How much oil does your flathead use?

Old Henry said:
I hate to disappoint all those that have tried so hard to make me feel bad about how much oil my newly rebuilt engine uses but I don't feel bad in the least little bit. I've lived my life with oil leaking/burning cars and know full well how to check oil and add oil. The cost of a little extra oil compared to having the engine totally rebuilt again in some improved fashion to decrease such is miniscule and I'm totally happy with my engine and my car.
Click to expand...
Henry, you asked a legitimate question and recieved many thoughtful and legitimate answers. It appears you did not care for the answers. It also appears that your engine, at least this last time around was not rebuilt at all. Rather, it got a quick hone (maybe) and new pistons and rings installed. And maybe new valves. Lots of "maybes", too many for my liking. So, there could very well be too much taper in any and all the cylinders for this engine to ever seal well. Also, worn valve guides... the list goes on and on. Recall... YOU asked.
i did not read one response that castrated you or your efforts. We are all here to learn. Don't care for the truth? Don't ask for advice.
 
I have to admit that I did get to the point that I regretted having started the post at all and asking for more information than I really wanted to know.
 
Last edited:
henry im now 71 years old my first flathead was when i was 15 ive been building engines for a long time now and i must add im still learning,i find it strange how you have not come up with answers to the questions you have been asked i see you got ryan to pull your other thread maybe its about time this one also went that way subject is now closed
 
52merc said:
henry im now 71 years old my first flathead was when i was 15 ive been building engines for a long time now and i must add im still learning,i find it strange how you have not come up with answers to the questions you have been asked i see you got ryan to pull your other thread maybe its about time this one also went that way subject is now closed
Click to expand...

I did ask Ryan to delete this thread because of a long and overly inflammatory post even though there is a lot of valuable information in it. He decided to just delete the bad post and leave the thread.
 
Last edited:
Old Henry said:
As some controversy has arisen about normal oil usage in my recent thread about improved oil usage with 4 ring pistons [since deleted] I'd like to know what anyone considers normal or what your oil usage actually is. Mine just went from a quart per 1,000 miles with 3 ring pistons to 3/4 quart per 1,000 miles with 4 ring pistons. What is yours and/or what do you think is "normal" and what do you think makes a difference in oil usage?
Click to expand...
I have a new engine on the road but do not have a speedometer. It used a 1/4 quart for the first 20 gallons of gas and I consider that normal and probably similar to yours. I expect better as time goes by and then it will get worse untill next rebuild. Good luck with your new engine
 
Looks like all the votes are in. Here's how they tally up:

No measurable oil usage - 8
Quart per 4,300 miles - 1
" " 1,700 " - 1
" " 1,500 " - 1
" " 800 " - 1
" " 500 " - 1
Leaks more than it burns - 6

As I said before, to me it's no big deal but I was curious to know.

P.S. I APOLOGIZE to all of those engine experts that got so frustrated with my emotional response to their criticisms of my oil usage, engine, and engine rebuilder on Monday (in a separate thread since deleted for anyone that doesn't know what I'm talking about). Now that I've calmed down I realize that they were just trying to give me information that they thought I wanted to know. Even I thought I wanted to know it but it all came across wrong to me. Anyway, I'm sorry for my response and thank all of those who took the time to inform me about some of the finer intricacies of engine building, especially V8COOPMAN, Kube, Gary Duff, 52Merc, and 4tford are the ones I remember. Wish I could say it was my first and last time but it is neither I expect.

As some attempt to make amends I have gone back through this thread and removed any of my responses that were negative, critical, or sarcastic.
 
Henry, that is big of you. I must apologise to you too, all too often I come across as being gruff and abrupt. My responses, although well intentioned and honest, I can see, could have been misinterpreted. If my responses annoy you or anyone else, all you have to do is not read them. I enjoy your travel logs. I consider myself one of the so called engine experts on here. I have recently sold a stroker 284 to another barner 'kiwitony', who lives several hundred miles from me in beautiful New Zealand. He is going to drive his nice 37 pickup to my place and we'll fit the new engine into it. He intends to fully cover this roadtrip on here in the sort of fashion you do. Your travel stories have been the inspiration for this. Should hopefully be an interesting article; see what you've started?
Once again, I am sorry for coming across as I do. Brian
 
Last edited:
Brian said:
He intends to fully cover this roadtrip on here in the sort of fashion you do. Brian
Click to expand...

kiwitony said:
Ha, I'll have to do it now you have leaked it on the webb.Cheers Tony.
Click to expand...

I would dearly love to see a travelogue of New Zealand. 5 years ago my wife and I drove from Auckland to Dunedin down the west side of the south island and up the east side to Wellington (NOT in our flathead.:() We were there to pick up our son who had just finished serving a two year mission for the church. Beautiful country. Hope to see some from your flathead soon.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Henry, I'll do my best, I don't know if it'll be up to your standard.How do you get the photos to appear during the text? do you do this elsewhere on the computor and then post to this site? It might be a few weeks yet as it's winter here and the desert road has been closed due to snow.No heater in the 37. Cheers Tony.
 
kiwitony said:
Thanks Henry, I'll do my best, I don't know if it'll be up to your standard.How do you get the photos to appear during the text? do you do this elsewhere on the computor and then post to this site? It might be a few weeks yet as it's winter here and the desert road has been closed due to snow.No heater in the 37. Cheers Tony.
Click to expand...

The bigger pictures can be inserted between text by uploading them to a photo hosting site like PhotoBucket then copying the address for a picture from there to the spot in your post that you want it and it will show there. When you're ready PM me and I'll walk you through it step by step.
 
Henry,
After following this post i decided i had to join in. ( I lurked for a while)
I used to for a number of years teach Gasoline Engines for Lincoln Tech here in Indianapolis. The class was five weeks long ( 4-5 Hours each day ) and taught some pretty cool specifics including engine overhaul.
Every group and class seen a Ford film concerning oil consumption and after seeing this film hundreds of times heres what it said:

There are 36,500 drops in a quart of oil. There is actually a SAE spec for a drop of oil being so big by so long and weight.

A gasoline engine designed in the early 70s will use 1/1100 of a drop on every compression stroke, this is normally one quart in 1000 miles .

However if a engine drips ( leaks) one drop every 50 feet it will loose 1 quart in 300 miles.

The point being that a leak is much worse than a burn.

Thought every one would enjoy this factory specification....:eek::D
 
BUBBAS IGNITION said:
Henry,
After following this post i decided i had to join in. ( I lurked for a while)
I used to for a number of years teach Gasoline Engines for Lincoln Tech here in Indianapolis. The class was five weeks long ( 4-5 Hours each day ) and taught some pretty cool specifics including engine overhaul.
Every group and class seen a Ford film concerning oil consumption and after seeing this film hundreds of times heres what it said:

There are 36,500 drops in a quart of oil. There is actually a SAE spec for a drop of oil being so big by so long and weight.

A gasoline engine designed in the early 70s will use 1/1100 of a drop on every compression stroke, this is normally one quart in 1000 miles .

However if a engine drips ( leaks) one drop every 50 feet it will loose 1 quart in 300 miles.

The point being that a leak is much worse than a burn.

Thought every one would enjoy this factory specification....:eek::D
Click to expand...

Thanks so much. That is the spec I had read in an article before but didn't save but I thought it was an article specifically about flatheads. Maybe not. Anyway, that's another reason that I was never bothered by a quart every 1,000 miles. Thanks again.
 
Last edited:
There are 36,500 drops in a quart of oil. There is actually a SAE spec for a drop of oil being so big by so long and weight.

A gasoline engine designed in the early 70s will use 1/1100 of a drop on every compression stroke, this is normally one quart in 1000 miles .

However if a engine drips ( leaks) one drop every 50 feet it will loose 1 quart in 300 miles.

The point being that a leak is much worse than a burn.[/I][/B]


However;
Bubba, If the engine burned a drop of oil every time each cylinder fired, you would burn oil so fast, you would not be able to keep oil in that engine.
 
Bluebell said:
A gasoline engine designed in the early 70s will use 1/1100 of a drop on every compression stroke.


However;
Bubba, If the engine burned a drop of oil every time each cylinder fired, you would burn oil so fast, you would not be able to keep oil in that engine.
Click to expand...

You misread his post. The engine uses a drop of oil every 1100 compression strokes. That's one drop every 2200 piston strokes, not "every time each cylinder fires."
 
Back in the day my mates 39 merc engine in a 47 panel van burnt (confirmed by the smoke screen) a pint of oil every 10 miles. If a quart is 2 pints, that's roughly 18,000 drops of oil. At 60 mph 10 miles takes 6 minutes. 6 minutes is 360 seconds. Divide 18,000 by 360 and you get 50 drops burnt per second. Lets say the engine was turning at 3000 rpm. Divide this by 60 and you get 50 rpm per second. Voila! One drop burnt per revolution ... or is that 4 drops every power stroke ...?
BTW, he ran the engine on waste oil and the plugs never oiled up. Changed the rings and improved five fold to a pint every 50 miles ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top