F560g - oil pressure line

[phill_mi]

Greetings;
Some time ago, a long time now, I removed the oil pan, oil pump, and bearing caps, in part because I was concerned that the oil pressure gauge showed no pressure immediately after starting the tractor (when there was a loud noise present). A local old tractor rebuilder looked at the parts and recommended that I put the engine back together as the parts indicated very little wear. I later tracked down the noise to an hydraulic pump issue and assumed that I had panicked and had not given the oil pressure gauge enough time to respond before shutting off the engine. So after a long delay, this last Wednesday I got the tractor running just long enough to set the timing, and it purrs so nice Yesterday in the low thirties, I spent more time using the tractor. As I recall both on Wednesday and yesterday morning the oil pressure gauge responded quickly when the engine was started. (When the tractor was apart I had tested the oil line with compressed air to make sure it was not plugged up.) Yesterday afternoon the tractor had been sitting for a couple of hours and when I started it the oil pressure gauge sat at 0 psi for a long time and then slowly moved up to 43 psi. The engine sounded fine at various rpms but it was concerning to me to take so long (seemed like a minute or two, but did not measure it) for the oil pressure gauge to react. I have been thinking about several approaches and would appreciate your advice.
1) ignore the issue. I am told "old tractors take a while".
2) replace the oil line with oil line kit for IH560 tractor (of similar design to the very small diameter OEM tubing).
3) replace the oil line with larger cooper tubing, based on the thought that in the cold MI weather the small tubing may contribute to the delayed reaction.
While I prefer to keep my tractors as OEM as possible, I am not opposed to making minor changes it there is a good safe reason.
Thanks for any advice. Phill

[Don McCombs]

3) There is a reason why the oil line is that diameter. Even though you and I don't know the technical reason, the IH engineers did.

What weight oil are you using in the tractor engine, up there in Michigan?

[Jim Becker]

Options 2 and 3 may have some effect on how quickly something wil show on the gauge. As far as their effect inside the engine on actual oil flow or pressure or anything else related to engine lubrication, the effect will be exactly the same as option 1.

[phill_mi]

I have been using 10w40. My Farmall user manual recommends 10w30 for temp range +90f to +32f, which probably covers most of my temp ranges, but I had understood that most 10w30 these days did not have the Zinc additive to protect the cam lobs, so that is why I have been using the 10w40. Since that decision I have read various discussions that call into question the concern about cam lob wear on low RPM engines so I have considered changing to what I use in the car, 5w30 synthetic as the manual recommends 5w20 for +32f to +10f. I understand that oils have improved a lot since the manual was published. I have read the various threads on types of oil and considered changing weights, but with as little wear as was seen on the bearings my inclination was to stay with 10w40.

[phill_mi]

I changed the oil to 10w30 conventional, to conform more closely to the user manual, but that did not have any impact on the concern that it was taking well over a minute for the first movement of the oil gauge to indicate pressure (and almost two minutes to actually indicate a value). But I appreciate the push back against the idea of changing the oil pressure line (or the design). After more research the solution was to remove the line from the back of the oil pressure gauge and let the air that was in the line bleed out with the engine running. Now from a cold start at about 32F ambient, I see the needle move within 13 seconds and the pressure indicated within 25 seconds, which is easier going on my heart. Thanks for the help! Phill

[Don McCombs]

Glad you got it figured out.