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Showing results for tags 'Water Oil Flathead'.
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Water in Oil, Hi all. I checked my oil the other day at the 400 mile mark and it was gray. That did not surprise me as the engine was rebuilt with about 10K miles on it when it went into storage in 1967. I had taken the engine down to the short block and cleaned everything well, but one cannot really clean out the oil passages well and other areas were the old oil and its ash cling. I did clean out the lifter pool very well, the oil pan and the timing cover and chain. But, I had noted some water loss from the radiator over the last month after starting to drive it. There is a drip behind the water pump at the head, but it is so minor I figured I would get some miles on it and build up a new pump and swap it later. I drained the oil out. I and put it into a tall skinny bucket. I let it sit over night. I then the next day used a hand pump and pulled the bottom one inch and put it into a small container. Shook it up and sure enough it had water in it. I re-torqued the head and got it up to 75 pounds. I did get about 1/4 to 3/8 of a turn on a couple of the (new) head bolts. That is as much as I dare do as I did not want to snap one. I put in a bottle of ceramic-seal. The expensive stiff my race buddies use in all their race engines when they fire them up. You run it a couple of times during a 24 hour period and drain it out. I have new oil in it and a new filter. Everything look good so far. BUT, I did take the dipstick out a few times and let it drip into a teaspoon. I then lit the bottom of the spoon and sure enough I got some bubbles. I am hoping that it is leftover water that has not vapored out of the system yet. It has been cool here in San Francisco so I need to take it on a freeway out of the city and run it for a hour or two to get it good and hot and then come home and see what the oil looks like. Setting aside a crack in the block for a moment, other than the cylinder head, where else on a flathead six would water migrate into the oiling system? Thoughts? Thanks, James