After hearing from you all,I feel that I can live with the situation. My real concern is the hammering up and down that it does for a short time. The only casualties are 3 cheap gauges .They will only put up with it for so long. Got a good SW in now. Thanks again.

I had a nice Sun 270° sweep 80 lb gauge in my Fairlane which became ‘sprung’ as a result of the high cold oil pressure. Replaced it with a Stewart Warner 200 lb. gauge and life has been good since. Even my ’55 Customline with its 272 will bump 70 lbs during cold weather starts with 10W-40 oil. The 272 still bumps the 50 lb. mark when hot and running down the road.
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Gary is spot on regarding the oil. If unsure about the zinc content in the oil, just be sure you’re using an oil with 40 or more in the weight classification (ie. 10W-40). Regarding the high oil pressure when cold, it does sound like a sticking oil pump relief valve. The problem could be with either the slide valve or the bore in which it resides so removing the pump would be the recommended course of action so that both areas can be examined closely.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

The standard Wix spin on filter for the 1957 – 1980’s Ford V8’s is #51515 while the heavier canned filter rated for higher oil pressure is #51515R.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

You mention a couple of things as you go along, and with others responces it seems that you may be using an electronic guage and my opinion would be that is like using no guage at all as for oil I only use S/W mechanical guages. As for oil FORD Recommenede SAE-20-20W above +32 degrees F with SAE 10-10W +32 degrees F to -10 degrees F and below -10 degrees F SAE-5W and every FORD Mechanic that I ever knew back in the day when these were every where you looked always said NOT TO USE THICK OIL IN THEM. We used 30W when we ran them on the Dirt Tracks in the Mid-West and it worked just fine because they ran hotter. I do use 10W30 myself, however it is Brad Penn Racing and has the Zink addative in it. Back to your problem, you also mentioned occasional hammering and between the oil pressure problem and the hammering I would have to believe that you have a cam bearing doing the old occasional spin trick. If you really want to find out with out breaking it down just put some thick oil in it and you should know within a few miles, however I would recommend pulling the cam and take a look see.

What?

I'm with Ted, don't run below 40w. The old engines have the clearances that like thicker oils. Oil technology has moved on so much in 60 years with multi grade oils and what Ford recommended back then was the compromise that was made with mono grade oil. It is still a compromise now just not as much, as the perfect oil would not change viscosity when the temperature changed. I run 20w-60 but we never see freezing here and that particular oil has 1610ppm zinc content. If it got colder here I would run an oil with a lower starting number. Remember even when it is below freezing in winter over there, that oil with a low end number is still extremely thin when your up to running temp at 180F.

You are correct that the FORD recommendation was mono or MM Grade oil, however after running "Y"'s hard on short tracks I remmember that the guys running thick oil seemed to squeeze and burn the bearings out and soon there after a rod where as with 30W we Did not lose engine one in the six years thay I ran them before going to FE's with the Later Model Body Styles, But as they Say "To each His own"

Tom

What?

I run straight 30 weight oil in my station wagon that during the summer months drive almost daily and have no troubles 65 psi cold and 20 or so hot idling. I was always told sae 30 over 30 degrees and sae 20 under 30 degrees

1962 f250 currently heartless
1961 country squire 292 3 speed
1963 galaxie 390 powered
1976 f250 4wd 390 powered

I can see where you are coming from with the rod bearings going under racing conditions. I do believe the Y pushes a lot of oil up the top end and with the high revs and thicker oil they were probably getting oil starvation as it couldn't get back down quick enough. I guess that's why 427FE's didn't even have hydraulic lifters to save as much oil for the bottom end as possible.
Since this topic came up I've asked some of the older Y guys what they ran in the early years as mono grades were before my time. 30w and 40w was what was used here as there was no need for anything lighter with our climate. We would have to drive 2500 miles to see below freezing weather here, and that's only in winter. I know in the US even in the warmer spots it is not much of a drive to see below freezing and oil that can cope with that is needed. For many years the standard oil viscosity here was 20w-50, there was thinner oils but they were usually the cheap junk brands. We're spoilt for choice to suit the application now, even better than you have from what I've seen. The narrow viscosity oils here are still mostly the cheaper end low quality oil.
I think a lot of it comes down what your maximum engine revs are going to be as well, the higher the revs the thinner the oil to counter drain back issues. My car is stock and wouldn't see anything past about 4500rpm on the rare occasion for a short period of time and a lot of the guys with the Y's I think do a lot less than that and would gain from the broader viscosity range.
I do often see adds for vehicles in the US saying "engine rebuilt at 100000 miles" or less in a lot of cases and wonder why it should need it as I would expect double the mileage from the same vehicle before thinking about a rebuild. That is the sort of thing that you don't usually see here, we traditionally get good mileage out of our motors in most cases. Maybe it is just lack of servicing in those.

Interesting, Good oils come in most weights here and the same for Junk oils with the biggest problem is knowing who is telling the truth on Quality. Most vehicles in the States did not see that 100,000 mark with out repair as the average person back in the day changed their spark plugs as often as their socks, but only looked at the ignition when it ran really bad or not at all and usually were dumping gas thru the motors washing everything out, and an oil change was a once a year thing just before the vacation trip. Todays cars with all the electronics and fuel injection can see between 200K and 300K with out too much trouble, my 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan turned 285K last week however I change the oil & filter every 3000 mi. Also back in the day you could always buy a rust bucket in the Mid-west with 70 to 80K on it and a cream puff from the South West with equal or more miles and a bad motor and with a swap come out with a pretty decent car. Now and then you could find something that the owner was smart enough and well off enough to have taken care of it and got a good ride with higher miles but that was not all that often. Thanks for the reply, my youngest Son has been to your Country and really likes it a lot.

What?

The mileage you are mentioning is more what I would expect out of a vehicle. I might be getting a skewed view of things, as when I'm over there looking for transport it is in the lower price brackets as I'm not looking to tie up too much money in a temporary vehicle. Possibly a lot of those vehicles don't get the oil checked until the light comes on. If I see engine rebuilt in the add I instantly think it hasn't been looked after or it has been worked very hard.


These days it is a different story, there are good light weight oils as well that need to cater for more modern engines that can't handle the heavy weights but you wont see a junk oil with a wide viscosity range like 5w-50 or 10w-60


Last time I was there in 2010 I got an 1994 Suburban (well maintained but the paint was a bit cooked) and a travel trailer to tour around with. I ran Mobile-1 10w 40 in that and did the oil changes every 3000 miles. I ran Mobile-1 as it is an available brand I knew (normally available as 5w-30 or 5w-50 here) and is considered quite a good oil but expensive here. I brought a couple containers back as it was a fraction of the price of the Mobile-1 oils we have here and ran it in my wife's car. I was a bit disappointed with it, the oil level dropped quickly and didn't compare to the Mobile-1 here. I think I'll have to look into it a bit more for next year when we're over.