Windmills are a perfect example of why using the appropriate oil for an application is important as those units would be in service for years with very little maintenance performed to the gear boxes.  For this particular application it’s necessary to use only non-detergent oil and not what would be considered a more superior oil such as a detergent or mult-grade oil.  For those gear boxes it is necessary for the worn metal particulates to always drop to the bottom of the sump rather than be repeatedly circulated through the gears and bearings.  Using a multi-grade or detergent oil simply holds unwanted particulates in suspension which does not get filtered out in those older gear or bearing systems.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Ted - I performed a similar routine last fall when I put up the Y-Block for the winter, "Fogging" the engine at a fast idle with Marvel's oil till it stalled out. This sat through the winter. I figured if a few hours (or days) of ring soaking was good, a few months would be even better. I believe it does idle and run noticeably smoother, though it could be my imagination.

You've torn down your share of engines, I expect, both running and non-running. Are a high percentage of varnished or stuck rings common in your experience? I'd expect that too, but I don't know for sure.

I do come across stuck piston rings on the core engines with regularity.  For many of the engines, this comes about as a result of how the engines or short blocks are stored.  Condensation would appear to be the biggest culprit for this.  Because the engines are being rebuilt, the pistons are typically being discarded so there’s not a lot of effort being put into freeing up the rings.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Hoping to compression test this week, but I'll tell you, we brought to to temp after changing oil today and it just runs so well I can't imagine there's much compression difference between all 8. I'm certainly not an engine builder though!

I have to get the spewing valve cover gasket & radiator replaced and the brakes working so I can get it on the road to really get it to temp and see what we see about the blow by.

1956 F600 272
2005 F250 5.4