52 8n burning oil

[Plow Boy80]

Just looking for some feed back new rings or the hole works?

 

[R Geiger]

If you are going to the trouble to do rings, why not go all the way? I sure would. Not that much more work really.

 

[Ken-Pa]

Geez, it makes no sense to me that a guy would just do a ring job if its smoking enough to notice . Go the whole route & feel confident of the engines performance next week . Several years ago the engine in my 1978 F150 blew sky high, trashing everything . I heard about a great engine rebuilder so I called to see if he had a 351-400 ford engine available . He said he had one he could build up how ever I wanted it done. So I told him to build it up for me ASAP . I wanted it built with at least .030 bore with RV cam & double roller timing gears from Summit. Well that fool, he ruined what good words I heard about him . That engine constantly overheated & even blew the radiator . I then took it to 4 different Ford garages tried to get it fixed, but they all only succeeeded in taking my money . I found a guy to take it & fix it . Now mind ya , it was a 351-400 block . Well we found the proffesssional rebuilder put a 289 crank in it , reused the original pistons , rods , bearings & rings . He never touched the cylinders . He did put an RV cam in it (bless his heart), but used standard timing gears . Ended up that quick rebuild by a so-called professional cost me over $3,000.00 in the end .Sorry about my long winded message but thats my example of doing a partial engine rebuild . So do yours rite the first time my friend . God bless

 

[Ultradog MN]

How much oil?
A guy can buy a lot of oil for the $1K it"s gonna cost for a rebuild.

 

[Den N Ms]

Ken The 289 and 400M are different engine family. I don't think the crank can be made to fit.289-351w same. 351 and 400 M are the same family. 360,390,428 same family. 429. 460 same family

 

[Ken-Pa]

I don't know , I was going by what the guy said who finally fixed it correctly . The 351-400 has a 4" stroke . The crank that bozzo used only gave me a 3.5" stroke . Once I had the full stroke as required , it ran like a raped ape . It would chirp the tires when shifting & never heated up again . I forgot to tell you that the wrist pins gave me a knock also . I finally wore the truck out , body wise . Now it sits rotting away . I don't think the engine is any good now . I could kick myself for not preserving the engine .I'm not really mechanically inclines , so I have to go by what someone with that knowledge tells me . God bless, Ken

 

[lha]

I agree that once you have the engine apart,might as well at least check everything else[crank,rods]and do repairs as needed.It would be a real let down to replace the rings,and put it together,only to discover that you now have a knocking rod or main bearing.---lha

 

[Bill Crowell]

Here's my $.02 worth. When I bought my '49 8N in 1992, it smoked some. I have used it ever since, and it doesn"t smoke any worse now than it did then.
First I changed the oil and filter several times, until I could stick my finger into the crankcase drain hole and not find any sludge. The oil pressure is pretty low, so I am running 40W detergent oil with a whole bunch of STP added. It starts right up and runs great; never misses a lick; and has no noises. And the oil pressure goes down to an indicated "0" after it gets really hot!
Sure, I really should overhaul it. But I priced it out, and it would cost closer to $2K than $1K. A tractor like mine is only worth about $1K, and I simply don"t want to put that much money into it.
So my suggestion would be: the acid test is whether it has enough compression to start well. If it starts OK, and unless you are really a perfectionist with plenty of money, JUST USE IT! But use a good grade of 40W oil, change it a couple of times until it looks fairly clean on the dipstick and your finger doesn"t find any sludge in the bottom of the crankcase, add some STP or the equivalent to the oil, change the filter when you change oil, and keep nice, clean oil in it.
Of course, now Dell and his buds will tell you how dumb I am not to overhaul it, but we already knew that!

 

[TheOldHokie]

(quoted from post at 21:51:01 03/29/11) Just looking for some feed back new rings or the hole works?

I would never,ever do just the rings on an N-series. If it needs rings it almost surely has piston and cylinder wear as well and you will be buying yourself a partial fix. A complete set of new rings, pistons with pins, and sleeves is a whopping $150 vs $25-$30 for just the rings. Drop the pan, pop the head, knock out the old sleeves, and replace it all with new.

TOH

 

[Dell (WA)]

Bill........low compression is the ONLY reason to "overhaul" an engine. 'course theres lottza reasons fer hard starting ...but... oilburning is NOT the only reason. As commented, you buy alotta oil fer cost of un-necessary overhaul. Ya gottz good oilpressure, keep good HOT sparkies to burn off'n the oil and runner like ya stoller .......Dell, the smokey