B overhaul--which oil for start up

Getting close to initial start,i bought 30 w,but should i be using 10 w 30 or something else,thanks ahead of time --Tom

If you're going to use a single weight, go with 10W-10. Otherwise use the 10W-30.

Eric B wrote: If I was overhauling my B, I would use 10W 30 for break-in oil. Once all broken in I would use 30W or 15W 40 for summer conditions. In the world of engines these run low oil pressure since new and you get better protection from thicker oil if the pressure is on the low side.

One of the reasons for multigrade is to get oil to the top end quicker, because of the way engines are designed today. That's why you even see oils that are 0W30.

I've used John Deere break in oil with good success several times. It has a different additive package that helps seat rings but still works to prevent scuffing pistons, etc.

https://t.jdparts.deere.com/partsmkt/document/english/pmac/5452_fb_BreakInOil.htm

The main purpose of break in was to wear the rings to fit the cylinder walls back when rings were simply cast iron. Before chrome alloy rings, JD added a powder abrasive to the carburetor intake to set the rings and used a special break in oil. Chrome rings are factory shaped to allow for a little tilt in the piston groove without showing a sharp corner to the cylinder wall and they wear much slower than the earlier rings.

0W20 and 0W30 oils are generally only available in pure synthetic oils and flow well at low temperatures but stick around at high temperatures too. I had a 2002 Golf that the owner's manual suggested 0W30 and allowed for a 10,000 mile oil change interval with synthetic. Trouble with mine was that it got a quart low at about 3000 miles and the low oil light came on before 4000 miles. While the pure synthetic oil didn't deteriorate it found places to leak. And it cost three of four times Motorcraft synthetic blend 5W20 that stayed in the engine for more than 5000 miles.

My '98 F150 Triton 4.6 manual calls for 5W20 or 5W30, I don't know what it had when I drove it off the dealer's lot used but the engine had a rattle. I added a quart of Rotella 20W40 and the rattle went away. The manual didn't come with the truck but I got it later. With the 5W20 or 5W30 synthetic blends its not rattled to annoy me for the last 120,000 miles. I did run one oil change out to 10,000 miles but haven't detected any oil consumption. A few years ago my splice taking out the heater core developed a leak and ran it low on coolant and then it got really low on oil, but it seems to have survived that.

Modern oil additives help keep oil in the rod, main, and camshaft bearings so start up wear is significantly reduced. The additives also mostly prevent electrolysis corrosion of those copper or silver inserts next to steel from water in the oil which would otherwise eat away at the inserts all the time the engine was parked.

Up to the introduction of detergent oils car engines needed rebuilding about every 30,000 miles. Detergent oils and shorter stroke engine designs (meaning slower piston speeds and fewer piston miles per mile of driving) lengthened rebuilds out to around 100,000 miles and further improvements get engine life out to a lot longer. Our tractor engines can benefit from the modern oils, but we can't do anything about the long piston strokes except to use modern wear resistant chrome alloy piston rings and avoid wearing them with a crude break in oil.

Gerald J.