oil cooler size 1000 hp +
#13
Charter Member#568
Charter Member
I'll post some pictures of the internals the next time I'm up where I have the engines stored. When I pulled the intakes off last week. Some of the lifter tie-bars had light surface rust on them. I'm certainly no expert in this arena, but I would think if the oil was too cool it could cause this or if the block was too cold. I know I tried running a set of engines once without thermostats, and within one hour I had milky oil under the valve covers. Oil on the dipstick looked fine. I put the thermostats back in, and problem solved. As far as the actual oil in the engines, it looks fine.
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Straight bottoms and flat decks
Straight bottoms and flat decks
#14
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iTrader: (7)
Sometimes you can still have condensation or take in some water without showing the famous milkshake although that would be a good indication. Can actually cause an acid from that and can ultimately wipe out bearings. Sulfur and water mixed is was causes the acid from what I understand. Regardless cold oil temps won't burn off any condensation or deposits and also cause a lot of friction not being real efficient. Also I've seen some engines that ran low temps from no oil stats (even with) that showed signs of oil build up in the bottom of oil pan, lifter galley, under pistons, valve covers etc Premature bearing wear is probably the worst. Running in cold water can be difficult to get temps up even with oil stats. Over the years I've always had machine shop end up on the high side with bearing clearances do to typically running lower oil temps because of 80 % of my boating is cruising rpms and just don't build enough heat. The early day 454/330's didn't even come with oil coolers.
I woukd imagine mikes didn't have oil stats cause the engines saw wot the majority of the time although but I'm not certain of that.
Last edited by getrdunn; 02-15-2018 at 10:34 PM. Reason: Spelling
#16
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One of my engines lost a lifter, so the main bearings on that engine don't look good at all, but that is to be expected. The other engine, everything is fine, BUT there is minor rust on the tie bars of the lifters, and the cam looks terrible. Again, with only 180 hours on them, I would have expected them to look new, or very good condition at a minimum.
As John said, these engines were designed to be run hard, not idle around. My guess is, that is what happened. I see no harm in running oil coolers, but plenty of harm can happen without them. It may be a while, but I will post pictures of the engines as they are being torn down. If I end up having Wesco or Chief rebuild them, I'll still have them send me pictures of what they find.
As John said, these engines were designed to be run hard, not idle around. My guess is, that is what happened. I see no harm in running oil coolers, but plenty of harm can happen without them. It may be a while, but I will post pictures of the engines as they are being torn down. If I end up having Wesco or Chief rebuild them, I'll still have them send me pictures of what they find.