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I finally got the 26 running like it should after setting for about 40 years in a shed. I probably should have changed the oil before I started working on it but I wasn't sure if I would have to rebuild the engine so I just added some oil to bring it up and let it go until I saw what happened. The engine has ran about 2 hours in total and when I was adjusting the brake band today I noticed the oil was a little milky. I doubt that it is from coolant since I have kept a check on the radiator and the level hasn't changed and the coolant is clean. I am thinking that old oil and decades of condensation is the culprit, or at least that is my hope. I remember an old man telling me years ago that when he had a service station back in the 50s that when they did an oil change that they would drain the oil then put in 2 quarts of oil and top it off with kerosene. They would then run the engine for 5 or ten minutes and drain it again before filling it up with fresh oil. Has anyone done this? Jack said that on an old car it was the best way to clean out an engine but I wanted to get your opinion.

Thanks and God Bless

Yes, I have done this several times. It seemed to clean out any sludge.

The best way to clean out your engine is to clean it.

I pull the right front lower pan bolt, put a pan under it and start the car. If oil flows out you know your funnel is not clogged...that's the first thing I do on a car which I have no experience with.

Then I pull the lower pan completely and let oil drain and drip for a day or two. Then put on old clothes, arm myself with a bunch of shop rags and wipe down everything inside the engine that I can get to, paying special attention to horizontal surfaces and other contaminant traps. The carbon and sludge you pull out will shock you. After it is clean, your new oil will STAY clean.

Ok Scott .. I see you.. my next action on my newly purchased T is to do just that.

There are motor flush products that you pour into the oil and run the car until hot. It this the oil while cleaning the interior of he engine. Drain, then replace the oil. Jim Patrick


This is the one I have used successfully.

Scotts method is the safest.
You dont want a bunch of loose crud splashing into the oil pickup areas in a T motor & blocking those holes permanently obstructing needed lubrication.
Also a detergent may attack & further rot band lining.
In a modern engine, the crud gets filtered thru the oil pick up screen. The kind of thick crud found in T engines, (Paraffin based oils, etc.) Can even plug up a "modern" oil pick up screen enough to lose that motor.
In my early T apprentice years an old expert said to run only non detergent oil in old, dirty T motors. Detergent oil would suspend the crud & distribute it into oil delivery areas. I followed this advice for several decades. I had not thought of manually cleaning a motor by removing the dip cover. This is where the lions share of crud rests.

Using two quarts of oil and kerosene is not a bad way to clean a very dirty engines. But, I would refrain from running the engine with minimal lubrication. Instead, remove all four spark plugs and alternate spinning the engine with the hand crank then let set for the length of time it takes to drink one beer, then repeat. It should take four to six beers to sufficiently clean the engine. Doing the procedure longer will not harm the engine, but it may preclude you from getting anything else done.

After 6 beers, I would have forgotten I owned a T.

JohnM has a good way to clean an old engine that has sat a good while whether it’s a T engine or an old tractor. Fill it with a mixture of thin oil , kerosene or diesel, remove the plugs and use the hand crank to turn the engine over several times and let it sit. Do it several times during a day or so. Then drain it and do it again turn a few times the next day.
Drain the engine and let it run and drip out for a while.
Fill it with 10 20 or 30 w oil and start it up. Run that oil for several miles, drain and add new oil. That should do it.

It depends on how gummed up and dirty the engine is of course.

When I repaled the no 1 rod on Henrietta through the bottom plate, I was staggered by the amount of crud captured between the two horse shoes and the sides of the pan. It was largely gritty carbon. There is no way I would try to liberate this by any flushing method with any flushing material. Follow Scott's advice.

Allan from down under.

Since the OP referenced cleaning oil out of a T engine that’s sat dormant for 40 years, I’d go with Scott’s advice. All my Model Ts have rebuilt fairly low mileage engines so, when I change oil, I run the front wheels up on car ramps.This is a technique I learned from Royce. Then I remove the 15/16” oil drain plug and let it drain for an hour. This supposedly allows for the ‘dips’ to also drain…

You are replying to a bot who does not know that Model T's don't have oil filters.

AI is an idiot.

Pat; who represents A.I. or, conversely, who is AL ?

Artificial Intelligence, so-called.
Memorable quote from AI: "A door is a jar".

Al, I believe, would be Simon, of Simon & Garfunkel.

I would not use kerosene or other solvent to "flush" an engine. You'd as likely to flush grit and crud into bearings as out of them. Loosening too much crud too quickly can be worse than leaving it alone. Manually removing as much debris as possible, especially from around the oil pan inspection cover, is a good idea. I'd follow that with clean detergent oil like 10W30, or 10W 20 in cool weather.

Reducing the oil's film strength and lubricity with solvents invites embedding grit in the babbit bearings and perhaps into aluminum pistons. If the clean oil gets dirty quickly, change it again. I'd also drive an old, neglected engine at only moderate speeds for the first few hundred miles. Adding a good auxilliary oil might be a good idea, and adding a transmission cover screen is always a good idea. Be sure the transmission bands aren't severely worn or shedding lint due to decay.

I’ll assume that motor flush in a can might not harm a T engine because of the non pressurized oil system but I wouldn’t use it in a modern. Saw the result of this years ago when a friend dumped a can of it into his mustang. Some bit of junk got lose and made the pressure regulator in the oil pump unhappy. Zero pressure. Luckily, since we had no way to pull the engine those old Stang’s had a tubular bolt in cross member which I pulled out and dropped the pan. Lesson learned.

Too, you may want to clean the oil feed tube. I may have bits of fiber and carbon after years of operation.

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