OT: Why check the oil?

The oil will tell you if you have a cracked head or block with water getting into the oil. With tractor, a bad seal could cause hy-tran to run over into the oil. I learned a new one here with the bad carb needle valve letting gas into it. I've been fighting carb problems and I've noticed that my oil level might have come up a little and thinned out but not enough to worry about but I will change it anyway.

Also engines just flat use oil. It doesn't have to be a smoker to do so. My 5.4l ford pu uses a quart each oil change and it is not burning it or leaking it.

Seems he burned up a tractor engine in the depression 'cause a neighbor helped himself to the oil from the engine overnight. Things were tough back then. Anyway I'm religious on the point more than 55 years after than my first lesson.

jimmy

Sometimes the dipstick won't help. One of my uncles once borrowed a backhoe/loader from another. The oil level was fine until he parked the unit at a fairly steep angle to do some ditch digging. The oil flowed away from the sump and the pickup, starving the oil pump and eventually leading to a thrown rod. That was about 1972, and she's still sitting in the place where she was towed that day.

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- --

Sometimes people just have to be trained right. (My wife and I have been married for 20 years, and we're still training each other.)

Last week I chewed her out for driving around town in four wheel drive on dry pavement for 10 days or so. (She had "assumed" it was in two wheel drive; I had to break down the word "assume" for her.) I found the problem when she said the truck "wasn't running right" and asked me to look at it.

But yesterday, to my astonishment and delight, she called me out to the driveway before she left. She said the oil pressure gauge was reading high, and the coolant temp was reading low. I explained that 60 psi is normal for that engine until it warms up, then it decreases to about 40. And low coolant temp is normal when it's 15 degrees Fahrenheit and the engine's been running for only a minute or so. I also told her good job and thanks for asking.

Maybe I'll keep her after all ;-)

Mark W. in MI

He was operating my 1066 on cultivator, and this had been the first time I was near him or the tractor in 2 days. He was eating lunch and I thought the front end looked dry. I checked the oil, 1.5 gallons, Hytran 2 gallons and yes the front end was so dry it squeaked when one turned the wheel. I said, "When did you last check this?" he said, "I didn't, you did before I came to work two days ago." I said, "Sonny, around here you check those things plus the rad daily before you fire it up. Makes no difference what the last operator may have told you. He said, " Well, at Seymore's we only checked those things once per week." I advised, "around here you check daily, some things more often." I found out later that Seymore's new Impalla had it's first oil check at 25,000 miles when the engine seized.

And, Dalton, if you monitor YT your still a dipstick, well your a dipstick anyhow.

There can be several clues there, if you look closely, such as frothy foam stuck to the dipstick above the oil level, indicating coolant getting into the oil, or the engine simply not being run enough to warm up, (or having a bad thermostat). Really THIN oil can indicate a misfiring cylinder, or a bad carburetor needle/seat allowing the carb to "run over" and get gasoline into the crankcase, in a "worst-case" scenario causing the bearings to fail and the engine to "lock up".

I say "smelling" the oil will give some clues, as well, but the last guy to post that on a message board got laughed at! (Over on KL.)

• Hobby farm

Greg

My sister-in-law had a fender-bender with her Mercedes 220 diesel. The first thing the appraiser did was to check the oil. He then made the comment that he thought the car had little residual value because the oil was filthy. Must have been his first day on the job.

My wife was driving home from work and the oil light came on so she immediately pulled over and shut it off. Called me on the cell. Huge puddle of oil underneath the car. I grabbed a gallon of used oil and limped it to the gas station a couple miles away. Turned out to be bad oil pressure sensor. No damage to the engine so I think I got a keeper.