Changed the oil today... THREE times!!

... so I decided it was time for an oil change in my 200ci '65.
before putting the new oil in I thought I'd run some cheap oil through it first to 'clean it out' a bit ... so ran that in the engine for 5 mins or so .. then emptied it.. and when I drained it out of the sump it was already black!!
..so .. I codged together another gallon of oil that had been sitting in various bottles for a few years and put that in
Ran it again for maybe 10 mins (only standing still, not driving)
Drained that and that came out pretty much very nearly black too! (picture below of oil at this point if you're interested!)
.. anyway .. didn't have any more spare oil so put the proper new stuff in.

So... why is it so dirty?.. .am I picking up a load of crud that's been in the bottom of the sump for years or something ..??

2nd lot of 'cleaning' oil ..

If you read up oil filters you will see there can be couple of causes of this. Black particles are soot. If you engine is running too rich it will make more soot. I'd check the choke adjustment to see if it runs just as well backed off.
One more reason ()maybe a longshot is the crankcase breather filter. If its bad or not filtering the air dirt particles will get in the crankcase. Of course the oil filter will only hold so much soot/dirt. if you keep running the engine the the bypass valve in the filter will open and let the go around the filter elemant.
This also happens when the oil is really cold and thick becasue it won't flow though the filter element as well. I'd try a Longer filter Than the standard Motorcraft FL-1A oil filter iof you have room for it.
This is a filter that has a much larger filter elemant than the standard Motorcraft filter.
The number to get is
#FL-299 (Motorcraft)
#1773 (Napa Gold)
#51773 (Wix )

My mother bought a 2010 honda CRV and it has one of the "percent of oil life left" displays on the dash.
My dad was telling me it showed about 60% when it had about 5,000 miles on the last oil change. I told him as soon as the oil filter was full (and started bypassing )that number would drop much faster. He told me later that it did.
I have noticed the oil color in my vehicles do the same. And I've noticed it takes quite a bit longer to do the same with the longer filters I run When they will fit.

You might consider running a small amount of Seafoam or MMO for a few miles prior to the next oil change.

Thanks guys.. I did have another thought that inbetween fresh oils I had to use the original (dirty) filter .. even though I emptied it between each try there would have been a bit of dirty oil in there that wouldn't have helped.
Mixture is ok thanks .. plugs are fine (not black)

Very interesting thought about the bypass .. hmm.. will watch that ..

crankcase breather - not sure if I have one ..? .. I have a pcv valve which I doubt is the same thing..

Thanks for the filter recommendations.. good thought about going with one with a bigger surface area .. yes I have loads of spare room.

Am pretty sure we don;t have seafoam over here .. think also I read somewhere about it dislodging gunk which clogged up small oil passages (??)
Thanks again!

8) you can use a bit of diesel to clean out the engine internals. use half diesel and half engine oil and let the engine idle for about 20-30min, then change the oil AND filter. your engine probably has a lot of sludge build up and it will take time to get rid of it.

Oo right. thanks for that
Is there any danger with this technique of blocking small oilways .. like those to the head..?
Cheers!

Route--66--":1s6tdbkk said:

Oo right. thanks for that
Is there any danger with this technique of blocking small oilways .. like those to the head..?
Cheers!

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I don't think it would be a danger of clogging the passageways, but I'd worry about screwing something else up by running the engine without the proper lubrication, even at a slow speed.
If you go that way, I'd pull the distributor and make a priming pump out of an old junkyard distributor, then use that to clear out the crud from the system.

Hi all.IIRC the oil goes to the filter straight from the pump.Soooooooooo,I would think that worries about something plugging up an internal oil passage are rather slim to none.JMHO.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

Asa":1zq3gtfm said:

Route--66--":1zq3gtfm said:

Oo right. thanks for that
Is there any danger with this technique of blocking small oilways .. like those to the head..?
Cheers!

Click to expand...

I don't think it would be a danger of clogging the passageways, but I'd worry about screwing something else up by running the engine without the proper lubrication, even at a slow speed.
If you go that way, I'd pull the distributor and make a priming pump out of an old junkyard distributor, then use that to clear out the crud from the system.

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thats why i recommended using 50% motor oil and 50% diesel. that will give proper lubrication while cleaning out the passage ways. remember that these engines are tough customers, you need a nuclear bomb to kill them, and even then if you change the oil and install a new battery chances are the engine will still fire up.

Trick I learned years ago is to use a quart (Opps, litre) of Automatic Transmission Fluid. Put the ATF in and drive the car for 50 miles (opps, 80 km) and don't go over 50 mph (dammitt, 80 kph) during that time and then drain it. The ATF is basically a high detergent oil and will mix with any engine oil plus clean the gunk and sludge out. I run a quart (errr litre) every other oil change for my older engines.

Cheers guys

A THOUGHT(!)
How would I know if my pressure relief valve isn't stuck open? and just constantly bypassing the filter?
If this was the case would my oil pressure be pretty much zero? .. I do have a weird pressure reading in that pressure always displays about 39 psi whether the engine is hot, cold, idling or revving?!!
Cheers!

I think those are two different valves. One in in the pump and it controls the outlet pressure from pump. The second one is in the oil filter and is there to make sure there is oil flow thru the filter at all times, regardless. Anyway, there might be an issue with the one at the pump. I can't think of a way to test it off the top of my head... :|

X2 If the oil pump pressure relief valve was stuck open you would have zero or very low oil pressure. Better oil filters will have an anti drain back valve, this is the type that should always be used on Fords because of the position of the filter otherwise you get dry starts. Many filters don't have the A. D. valve.

Great thanks
I do make sure the filters are anti-drainback. I currently use a genuine Ford filter.
Didn't realise there were 2 pressure relief valves .. ie one inside the filter itself .. that's good to know so I now at least know that that all is ok.
Maybe the thing with the oil getting dirty relatively quickly is that I'm just picking up years of crud that's been sitting in the oil pan and just gets constantly gently dredged up.
Cheers loads all

You might to pull the valve cover & check the top end for sludge.
If you do find excessive sludge You might want to remove the oil pan to check that out.
How is your present oil pressure?? If your current pressure is ok then a good cleanup of the entire engine is in order.
Wish you luck if its just light surface sludge.
In the event you drop the pan that would be the time to replace the oil pump.

great thanks for that
I very recently removed the valve cover and it was quite clean inside so seems good on that front.
yeh present oil pressure seems to be 39 constantly! .. regardless of engiine heat or revs .. very weird .. ?? .. . hope that's enough.. I use 20/50 oil with high zddp ... (I know that's another big topic!)

Cheers!

Route--66--":17uhwmzb said:

great thanks for that
I very recently removed the valve cover and it was quite clean inside so seems good on that front.
yeh present oil pressure seems to be 39 constantly! .. regardless of engiine heat or revs .. very weird .. ?? .. . hope that's enough.. I use 20/50 oil with high zddp ... (I know that's another big topic!)

Cheers!

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Roughly 10psi per 1000RPMs

However, are you sure you have the correct oil sending unit? I know the later model sending units are basically a switch that says that a certain pressure has been reached (usually 7psi closes the switch)
So, if you had one of these installed in combination with a gauge that is built to peg at a certain psi once it sees the full 12 volts, as soon as the switch/sender sees 7psi it will send the full 12v to the gauge.

Usually as the oil heats up and thins out the pressure will decrease. There is more "slip" of the oil being fed back internally in the oil (gear) pump. A constant pressure is something I've never seen before. The highest pressure should be right when the engine starts up cold. And finally, the pressure will vary with RPM up to a certain point too.

cheers guys- yeh that's totally what I would expect so really don't understand it ..
Asa - the oil pressure gauge is mechanical so no sender involved .. but on start up it takes maybe 10-20 seconds for the needle to reach 39 .. so maybe there's some kind of restriction in the pipe that's stopping it read correctly .. or the gauge itself is duff...?...
Was thinking of changing it for a good 'stack' electric gauge .. maybe that would give me a more accurate reading .. . . ???

Route--66--":smz1ikd6 said:

cheers guys- yeh that's totally what I would expect so really don't understand it ..
Asa - the oil pressure gauge is mechanical so no sender involved .. but on start up it takes maybe 10-20 seconds for the needle to reach 39 .. so maybe there's some kind of restriction in the pipe that's stopping it read correctly .. or the gauge itself is duff...?...
Was thinking of changing it for a good 'stack' electric gauge .. maybe that would give me a more accurate reading .. . . ???

Click to expand...

You might take everything apart and clean it out, I doubt there's a restriction or something, but there might be.

I'm not sure if you could test the gauge itself using air and a regulator, but you might be able to.