Engine life when cars were first built

[1942cowdodge]

I was just wondering what the engine life of six cyclinder mopar engine would be? I know my old engine had 270 thousand miles on it and it was pretty well shot befor I had it rebuilt. Anyway some folks have cars here that have little or no miles on them and others well just like mine thousand upon thousand of miles of family run fun.

[greg g]

Lets see 1942 less that 30% of the roads in America were paved with concrete, brick or asphalt. Oil was basically oil, some cars filtered it some didn't. Air filters were good at getting big chunks of abrasive stuff out of the incoming air, but not really in to micro particle protection. Lead in the gas. Wonder why rebuilds were common at 50 or 60 K miles? And trades were common after three years.

[Dodgeb4ya]

I was just wondering what the engine life of six cyclinder mopar engine would be? I know my old engine had 270 thousand miles on it and it was pretty well shot befor I had it rebuilt. Anyway some folks have cars here that have little or no miles on them and others well just like mine thousand upon thousand of miles of family run fun.

Wow,

I always thought these old flatheads could out last a Toyota or Honda engine!

[JBNeal]

the 5-digit odometer should be a giveaway...from what I've been told, if ya could make a car or truck last 80k, then that was due to good maintenance and minimum wear & tear. Counting all the grease zerks and adjustments that could be made on brake & suspension parts, as well as carb & clutch rebuilds, vehicles of that era usually pooped out before the motors did.

[Flatie46]

My car [ 46 Plym ] is showing about 36,000 it has a Sinclair sticker on the door where the oil was changed at 33,000 but I cant make out the date. I'm pretty sure it's 133,000 because of the suspension wear it had. The front end was terrible also had a broke shackle hanger and shock mount on the rear. Maybe it was the bad roads. Just thinking of how the roads in this area are now and how much worse they would have been back then, it would have been hard on a car. The engine was running when I got it but it knocked. I can trace the history of the car back to '74. My ex father in law whom I got the car from said when he bought it for $50 years ago they'd drive em till they dropped and leave 'em where they did. So not much care and maintenance was given to most unless they were bought new and intended to be keepers. I don't know if this sheds any light on your question or not. Who knows what mine went through it might have 233,000.

[1940plymouth]

My Father tells the story of his Father saying to him about the new '37 Plymouth Grandpa had, he said to my Father, " this has been a good car, ten thousand miles on it and no valve job"

He also tells the story of his older Brother rolling the '37, got it up right, and kept on driving it

When we got the Plymouth in '88, Dad said to me, "What in the he__ are you doing by this thing, they were junk when new and still junk today"

Cars were a necessary evil to my Father and still are, but he doesn't say no when I ask him if he wants to go for a ride in the old Plymouth

My thoughts,

Bob

[Don Coatney]

I know my old engine had 270 thousand miles on it and it was pretty well shot befor I had it rebuilt.

How do you know your engine had 270K miles on it? What proof do you have?

Your car may have that many miles on it but I have serious doubts your engine lasted that long.

[michael.warshaw]

from what my engine builder told me.

His exact words are these motors didnt last that long due to engine bearings not being high quality, and t he level of balance of was not as equal as it is today.

By todays standards a engine in a new honds is roughly plus or minus half a gram out of balnace, these engines were not even close mine was out of balance by 60 grams, but this was on a rebuild so the p.o. didnt do a great job.

the only plus i see is that the flatheads was a not a fast turning engine, so that might of helped.

[TodFitch]

I have some 1930s automotive trade magazines that talk about how to make the car last longer. Trucks of the era typically got a lot more miles before being retired than cars. I guess that is still true. I'd have to sort though my copies to be sure, but I recall 100K miles as being a reasonable target but based on trucking industry experience it was thought there wasn't a good reason why several hundred K was not possible. This for the total life of the vehicle which might include several engine fixes and overhauls. One issue on lots of cars of that era was the wood framed bodies that basically rattled themselves apart on the mostly unpaved roads. And once the fabric roof insert started leaking that was basically the end of the car.

It is my recollection as a teenager in the 1960s that 100K was considered pretty reasonable life for an engine. But my recollection could be way off.

[1942cowdodge]

Well if worn out is the word for those high miles than I figure it was true. One of the cylinder had to be replaced as it was ecliptic in shape. I just figure the farmer who owned this old car just keep driving it and driving and servicing it in his barn. This family who owned the old car were not very rich and so they had to make things last. Maybe it did have a valve job or a head job but I think that would have been it. These people owned the old Dodge from 1948 to around 1988 or so. Of course it was not running when I got it and so it probably sat around for along time. I know the history of this car and even my 95 year old neighbor road around in it back in the early 50's. Just interesting to know this and know this was a well used family vehicle.

[Young Ed]

My 48 went to the junkyard at 76K miles. That tells you something there.

[BobT-47P15]

If you find a junkyard with a bunch of 40s cars, go look at the odometers.

I bet you'll see quite a few with 40 to 75,000 miles showing.

It may have even taken two engines to get that number of miles run

up...... No more than many people drove back then, the car got

to be old in years, but not all so many miles on them.

[Guest P15-D24]

and compared to the stuff to day it was pretty bad. Add the unpaved roads with the necessity to keep the air filter changed, plus oil changes. Most of the research I have seen says 50-75 K before a a major overhaul was needed. WIth todays oils, 99% paved roads and a engine that is not highly stressed I would expect a rebuild to go at least 100K if not 150K miles. In other worde I won't be worrying about it before I'm gone!

[michael.warshaw]

and compared to the stuff to day it was pretty bad. Add the unpaved roads with the necessity to keep the air filter changed, plus oil changes. Most of the research I have seen says 50-75 K before a a major overhaul was needed. WIth todays oils, 99% paved roads and a engine that is not highly stressed I would expect a rebuild to go at least 100K if not 150K miles. In other worde I won't be worrying about it before I'm gone!

every p15 i have seen has has been below about 75k so bassically i would say that ws it, i agree with the above poster.

[MarcDeSoto]

I owned a 1950 Chrysler in the the 80s which I rebuilt. It was the first rebuild I had ever done and the engine had never been overhauled before. The seller said the car only had 40K on it, but after I bought it and called the original owners, they said the odometer had already gone around at least once. That was when I started to be very cautious when sellers pointed the the odometer on 40s cars and tried to claim it as original miles!

[JoelOkie]

Talk about dusty old roads, we had em here when I was a kid. Mud ruts in the winter. It was pretty remarkable around here to hear about someone putting 100,000 miles on a car. Do it youself "overhauls" were pretty common, with kits bought at Western Auto, but do to the lack of being able to afford to have machine shop work done the overhauls didn't gain a whole lot more miles, and were pretty much just making do. I am sure there were people that were able to have regular maintinence done, and lived on better roads, and in town, that's cars lasted longer. Many places out in the country around here when I was a kid had so many cars stacked up around the place you would think today that they were salvage yards. Just drive em till they drove no more, then pull them back to a fence row. Joel

[Oldguy48]

When I was a kid, if memory serves me, if an engine lasted for 100,000 miles, it was a "Mechanical Methusala". I had a P15 way back then that had two engine transplants before it was put out to pasture, and I did the last one. (An engine out of a 1953, that belonged to my grandfather prior to his passing.)

[JerseyHarold]

My father bought our '52 Cambridge new and was not the best on maintenance. It started burning oil around 50,000 miles and developed a rod knock at 82,000 miles, at which point he had a used motor installed.

There was no reason to trust odometers on used cars back then, or today. Turning back mileage was legal until around 1970, and a very common practice. So people who proudly point to the odometer on their old car and crow about its supposedly low mileage had better have a pile of documentation to support it.

[builtfercomfort]

My grandpa had a buddy who changed his oil ever 500-1000 miles. His truck, an old Plymouth pickup of some sort, lasted over 100K miles on a dusty ranch in central Texas. But he was an exception - he was a 'gentleman rancher' who was basically semi-retired, just ran a few cows and drove into Kerrville most nights to socialize at the VFW hall, Elks hall, Masonic hall, etc. During the day he'd putter around the ranch house and when he got on his wife's nerves, go out and change the oil... I was a kid at the time, but I remember the tale because it was the talk of the town when his truck "turned over" on the speedometer. (Well, not quite the talk of the whole town, more like his drinking circle; I was the kid bartender for the old guys.)

It became more common in the 1960s for a car or truck to last over 100K miles.

[55 Fargo]

My Dad had a new 1959 Ford, with Fords reilable 6 cyl, it went to like 160 k, before it started knocking in 1967, my uncle then bought it, it spun a bearing shortly after, but he was warned.

My Dad bought a new 1968 Olds Vista Cruiser, owned it until 1975, it then had well over a 100000 miles on it, he sold it, and the new owners drove it for a few years after that, and it was sold again.

My Dad tend to rack up the miles quickly, both sets of Grandparents lived out of town, summer holidays, and cottage at the lake so miles added up fast.

My personal best is about 100k in about year and a half, when I was a Salesman on the road, some years back.

One of my Supervisors at work has about a 10 year old Honda Civic, it has like 300000 on it.................Fred

[Harvey Tank]

the speedo on my 59 ply is at 39940. I wonder if someone down the road rolled it back. cause when I got the car, the over all condition of it showed a lot moor than that. my re build, I hope will out last me.

[tysouthwick]

My cousins friend has a 1996 Dodge cummins diesel that has 5,33487 miles on it, the previous owner used to tow travel trailers for some company that built them the company paid for all the oil changes, I have driven a 2006 cummins that has 87xxx miles on it and I have driven the 96 and it drives just as good as the 06, Crazy what regular maintance can do

[55 Fargo]

My L head 218 6 cyl Canadian 25 inch block is from a 1951 Dodge, it is in my 47 Chrysler Coupe.

Now this engine was pulled out of the Dodge around 1985, my Uncle was gievn the car from it's owner a younger Guy, who either bought or was given the car, from and old Farmer, a few years before this.

Supposedly by my Uncles recollection, it was a lower miled car, very typical for farm people living way out in the sticks, drove it maybe 2000 miles per year.

I have no idea what or how many miles are on this engine, I have put on about 4000 miles in 3 years.

The engine had decent uniform compression 100 -110, oil pressure, 50-55psi on the highway, 1 noisy lifter, but the water jackets were filthy, and plugged up, I had to remove brass water tube and frost plugs and clean-out. The oil pan and lifter galleys were mostly sludge free.

So I have no idea if this engine was aver rebuilt,valve grind, rings or totally original.

Now having said this, I have no idea, how long she may last either, so living on what time is the ?

Any comments on this welcomed, I really sometime wonder what shape this engine is in, and how much wear is on her.

When it is good and hot outside, and the engine is good an warm, the oil pressure will drop back to 30 psi, at an idle.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Rockwood

[Oldguy48]

I would think that 30 psi oil pressure at an idle, with a warmed up engine, is a good indicator that the bearings are in pretty good shape. Not that I'm an expert, but the P15 that I had as a youngster didn't carry near that much oil pressure at idle, and seemed to run pretty good, after you got it started. (Starting usually wasn't an issue if the engine wasn't too cold. If the temperature was around freezing or less, you needed good luck, and the proper alignment of the planets to fire her up. But that's a topic for a different thread)

[Tim Keith]

This '51 DeSoto Suburban has been posted here before, rebuilt, but

a long term car that never was worn down.

http://www.allpar.com/cars/desoto/suburban-1951.html