Them Ford engineers knew their stuff!

tubman

tubman

Well-known member
A couple of years ago, I put a '51 Merc engine in my '51 club coupe. You know, finned aluminum heads, upgraded carburetor, a Mallory dual point; the whole deal. I was happy with the whole deal; it looked good, performed better, and ran great. The only thing I didn't like about it was the stock oil filler tube and cap. Quite frankly, it stuck way up there and looked like an Ostrich wearing a German army helmet. It looked like an easy fix to me, a trip to the FLAPS yielded a nice chrome filler cap, and a stop at the hardware store got a nice piece of shiny sink drain pipe. A little work with a hacksaw, and I had a nice looking filler pipe that didn't stick way up.

I drove the car for a while, and the next time I checked the oil, there was a fine mist of oil on the left head. I went back to the shop and cleaned it up. I put up with this until I took a 400 mile road trip. When I got back the engine was a mess. There was even an oil film on the battery. I have been cleaning the engine on a regular basis. I finally go tired of this and gave it a little thought. I removed the shiny bits and installed a stock height filler tube and stock cap. It completely solved the problem. I had obviously disturbed the air flow of the engines breather system and paid the price. Over the winter, I'll have the stock pipe and filler cap plated, so I'll have my "Ostrich" back, but this time he'll be nice and shiny.

Another example of second guessing the original designers that didn't work.
 
Yes, the engineers do actually test and think things out. In your case it may have just been the cap that caused the problem and not the shorter neck. Who knows.

Sal
 
That was my first attempt at fixing this; I went back to the stock cap. It didn't help.:(

I think that exterior baffle that hangs down from the back of the cap has a purpose, though.
 
on one of my 50s i shortened the stock filler tube by about 40% and then used the stock cap and never has any oil spray. on my model A i had spray constantly even with the baffles in the filler tube and then i saw on a message board that commented that stuffing a Chore Boy copper scrubbing pad onto the top of the filler tube stopped the spray completely. and it worked like a charm...... Don

https://www.amazon.com/Chore-Boy-Copper-Scouring-Pad-2ct/dp/B006K3XS5A/?tag=atomicindus08-20
 
donald1950 said:
on one of my 50s i shortened the stock filler tube by about 40% and then used the stock cap and never has any oil spray. on my model A i had spray constantly even with the baffles in the filler tube and then i saw on a message board that commented that stuffing a Chore Boy copper scrubbing pad onto the top of the filler tube stopped the spray completely. and it worked like a charm...... Don

https://www.amazon.com/Chore-Boy-Copper-Scouring-Pad-2ct/dp/B006K3XS5A/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Click to expand...


Any increase in rear main drips since adding the Chore Boy?
 
I too marvelled at the ford engineers when our 33 will run all day out west at 50-55 mph towing the caravan day after day out to Ayes rock and back and not miss a beat,30 -40 C no drama, pouring rain no drama.
Lawrie
 
sidevalve8ba said:
Tubman,
You've got my curiosity up now. Are you using a PCV valve on that particular engine?

Ted
Click to expand...

Nope, stock breather system. If this change hadn't solved the problem, I was prepared to install a PCV system. I had one in a 276" Merc I had in a '36 I had 25 years ago and it worked fine.

This car has a 2G carburetor on it that was a port in the base (currently plugged) that would make installing a PCV easy. I may still install one.
 
the engineers may have known their stuff but my hats off to the machinists of that time No computer controlled machines just good old fashioned skill the ability to follow a drawing and the will to get it right near enough was not good enough
 
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