Longest oil change ever

F

fiddy6

Member
Well today was an interesting day.

Tried to get an oil change done. I always wondered why the existing oil filter was so short. Turns out that the standard size won't clear the engine cross member.

A few symptoms added up too. Throttle and transmission linkages didn't look right, exhaust manifold looked way too close to the steering box.

Well it turns out that the engine mounts were flipped. The engine was so far forward that the trans mount was barely hanging on. Also the slip joint looked like it hanging out too far.

I think when the 312 was swapped in the mounts were bolted on the block the wrong way. I can't figure out how it wasn't noticed.

So today I flipped the mounts and dragged the engine and trans back an inch and a half. Moved it with a ratchet strap around the trans to the diff.

All for an oil change
 
yes ive seen them do it with an fe in a early ford.i helped put a 430 in a 63 merc which had an fe and we still had to turn the mounts to get that brute in.
 
If you think about it for a second, it wouldn't make sense to Ford engineering to design mounts with the alcove (for the engine bolts) aimed toward the front, such that they would catch whatever crud and water as the car is moving forward. So they designed the mounts that have the bolts installed from the rear and protected to some degree by the rubber in front. Very good.
 
It certainly makes the bolts easier to get to when the mounts are the wrong way round. If you didn't know the right way you would probably look to putting them in the wrong way first. However, once you got to buttoning up the trans mount you would figure it out pretty quick I would have thought. The trans mount was barely hanging on and the slip joint looks like it was about to fall out.
 
A couple of different long oil changes.





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[FONT=&quot]Well, that was either the longest oil change ever...or the shortest repair of a major installation mess up ever. If I were you, I'd view it from the latter perspective. ;)[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]When I first got my '54 Ford, the first oil change took me way longer than I care to admit. I had to jack the driver side of the car up and turn the steering all the way one way or the other to get the canister style filter enclosure to clear the linkage. Problem was... I had to figure all of this out on my own, and then reinstalling the canister and gasket required a perfect fit in the mating surface on the engine. Any deviation from that would result in all the new oil spilling on the driveway at startup...which is exactly what happened. I presume the poor engineering of the filter was a result of Ford shoehorning a Y Block into a space originally designed for a flathead (as in '52-'53.) I've put a modern filter conversion on it since then. [/FONT]
 
JimNNN said:
reinstalling the canister and gasket required a perfect fit in the mating surface on the engine. Any deviation from that would result in all the new oil spilling on the driveway at startup...which is exactly what happened.
Click to expand...

I changed oil in my '55 from 1973 thru 1984 with the old filter element and cannister, often not even installing a new gasket several times in a row. Never got a leak and never gave it a second thought.
In '84, I gave the car to my baby sister. At some point, she took it to one of those oil-change places and the attendant couldn't get the cannister on without leaking. It wasn't far away from my house, so my sister walked down to my house and told me the trouble.
I went down with my wrench, got under the rack and aligned the gasket myself and told the attendant to swipe some bearing grease on the backside of that gasket before inserting it, then to hold the cannister squarely on the gasket while turning the center-tube bolt.
The guy was practically in a panic over the rack having been taken up so long over this one oil-change. I was stunned he couldn't do it. To me, it was the easiest thing in the world.
Couple weeks later, I got hold of a spin-on filter kit and waited till the next time it needed an oil change.
 
Daves55Sedan said:
I changed oil in my '55 from 1973 thru 1984 with the old filter element and cannister, often not even installing a new gasket several times in a row. Never got a leak and never gave it a second thought.
In '84, I gave the car to my baby sister. At some point, she took it to one of those oil-change places and the attendant couldn't get the cannister on without leaking. It wasn't far away from my house, so my sister walked down to my house and told me the trouble.
I went down with my wrench, got under the rack and aligned the gasket myself and told the attendant to swipe some bearing grease on the backside of that gasket before inserting it, then to hold the cannister squarely on the gasket while turning the center-tube bolt.
The guy was practically in a panic over the rack having been taken up so long over this one oil-change. I was stunned he couldn't do it. To me, it was the easiest thing in the world.
Couple weeks later, I got hold of a spin-on filter kit and waited till the next time it needed an oil change.
Click to expand...


The first person to change the oil for the previous owner of that car was the shop across the street from my business run by a guy who built dragsters and other custom vehicles in his spare time. Some time after doing the job, he warned me that changing my filter was a PITA, but I ignored him thinking that he was just trying to scare me into having him change the oil all the time, and that wasn't going to happen. But then he told me - in so many words - that he really didn't want to do that job on my car again. I thought, huh??


Anyway, I don't know if the 239 had a different canister than the 55 and later cars, but there was a recess that it had to go into to make a proper seal, and I knew about the grease to hold the gasket in place. The steering linkage clearance issue made it hard to keep the canister steady while putting pressure on the canister/spring and tightening the bolt...while lying on my back. I actually got proficient after a couple of times, but then I realized, "Oh, THIS is why modern filter conversions are so popular for this engine!"
 
My T-Bird sat in a garage covered up for 27 years, tires flat and so on. I pump up the tires and put it on a Rollback to my home. The transmission was not showing any oil softer I got the car started . I filed the points, put fresh gas in it , new gas filter. Check the oil [Black] new battery then I started the car. It sounded pretty good. So I let it run to get the oil hot to drain it out. It was very dirty. The oil filter I had to buy a Oil Filter Pliers and it took all I could do to break it loose. Why would anyone let a engine go like that??? Should have there butt kicked. I have change the oil twice and it is clean now. My Brother-in Law never changes oil himself ever. Dumb ***. No use saying anything. It going to take a year or two to make a nice Bird out of it. Not cheap either.
 
I know a guy who never changes his oil. He buys Toyotas and only adds oil to them. He'll go a about 200K and then trade them in for a new one.
 
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