been in storage since it's original 50,000 miles were accumulated a half century ago, and expect to drive it another 25,000 miles, then the answer will be clear to all of us. I wonder how many vehicles are placed in storage after pickling the engine, draining the coolant and installing silica-gel storage plugs? Stroker 11-23-2009 @ 7:46 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1460 Joined: Oct 2009 Well, given the clarified premise; I'd give a qualified yes. The qualification is that the likelihood that the car was driven hard should be revealed in other visible ways. Having said that, it sounds like there is a prejudice against a car that has had its engine rebuilt or "refreshed". If that was done at a dealership or qualified repair shop, I believe this would be a misplaced concern. An "in-frame" heads and manifold off valve touch up might be detected by close inspection of the manifold bolts to see if they were disturbed after the block was painted. Head bolts probably would have been re-torqued, even on an unmolested original factory motor. In 1942, gas was rationed, new tires were practically extinct, replacement parts were not being reproduced,and people were going to great lengths to preserve their precious and irreplaceable transportation. It is unlikely that a non-commercial vehicle would be driven hard during this period of strategic shortages. So, an early 40's Ford would most likely not accumulated 50,000 miles before 1946, and thus most of the mileage would have been accumulated during the post war period. Lets say that the hypothetical barn car was therefore parked in 1950. How likely is it that one would rebuild or swap-out the engine, just to put it in storage? 42wagon 11-23-2009 @ 3:24 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 584 Joined: Oct 2009 Looking at the answers I am getting I realized that I didn't really ask my question correctly. What I would like to know is this: In 1941, or 42 you drive a brand new car out of the show room. Given reasonable care and reasonable driving conditions when could you expect to have to rebuild the engine? Carrying that forward, you find a car in a barn with 50 thousand miles on it, is it reasonable to expect that you have an original untouched engine? trjford8 11-22-2009 @ 7:35 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 4215 Joined: Oct 2009 Stroker makes some valid points on how long the motor will last. Actually we only drive these cars 1000 to 1500 miles a year on tours etc. It is done mostly on 2 lane roads. If you do the math it will take 20 years to reach 20,000 miles. If the rebuild is good for 50,000 we'll lose our driver's license before we wear out the motor! Stroker 11-22-2009 @ 3:00 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1460 Joined: Oct 2009 As a young ranch kid, growing up out west in the 50's among 7 hard-working flatheads; we worked our engines hard, with long grades, and hot temperatures. Valves usually were the first to go, and it wasn't out of the ordinary to do a valve grind after only 20,000 miles, and a "ring job" at 50,000. Today, given superior oils, and better oil filters (compare a 50's era "cotton- waste" Fram with a modern WIX), and "recreational" driving, I would think that a well assembled flathead should go close to 75,000. The big IF is this: We drove two-lane roads at about 50, (except during our teen years) most roads had a town about every 25 to 50 miles which let things cool off a bit. Interstate highways allow for sustained high speed duty cycles which tend to be a little rough on exhaust valves. Remember that many of our older Fords have 4:11 or 3:78 final drive ratios. If you are going to run down the "superslab" at a sustained 70, you are really asking a lot of a long-stroke motor that will be spinning at between 3200 and 3500 rpm. So...if you stay on the two-lanes (which is more fun anyway), I'd think you might get a good 75-80,000 easily. 42wagon 11-22-2009 @ 2:09 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 584 Joined: Oct 2009 We all know that Ford expected that sometime in the life of a car the engine would need to be rebuilt. In the flathead era there were rebuilders all over. So given an engine with average maintenance driven in reasonable climate conditions how many miles could you expect to get before rebuilding a 40, 41, or 42 engine? Ted

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