1961 Ford F500 project.

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JSinMO United States of America
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Re: 1961 Ford F500 project.

Post by JSinMO »

propane1 wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 10:37 am I’ve heard of people draining the oil. Then fill with kerosene. Start engine and let run for a minute or so. Then drain. Refill with oil. Do when engine is warm. More thought for you Jeff.

Noel
It’s funny you mention this. I was just talking to a fellow this morning about this project and he brought up the same thing!
I hadn’t heard of running kerosene in the engine to clean it up before. His formula was 4 quarts of motor oil and 1 quart of kerosene or diesel fuel. And run the engine for a few minutes. Said he learned it while working at a Chevy dealership.

On a side note I would love to have a 65 Galaxy 2 door hardtop! I’ve looked at few but they’re beyond my budget. But you never know, I’m sure there’s one hiding in a barn out there somewhere waiting for me to find it!

I can pretty much figure what this truck did in its working life on the typical farm in the 70s and 80s. It brought square bales of hay and straw from the field to the barn, it brought grain in to the bin, and they told me it wasn’t used to take grain to market much, they had a bigger truck for that. From my experience that means a lot of idling, and low rpm putting across the field in low gear. These were the days when you walked next to the truck and threw bales on the back as you drove across the field. To me that means carbon build up in the combustion chambers.

To my eye I don’t see enough sludge at least in the top of the motor to concern me. I’m not planning to do anything beyond dropping the pan and cleaning it up and slapping it together and running it at this point. As far as what carbon may or may not exist in the combustion chambers, to me getting it on the road and running it at higher rpm is step one and see how he does. If it has issues I’ll probably try the Seafoam treatment @Eugen talked about. I’ve done that before and I seen positive results.

I can’t see tearing down an engine that starts right up, and makes no noise. If it does start having problems I would probably look for a newer FE motor to rebuild and put in as opposed to trying to rebuild an engine from 1957 that may not be easy to get parts for.

Wheww that’s one hell of a Monday evening ramble for me! If you read all that and are still with me, thank you!

I appreciate the conversation on this guys. Your input really matters to me and helps me proceed! :worship: :thumbsup:
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propane1 Canada
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Re: 1961 Ford F500 project.

Post by propane1 »

I would put transmission oil in the engine oil and in the gasoline tank to clean up carbon in the cylinders.
Again, just my opinion.

Any body know when seafoam was invented ?


Noel
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Re: 1961 Ford F500 project.

Post by JSinMO »

propane1 wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:42 pm I would put transmission oil in the engine oil and in the gasoline tank to clean up carbon in the cylinders.
Again, just my opinion.

Any body know when seafoam was invented ?


Noel
That’s a good idea. I regularly add ATF and Seafoam to my tractor engines and gas. It works just fine.

I had to look up Seafoam. This says it was invented in the 1930s

https://seafoamworks.com/about-us/
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Re: 1961 Ford F500 project.

Post by propane1 »

Well I never heard of seafoam until a few years ago.

Noel
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Harry United States of America
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Re: 1961 Ford F500 project.

Post by Harry »

JSinMO wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:56 pm
propane1 wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:42 pm I would put transmission oil in the engine oil and in the gasoline tank to clean up carbon in the cylinders.
Again, just my opinion.

Any body know when seafoam was invented ?


Noel
That’s a good idea. I regularly add ATF and Seafoam to my tractor engines and gas. It works just fine.

I had to look up Seafoam. This says it was invented in the 1930s

https://seafoamworks.com/about-us/
I watched the video about Seafoam, interesting. Thanks for posting Noel. :peace: Harry
1973 444, 1974 644, 1976 446, 1977 646, 1986 226
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DavidBarkey Canada
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Re: 1961 Ford F500 project.

Post by DavidBarkey »

@JSinMO Ok , heres so info from a guy how been around automotive engines for a few years . Over 30 with 17 doing tune up and Drive Clean repair before retiring from the bench. There are a lot of wive tails out there because some people have got lucky over the years .

Transmission fluid , water , Seafaom and other similar products done right will de-carbon an engine . Done wrong can cause- hydro lock and broken engine , large chunks of carbon caught under valves , blocked EGR and muffler passages , damaged spark plugs .

Cleaning of sludge done right will allow free flow of oil back to pan . Done wrong will plug the pick up and smaller passages back to the pan . Do not worry about oil gallery on the pressure side as the screen and filter will protect them . But running to much solvent can cause bearing failure .

Do NOT use tranny fluid though the combustion chamber of anything that has a O2/Cat. system . It WILL cause $$$ damage .

I personally "repaired " cars failing emotions testing with nothing more than seafoam treatments and a good run down the highway . Carbon build up on the cats/ O2 sendors will cause them not to work right . Same goes for the EGR sensors in some diesels . That being said I also watch a mechanic grenade an engine ( hydro lock) being impatient doing a de-carb with the "IV bottle" into the intake . Another one had the pull the heads because a carbon chunk was lodged under a valve .

Running anything though the engine to remove sludge is no longer necessary with today's oil if done regularly and can cause damage if not done correctly . Not knowing the history of an engine it is wise to drop the pan and see what you have . If the is a high amount of sludge . Clean the pan,oil pickup and anything else you can get with diesel fuel. Then with a drain pan underneath remove the intake and valve covers clean all that you can using rifle brushes to clean the oil return passages . Put back together with new modern oil and filter of the correct ratting and run at a "fast idle " for and hour or so . Change oil and filter again . From this point proceed as per regular oil changes . Yes the older engines do benefit from diesel grade oil .
If sludge in pan is minor , just do the "fast idle for an hour with new oil and filter . do regular oil and filter change again . Your all set .
If carbon build up is suspected in the cylinders . I personally recommend that after all oil changing is done and is ready to go on to road that you run with fresh gas double strength Seafoam in the fuel . Runn at "fast idle " for an hour then take it out and put load on it . Remember most of these things have not run in while . Don't drive it like you stole it .

Older / pre unleaded fuel engine that are not aluminum with valve seat inserts benefit from valve lube in the gas .

Wow that was a lot first thing in the am . :coffee:
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Re: 1961 Ford F500 project.

Post by Eugen »

That's the most complete and at the same time concise treatment I ever came across on this subject Thank you @DavidBarkey :worship:
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Re: 1961 Ford F500 project.

Post by JSinMO »

@DavidBarkey ive got a really busy day to today, but I wanted to hop on and thank you for an outstanding write up! With your experience I was really hoping you would weigh in on this. Thank you, i very much appreciate you taking the time to write this up! :worship:
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Re: 1961 Ford F500 project.

Post by JSinMO »

Here’s todays old truck update.

First item today was replacing the ignition system parts. I took the old cap off and took a look at the points. They’re actually in pretty good shape so a quick dressing and I decided to leave them in. I figured they’re probably better quality than the new ones I bought so we’ll run it for now. The rotor and cap on the other hand needed replacing.
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The inside of the cap looked about the same, corroded and pitted.

Interesting wire loom for the spark plug wires. The were 4 of these bolted to the engine. The rubber was still in good shape so I reused them.
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The routing of the plug wires is a little different to me. They come off the distributor, down the back of the engine and around the sides, then up to the plugs. Looks like this is necessary because the exhaust manifolds are too close the heads to route them across the top of the engine. It make for some long wires!
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With Medusa out of the way and the new wires, cap, and rotor in place I started the truck to make sure I didn’t screw something up, and thankfully it kicked right off!

With that job done it’s time to drain the oil and prepare to drop the pan. The underside of this thing sure is dirty!

I’m not sure, but I think I have a seal or 10 leaking at the pump and cylinder for the bed hoist! :giggle:
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That’s work for a different day, on to the oil pan!

Here is the external oil pump and pick up tube that runs through the side of the pan.
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The oil was black as coal but nothing other than oil came out, no chunks, nothing shiny in the oil.
With the oil drained I disconnected the pick up tube from the pump and dropped the pan.
Here’s the first look inside the oil pan.
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To me it look phenomenal! No bits of metal, no thick sludge, no nothing except one cocklebur! How the hell did that get in there?
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The bottom end of the engine appears to be fine as well, no real sludge to speak of, nothing broken or loose! This is all wonderful news! I’d have to say if a fellow isn’t happy with that, he’s damn hard to please!
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Don’t get me wrong, the pan and pick up need a good cleaning, and I can see the gasket did fail, but that pretty easy to take care of!

So now I’m on hold, naturally the oil filter I bought is the wrong one! :30:

Once I get the correct filters and the pan back on I plan to follow @DavidBarkey advice run the engine at high idle for about an hour and change the oil and filter again.

It really feels like we’re getting close to a test drive! :42: :109: :D
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Timj United States of America
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Re: 1961 Ford F500 project.

Post by Timj »

No big surprises, always a good thing. :thumbsup: a little drive sounds like fun. :cool:
:446cart: let's go, it's finally time to blow. :peace:
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