Break-in oil for overhauled engine Farmall M?

Just finishing-up on the engine overhaul of my Farmall M--new sleeves, pistons, bearings, etc.

Is there a recommendation on weight/grade of engine oil I should use for the break-in period?

Should I consider using synthetic?

This isn't a parade tractor---I use it to farm 160 acres and it does a lot of tandem disking.

Thanks for any advice---it IS appreciated!

Station brand 30 wt oil is great. You will change it and the filter after 15 hours or so of variable duty running, so it can be replaced with 15-40 diesel grade oil (Rotells, or Delo are favorites) and a filter. Jim

Overhauled a 450 gas and put in the type of oil that I am going to use all the time. 15W-40 in the summer and 10W-30 in the winter for feeding. This has been 2 years ago now.

The grades mentioned below -- 15-40, 10-30 will work fine. I'd probably tend toward the 10-30 for the first coupla changes. I'd change the oil and filter out after the first 3-5 hours of run time just as a precaution, then transition up over the next couple changes to whtever interval your manual recommends. If you can find some work for the tractor to do, all the better to seat the rings. Once seated, you should not have nay smoke adn you shouldn't be able to detect any gasoline smell from the oil when you drain it.

At that point, I wouldn't mind the idea of going up to 15-40 or a synthetic. The 15-40 might work okay, too from the gitgo, but I would stay away from the synthetics until I'd run it for a while after I was sure the rings were seated.

Nothing scientific in my thinking. My thought stems from the guidance with the Cummmins in my Ram when it was new. Tey don't call for a break-in period for the motor, bu they STRONGLY recommend not switching to a synthetic until about 15,00 miles, when the motor has been well run-in and the rings seated. I know these IH motors don't have near the compression or tight tolerances of the modern Cummins. All I take from their advice is that synthetics don'st lend themselves to deating rings in a new/rebuilt motor.

Run dino at first, then switch off to synthetic later if all is fine.

No idea how much you plan on using the tractor, butif it's going to be light or infrequent, take the trouble and expense of running it long enough to heat up to "cook' any water from condensation out of the oil. Dino oil will emulsify with water from condensation. Again uninformed as to whether synthetics will absorb and emulsify with moisture in similar fashion. But bottom line, if not used and warmed-up regularly, condensation will build up in the crankcase and oilpan and, if not boiled-off/cooked out, will shorten motor life.

There's a lot of debates as to what is & isn't the correct oil for these engines but I won't get into that. Just put in the oil you're going to use in it and change it the first time about 50% sooner than you normally would.

Another old Model-T wives tale.

Use the oil you always use in your tractors.

"Break in oil" went out a long, long ago, as the manufactures found it to be a total waste of time and effort. :>)

Allan

Use the oil you're planning on using in your tractor. Hal