Very Dirty Ford 360 V8

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Mar 22, 2011
Messages
10
Location
VA
Hello,

I have a new to me '69 F350 flatbed dump with a original Ford v8 360 motor. I had a bad valve and just had the heads pulled to have them re-machined at the machine shop. When pulled the top end of the motor was extremely dirty, they are cleaning it out for me as best they can but I couldn't justify the $2,000 more to have the whole motor torn apart and rebuilt right now which is what they recommended (they recommended it not because they noticed any malfunction with the bottom end just because of the volume of sludge on the top end).

What kind of, if any, flushes or additives should I try to get this thing cleaned out some more? I'm willing to change the oil every 500 - 1000 miles or more if necessary as this truck probably won't see more than 1 day of use per week and a total monthly milage of 200-800.
 
If the motor is already back together with clean heads and the lifter valley still nasty there really isnt much you can do....I personally wouldnt run a flush unless you plan on pulling the pan and cleaning it and clean/replace the oil pump pickup/screen fairly soon thereafter...those flushes can be pretty nasty on the sludge and can do more harm than good and end up plugging up the pickup tube/screen...or leave it as is..drive it...sludge stays put..cross your fingers...change oil little more often....just my opinion....
 
Rotella T6 or Mobil1 Turbo Diesel
5W-40

Change the filter each time, and run only 500 miles first change, 1000 next, then by the owners manual...

Keep an eye on the oil pressure, oil pickup screen may need changing...
 
Your favorite oil with a 1 qt.MMO chaser for the win. Two project cars, some other misc uses over the years , and a POS my daughter bought when she moved out west for a job opportunity made me a believer.
 
You should justify the extra 2K. It will cost you that and more to do this again. Is this truck used professionally? How much revenue will you lose to more downtime?
 
Originally Posted By: rockydee
Your favorite oil with a 1 qt.MMO chaser for the win. Two project cars, some other misc uses over the years , and a POS my daughter bought when she moved out west for a job opportunity made me a believer.


Ditto.

There's two routes you can go in my opinion. Drop the pan and clean the bottom end of the motor including removing the oil pump and pick up screen, (you might even want to replace the pump while you're down there). Or, do a series of quick oil changes as stated above, (substitute one quart MMO for one quart oil). Change the filter with each oil change as well.

DO NOT use anything like "Gunk 5 Minute flush." Flushes like that are mostly kerosene or diesel fuel and they will dislodge chunks of sludge and clog your oil system leading to engine failure. I've seen it happen too often.
 
Originally Posted By: rockydee
Your favorite oil with a 1 qt.MMO chaser for the win. Two project cars, some other misc uses over the years , and a POS my daughter bought when she moved out west for a job opportunity made me a believer.


+1. Run it with this mix for a thousand or so miles. Then drain the oil while the engine is very hot, and let it drain for an hour or so. Change the filter.

After that, just change the oil and filter regularly and use good oil.
 
If the heads are still off it wouldn't be a bad idea to restrict the rocker feed passages. Holley jets work and I wouldn't go any smaller than a 90 with stock rockers, but FE's pump a good bit of oil to the top end and the drain back isn't great.

As for cleaning, you can pull the pan with the engine in the truck, although I actually think it is easier to just pull the engine and that could help, but other than that I would not fret a lot about it and certainly not risk breaking lose any chunks. FEs will stand an incredible amount of abuse and still run fine.

If you do pull the pan, you might want to pick up an uprated oil pump drive shaft, the stock ones are not great.
 
The best flush you'll ever buy, is to remove the oil pan and dig in...

Clean the lifter valley while the heads are away at the machine shop and remove the pan and clean that too. As GreeCguy said, pull the oil pump and pick up tube and clean/replace the assembly.
 
If the motor is on a stand right now, some kerosene in the oil pan and let it sit. It should dislodge stuff, and it would probably be a good time to do the oil pan gasket anyway. If not, disregard and do something like mentioned above.
 
Yah, Here's the reality check. Either tear the engine down before putting it into use. Or nurse it along. Be aware that removing sludge may open clearances. I used to work for a guy who had a very basic Dodge D 300 with a dump bed. The worst part of the truck was the wheezy 318. But the entire truck had been gone through even though we just used it as mobile dumpster Check the brake lines to prevent unnecessary adventures. It is a 45 yr old Ford truck. You are going to have one thing mess up after another if you put this truck even into limited service.This is a DIYer's kind of truck. The 2 year/24,000 mile guaranty has expired. It wasn't intended to exist in the 21st century. Best of luck.
thumbsup2.gif
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the advice all, I've dropped the pan with engine in on several of my other trucks and while unpleasant it was doable so I don't mind doing that on this one if needed.

I'll give the MMO a shot with 750 mile changes for a bit.

The truck has either 115k or 215k miles on it, any recommendation on oil?

As for it being a DIY truck, that's why I got it. For a truck that will see once a week or once every two week duty I wasn't buying new. Maintaining one of these old warhorses is dirt simple and the parts are cheap. If the engine dies I can always just buy a 460 crate motor and get another 150k miles from it. I already repaired all the minimal rust, dump bed PTO works great, 6 new 10 ply tires on it, put in new exhaust, new belts, pertronix instead of points.
 
We ran SAE30 in ours on job sites that would make most of the BITOG populous faint. That was in SoCal and the engines would run from the time we arrived until the time we left. I can't ever remember changing the oil in them, just top off and maybe a filter (Wix) swap every year or two.

I would suggest T5 or 6.

P.S. I'll take heat for this but thinking flushes and additives are going to help is laughable.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Oil Changer
thinking flushes and additives are going to help is laughable.


Why would you say this? Many 'flush' products, including MMO, have a significant solvent content. If you disassembled your engine, you would probably clean the parts in some kind of solvent. Are you suggesting solvents added to the oil would have no effect?
 
I would never flush it. I'd run a couple OCI's of Pennzoil 10W-30, short OCI's depending on how black things get. Then, I would run Mobil 1 High Mileage 10W-30, maybe 10W-40...
 
This is an opinion-based forum, I gave mine. My opinion was learned from a lifetime of experience. They will do little more than separate you from your money. Your results may differ.

All of the "poor boy" rebuilds I cleaned (at best) meant a trip to the car wash with some cans of engine cleaner then some gas that was drained out of something, usually the thing we were working on.

If the level of sludge is what I picture in my mind, no, store-bought additive in a can will do nothing.


Originally Posted By: dave5358
Originally Posted By: Oil Changer
thinking flushes and additives are going to help is laughable.


Why would you say this? Many 'flush' products, including MMO, have a significant solvent content. If you disassembled your engine, you would probably clean the parts in some kind of solvent. Are you suggesting solvents added to the oil would have no effect?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top