MTFCA Forum

Hi all,

In the years taking the T to OCF, thankfully we never had issues. This year, the car seemed to have splattered oil EVERYWHERE, both there and back while it was on the flatbed trailer. I take the floorboards and seats out, maybe air sucked its way in and out the hogshead? I not talking a little bit…the entire car and trailer is soaked! And probably passersby. Any idea what gives? It’s got both petcock valves closed, oil breather is on….id try to source it….but no way to tell now!

Anything leaking from your tow vehicle and blowing back on the T?

The windshield splatter is flowing down, and on the trailer deck the oil looks very fresh, certainly isn't old used oil or fresh pavement oil from the roadways.

Lots on your battery and on the front seat riser points to the motor as source.

Would first check the oil level in the crankcase, and did you overfill with fresh oil prior to the trip?

Would look for the typical oil leak points, the drain plug, around the u-joint, the Bendix Cover, starter mount, rear corners of the hogshead, band inspection cover, crankcase inspection cover. Hopefully you will find that source of oil leakage, which got air sprayed at trailer towing speed, sucking the air rearward over and around the engine.

I should add my tow car is my Durango. It’s a new car, no problems there. The model t oil was changed recently and not overfilled, it leaks a little from the typical spots but nothing too crazy. Wonder if the air sucking up from the bottom at high speed just sucked it out the engine like a straw? Or a weird wind gust perhaps that was just right to pass through and out and carried oil with it. It ran happy and clean) all weekend at the show. Just ALOT of clean up to do now!

Do you carry extra oil with your T or the tow vehicle? If so in what container? And where?
Do you have one of those accessory oil can holders on your T? That seems like a lot more oil than that though...

I guess check oil levels in both cars!

My trailer and T looked like that once… the pinion bearing seal in my tow rig went out during a 400 mile haul. It’s amazing how much coverage you get out of a quart of hypoid oil! Stinky too!

At least your upholstery is not likely to rust now.

Allan from down under.

With oil breather cap on, about only places I can think of is of course thru that breather, then maybe could suck it out the pedal shaft gaps of the hogshead, and last but not least, the ball cap which as we all know is always a source from where a T leaves its mark. The grease in it gets liquefied quickly so its almost always a source of an oily leak.

It is MY summation, the oil came from the tow vehicle. Either out of it or from UNDER it as it drove through an oil spill on the road. It would be nearly impossible for any T oil to come out from under the T, blow forward, then up, and then back over the T. NOT impossible, but very unlikely. A close inspection would tell if the oil is engine oil or gear oil. Checking petcocks and dip stick should tell if it came from the T or tow vehicle. Splatter under the tow vehicle would tell if it came off the roadway.

mtntee20 wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 08, 2025 2:50 pm

It is MY summation, the oil came from the tow vehicle. Either out of it or from UNDER it as it drove through an oil spill on the road. It would be nearly impossible for any T oil to come out from under the T, blow forward, then up, and then back over the T. NOT impossible, but very unlikely. A close inspection would tell if the oil is engine oil or gear oil. Checking petcocks and dip stick should tell if it came from the T or tow vehicle. Splatter under the tow vehicle would tell if it came off the roadway.

Even though above your post I rattled off a few Model T possibilities...in all actuality in the back of my feeble mind I agree with both you and Jerry VanOotegehm...just because it's a new tow vehicle doesn't mean something can't go wrong with it. In fact, nowadays with all the recalls I keep reading about, quite the opposite is likely! The OP needs to crawl under that Durango and give it a thorough going over, starting with the differential and entire axle area. For all he knows someone left the diffy plug loose or out altogether. Beyond that, check the drivetrain from front to year. Good luck.

Until we know from the OP, prefer to go with the hunch on the type of spray indicated , that is source is the Model T.

Look at the windshield pic, I expanded it some. If the oil spray was from the tow vehicle, the spray would be outside.

This oil is on only the inside of the T. Note how the oil is fresh, clear, and at the inside upper frame is lacking, but the flow streams are straight down. That is due to the inside pressures over the windshield that whip the wind down, so the oil was being sprayed up from the motor and into the compartment with some spray on the inside of the windshield.

There is no spray on the front exterior of the T. All the oil spray is inside the compartment.

Oil or other liquid leaking from a vehicle being towed on an open trailer at highway speed can blow in any direction. Turbulence behind a moving tow vehicle and around a trailered vehicle is very high. Higher road speeds, headwinds, or crosswinds can make turbulence much worse. Oil doesn't weigh much, and moving air can push it around easily.

TXGOAT2 wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 09, 2025 9:57 am

Oil or other liquid leaking from a vehicle being towed on an open trailer at highway speed can blow in any direction. Turbulence behind a moving tow vehicle and around a trailered vehicle is very high. Higher road speeds, headwinds, or crosswinds can make turbulence much worse. Oil doesn't weigh much, and moving air can push it around easily.

Agree.

Wondering if this was the first time the OP pulled the floorboards up? That could have contributed to the high pressures inside the compartment.

When towing on my open trailer, the floor mat is over the floorboards, and usually they may shift under the mat, but don't get free enough to fall away. Leave the seat cushions in as they fit snug. Tow the same way, T facing forward. But do bungee down and over the top cover to make sure the top won't balloon out at the back.

Did you have any oil on the very front of your T? In front of the radiator, headlight lens, or leading tread of the front tires? If there is the oil/lube is from the tow vehicle. Oil will blow in just about any direction going down the highway, except forward. It will blow up, down, back, and sideways. Also check the rear window and back end of the Durango. That too will have oil if it was leaking going down the road. 3.3 million miles of over the road trucking, saw just about everything imaginable.

What about oil petcocks? Does it have one of those oil sight glasses?
Don’t know why it said what it did instead of oil ?

I would start by checking the oil level in the T's engine. If it was full when you left and isn't now, you know where the oil came from. The next step is to figure out why. I'm assuming that you open-tow your T. If so, you shouldn't be going much faster then the T would under it's own power. As was said earlier, the airflow behind the tow vehicle can be quite turbulent, but whether the turbulence creates enough vacuum to pull oil out of the engine is a calculation above my pay grade.

If there are no leaks, and no gravity anomalies or severe jouncing, it has to be air turbulence. Towing fast is very expensive, both in fuel and in wear and tear on equipment. It's best to leave early and keep speeds moderate.

Dan is spot on. All the oil in concentrated on the inside compartment. I’m thinking there was some force of air blowing through and causing a forced leak at the ball cap and the oil sight gauge and sucking it up and splattering all over.

Not a drop from the Durango or on the front trailer frame. Lesson learned for next year to wrap up that sight gauge and the ball cap good and tight. Took me 3 days to clean it all up but looks fine now!

Brian

Interesting on the site gauge in the lower petcock, didn’t know as you posted first both were closed.

Those gauges have vent hole so oil registers in the glass. Yep… air flow up and out the missing floorboards pulled oil out that vent! Normally road speed of a T won’t as air flow stays low under the chassis.

Thanks for solving the puzzle. Learned something!

Dan

Yes you all should learn what I did a bout those oil site glasses.
Take them off, tape a quarter to it and throw it as hard as you can.
That way when someone finds it they will have a quarter.

My sight gauge has the petcock included. Was a NOS $1 find a few years ago that I find pretty useful. But perhaps not if it is going to make a mess!

Perhaps the issue could be related to the sight glass being installed in the upper petcock…? If you filled till you could see the level, you would be dramatically overfilled. Level should be between the petcocks, not above the top

Kevin Pharis wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 09, 2025 9:41 pm

Perhaps the issue could be related to the sight glass being installed in the upper petcock…? If you filled till you could see the level, you would be dramatically overfilled. Level should be between the petcocks, not above the top

Yes! 100%

Agree

Didn’t expect that sight glass in the upper. Overfill of oil, so lots sprayed out. Brian knows the fix now too.

Interesting. The removal of the floorboards, combined with overfilling the crankcase with oil, allowed an oil mist maelstrom to form, and the weight of the overfilled oil forced to the back of the crankcase by the highway speed of the trailer, enabled oil to be squeezed out of every available opening, and the runaway droplets escaped to do their dirty wind dance within the cab.

When installing any accessory oil level indicator, drain all the oil out, then install the device, and then level the car and add 2 1/2 quarts of oil and see what the indicators shows. That's LOW. Then add 1 quart and mark that point. That's where Ford advised maintaining the oil level. Then add 1 more pint. That's FULL. (1 gallon) Never let the oil level get below LOW, and NEVER let it get above FULL. Too much or too little oil will cause issues. In my experience, all the oil never drains out, even with the front axle raised a foot, so 3 1/2 quarts is usually plenty for a refill. A new engine or newly rebuilt one would probably take a full gallon. Ford thought so, but what did they know?

I wonder how many quarts overfilled is shown by the oil level in the petcock?

5 or 6??

speedytinc wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 10, 2025 12:18 pm

5 or 6??

You mean GALLONS dontcha ?

Yes..............