Sun Dec 15, 2013 3:27 pm by nikkinutshop
OMG, where to start? So, I will treat this like I would if I were talking to one of my kids when they were in elementary school. You have done a very bad thing and you should not do this again. The coolant is there to do exactly what its name suggests. The coolant absorbs the heat from the engine block and transfers the heat to the radiator where once again the heat is transferred to the passing air on the outside of the radiator and round and round it goes. If the coolant medium is removed from the chain of events it is very likely that some serious damage will happen if enough heat has been built up inside the engine. The majority of the heat from an engine is from the internal combustion and much of the rest is heat from friction. There are carefully designed clearances built into an engine, and in this situation, the piston to cylinder walls would be most at risk. It is most likely that the pistons are made of aluminum and this alloy has a much great expansion rate than the cast iron block. If the clearance is reduced to where it becomes an interference fit the friction heat will rise very rapidly. In only a few seconds the vicious circle of heat build up from several sources will cause the piston to start leaving metal behind and the engine, at this point, is in danger of seizing.
I do not think that your choice of a synthetic oils was a good idea based on reality. Synthetic oils have come into fashion to be compatible with what goes on inside a very modern engine, non of which you will find inside your OLD IHC, other than internal combustion. Your engine has flat cam followers, not roller followers like many engines built in the last decade. Roller followers are not something new, Detroit two stroke engines have had them for fifty years, but your Binder does not have them... Now comes the question, what oil should I be using in my IH. Cummins continued to use flat tappets in their B series engines through the two valve per cylinder series. Cummins recommend using 15-40 Chevron and Detroit Diesel also recommend using 15-40. There must be a very good reason. If I were to run an engine without coolant, where I was a mechanic, I would expect to get fired. It is that serious.
Because of the required high oil change intervals suggested for these old Binders, using a synthetic is not cost effective first and this is after knowing that this oil is not designed for the application. The oil filtering system in these old Binder motors is a by-pass system that borders on being of little value. In fact, you can remove the filter sock and continue to run the engine and little or nothing will change. The by-pass filter is a drain back system which returns the oil to the oil pan and not to the moving parts of the engine. Ford sold tens of millions of their Flathead engines without filters and only a few ever had a by-pass filter on them, often dealer installed. The oil change interval on the Ford was high as it was on the Binders. this was to totally remove the build up of contaminates with the oil change. Many Ford Flathead engines had a 6 inch round panel with the oil drain plug built into it. It was expected that the mechanic would put his hand into the oil pan and scrape out the settled out sludge. The use of Ethyl lead in the fuel to control the octane would settle out in the sludge also. Back in the day it was said, with much truth, "There are no old mechanics" and it was true because of the toxins and carcinogens that mechanics were in contact with.
If you are worried about wasting a little mixed coolant, run straight water. When you finally get around to putting proper coolant into the cooling system, just drain the water and follow the instructions on the antifreeze container. Some coolant is pre-mixed and traditionally, coolant must be mixed 50% with clean water. It the water that you drink is really terrible tasting, it might be advisable to buy and use distilled water for the coolant mix, but this is most likely another over-kill situation and not necessary.
Always remember that your IHC pickup is a rough and tumble slow moving truck that was designed to do some serious work with a minimum amount of service. I am old enough to remember when money was really short and many of these trucks did not get the service they should have had, and is reasonable to assume that the engines may have suffered for it, just a little. As short at the cash may have been, back in the day, my Father and the other vehicle owners never ran without coolant. I remember Dad saying that he ran home heating oil as coolant when antifreeze was not available. Not such a bad idea, really. There was a tractor company called Rumley Oil Pull and as the name suggests, there was oil involved, and it was the coolant in the thermal syphon cooling system. Several high performance motorcycle engines use oil to transfer the heat out of the engine. Don't even think about it!
Just for interest and to add a level of confusion to the mix, I will add this little tid-bit. I am using a Ford Flathead 1947 V8, model C69A in our 1940 Ford. The engine has an added Eaton supercharger and TEC3r electronic engine management. Rather than leaving the original oiling system original and without pressurized filtering, I modified the oil pump for full flow filtering. First, the bottom of the oilpump was replace with a blanking plate and a carefully placed ORB fitting. After that, the oilpump was placed into the lathe and the housing was reamed out to take a bronze bushing that prevented 99% of the oil from going up the pump body and into the engine block where it would be distributed to the rotating surfaces through the drilled oil galleries. After the oil leaves the pump, now through the bottom plate and ORB fitting, the oil is taken, under pressure, out of the oilpan with a bulkhead fitting and on to an external filter. After the filter, the oil is returned to the engine block in a newly drilled and taped location, near where the original oil pressure sender is located at the top of the original oil distribution gallery. I looked at the situation for days and very suddenly and without warning, in the middle of the night, the solution came to me. Does it work? Yes, or I would not mention it.
4-2-1
I would rather have tools I do not need than to need tools I do not have
Artificial intelligence is no match for real stupidity....
