[ihc] Rebuilds, motor oil, etc

[John Hofstetter <hofs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you watched tail pipes on vehicles powered by the 345 (the engines I 
encountered most) you'd see the dark deposits replaced by white as the 
engine broke in over some thousands, or tens of thousands, of miles.

It just took more time with those blocks, those rings, and the 
technology of the time. Using the moly rings in a rebuild was, in the 
70's, a task that required great care if the rings were to seat at all. 
Local machinist honed the bores by hand and success with his work was 
intermittent, from engine to engine, and even cylinder to cylinder. His 
work often required the Bon Ami follow-up. I took a 345 block a hundred 
miles across the state to have an early kind-of-computer controlled 
boring and honing machine do the work. No problem in getting those 
rings to seat, but as Tom says, that engine got stronger and stronger 
as the miles racked up.

Not relevant to much of anything in this discussion, but after a couple 
of thousand miles on the new Travelall that we had, I started using 
Mobil 1 motor oil. When I tore that engine down after about 125,000 
miles, I was surprised at the wear in the cylinders. I still use Mobil 
1, but I'm pretty sure that it is a lot better product than it was in 
1972.

John

On Thursday, February 5, 2004, at 08:57 PM, Tom Mandera wrote:


> I always kinda liked the idea that, as powerful as my engines are when 
> I first fire them, they only go UP in power over 10k or so (not so 
> sure about 40k) as the rings seat.
>
> IIRC, IH used moly rings at the factory.. which is why they tend to 
> last a quarter million miles or more between rebuilds - and why they 
> take a while to break in. :D
>
> I use moly rings on my rebuilds..
>
> -Tom
>
> Marcus wrote:
>
>
> > I am not agueing that point. What I'm saying (to myself) is that "I" 
> > don't
> > want an engine that's going to take 40K miles to "break-in". You're 
> > looking
> > at 40,000 miles of being under powered, excessive oil usuage, and 
> > poor gas
> > mileage. My engines didn't take that long to seat, and neither should 
> > any
> > other IH engine if driven properly.
John Hofstetter
www.goldrush.com/~hofs