The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Top Oiler Question

Please see the top oiler at this site:
http://www.vintageautogarage.com/Ampco-Top-Oiler-Universal-Kit-p/st100.htm
Does it make sense to install it on my 52 Chevy 3100 truck flat head? Does anyone know if it was an option when the trucks were first sold? Thanks. Bob

There was no flat-head Chevrolet engine in 1952. A 1951 3100 truck would have had the venerable overhead value 216 stovebolt engine.

There was no "top oiler" kit as an option or accessory from GM.

The dealer might have sold the Ampco Top Oiler Kit as a snake-oil solution to a non-existent problem in a new vehicle.

Or any other year.

That oiler was fairly common. They just forgot to mention that when using WOT it stops working: no vacuum = no oil.
There were devices that added oil to the intake charge, such as the Marvel Inverse Oiler which uses venturi vacuum and adds oil only at high stress conditions.

Tim, yep - I've got a 52 Chevy truck with a 216 flat head. And I don't think the engine was replaced. Bob

we need to see a picture of a 216 flathead, if it is indeed a flathead, you have a one of a kind engine, because as far as I know a flathead 216 was never manufactured. No flathead engines after '36 (or close to that year) were made by GM. They may have had some industrial engines during that era, but not installed in vehicles.

There's no such animal. The 216 is an OHV engine. If you want a flat head you'll need to go to another manufacturer. <CLICK>

Bob,

The 216 is an overhead-valve engine.

I think a flat-head engine would be called a "valve in head engine"?
I think a flat-head engine would not need a "top oiler".
I hope someone else will confirm or disagree.

I think a new 216 overhead-valve engine would not need a "top oiler"; but, an older 216 might develop "hardening of the artery" (oil-feed line) to the rocker arms, and then might benefit from a top oiler?

The "top oiler" linked was designed to put a oil mist in the intake manifold to oil the top of the inside of the engine.

BTW, Chevrolet never used a flat head.

Dave,

Was that "top oiler" also recommended/used on flat-head engines?

Here is a similar Marvel Myster OIl product. It is interesting to note that this product does mention lubricating the valve stems and guides, but the Ampco model somehow lubricates those areas/parts?

Here is a discussion of the "top oiler" in flat head Ford engines.

Those products look virtually like "snake oil dispensers".

I have one of those top oilers on my 216, called an upper cylinder ludricator here . Mine is a Morays product , uses moreys upper cyl lube oil (SURPRISINGLY ENOUGH) I cannot say if it helps , but after 17yrs of daily driving and maybe 80K miles , the head/valves are in excellent condition , so I think it does no actual harm.

Ok, guess I was wrong. It is a 216 engine, straight 6 , with overhead valves (sorry, I some times feel like a rookie at this stuff). So, does this engine (mine is rebuilt)have an issue with oiling the valves? Maybe I shouldn't worry about it, but don't want to run into problems down the road. Thanks. Bob

Our family shop installed hundreds of top oiler systems in the early 1950's, and there was a need for them back then. During the Korean war, the quality of gasoline available for civilian use was extremely poor, and "top oilers" were sold to combat carbon deposits that led to sticky valves, detonation, and other driveability problems. By 1955 or so, the gasoline quality improved and we removed a lot of the systems we had installed just 2-3 years earlier. "Aviex" brand tune-up oil was one of the best, better than Marvel Mystery Oil, Casite, Bardhal, and Wynn's Friction Proofing.

Pre-1955 Pontiacs, pre-1949 Oldsmobiles, and 1932-53 Fords ran flathead engines. So did all the MOPAR 6-cylinders up to 1959. Chevy NEVER ran a flathead- - - -even the 1920's 4-cylinders were OHV engines.
Jerry

So, unless you want a conversation piece of a perhaps needed period-correct add-on (and there is nothing wrong with wanting that), it is not needed on a good-running, normal oil-pressure, 216/235/261 engine in the modern world.

However, this modern enhancement has modern benefits, or so they say.

Your too funny Tim!

Jerry, et. al., thanks. Guess I'll not install the top oiler. Thanks folks. Bob