Topoilers

[Aunt Phil]

I recall back in the days of my supposedly misspent youth there was Bardahl Top Oil and a few others that were supposed to provide better lubrication to valvestems and lengthen the interval for valve service according to the ads in magazines.

The guy with the really cool car had a glass jar under the hood that bubbled topoil into the intake manifold in a manner that supposedly gave superior results to just dumping a can of Bardahl in the gas tank when the car was filled up.

Best I recall the first few vehicles I owned pretty much leaked enough oil along the valve stems and guides to make some smoke and convince me I didn't need to consider top oiling.  The concept seems to have slid off the radar in the years between then and now.

Today I had a conversation with a man holding a top oiler jar in his hand saying he is thinking of installing it on a propane engine that was originally gasoline to provide valve stem lubrication.
I did some searching and learned Ampco is still producing the devices, http://ampcolubes.com/about_us

Anybody have experience with topoiling on flathead engines?

[oldgoaly]

Weren't some of them made  for or by Marvel Mystery oil company?

[johnsironsanctuary]

I hope that I don't start WWIII (Ford vs Chevy), but I always thought that the 'Top Oil' was for the OHV engines that sucked oil down worn valve guides. The flatheads kept excess oil off of the springs and stems via gravity and the fact that the valve gallery never filled with oil far enough to submerge the end of the guides. The OHV's often had enough oil on top of the head to keep the valves wet and gravity made the oil run down the valve stem. Modern valve guides are made out of much better material and usually last the life of the engine making top oil unnecessary

[Papaw]

I believe the use of quality valve stem seals negated the idea of oil running down the valve stem. Adding top oil to the gasoline "might" have helped an exhaust valve, but not an intake, it seems to me.
I remember running the engine up to a high RPM, then backing off quickly to see if the valve seals were leaking.

[mrchuck]

I used a lot of this in my 59A Ford flathead.
Always loved the smell of these lubricants.
Mine had "cooling fins" on the inline oiler.
Anything to make my burning rubber thru all the gears.

[fflintstone]

I have sitting on the desk near me a cast aluminum “cam cover” (valve cover in the old days) for a yet to be production motor. It is of the double overhead cam design.  Inside the cam cover is a tubing configuration with small holes at strategic location to spray oil onto the cam lobes, ETC.

The way these motors are constructed they would have loved to have this technology in racecars 30 years ago. In my youth a 4 bolt main block was considered a high end piece. A standard GM V8 has 6 bolt mains now, 4 from the bottom and two from the side of the block. And blocks do not end at the crankshaft centerline anymore. Most of them fully skirt the crank by 3”. The new ford 2.7L V6 makes a base 310 HP!
Oil pans are cast aluminum now and ad structure tho the engine.