What oil/filter do you use?

[USMCBuckWild]

Oil is like a guys taste in women, they vary a lot. Whether you use a conventional or semi, or full synthetic, just change it often. I know 7500 to 10,000 mile oil changes seem so tempting, but if you want to see some real high trouble free engine life, drop it often, keep it clean. Still no substitute for clean living! You rarely find a drinking, high fat eating individual living a long time.


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Bacon and whiskey for breakfast?

 

[1955moose]

That's what I have every morning since 21, I'm 62 now! Sinatra drank a quart of Jack Daniels everyday, he lived till 86, oh yeah smoked like a chimney, only missed one recording session.


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[ManUpOrShutUp]

That's what I have every morning since 21, I'm 62 now! Sinatra drank a quart of Jack Daniels everyday, he lived till 86, oh yeah smoked like a chimney, only missed one recording session.


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There's a lot of different 62s. At 62 my grandfather was a heavy smoker, but he was also very active and looked great for his age with probably around 20% body fat and some visible muscle tone. On the other hand, by the time my dad hit 62 he was ~300 lbs, about 50% body fat and could barely walk. A few years later and he can barely even stand now. And then you have hardcore fitness fanatics like this guy (known as "oldsuperman") who at 59 looks better than most of us (me included) looked at 20.

My point? There's surviving and there's thriving - for both us and our trucks.

 

[1955moose]

I was kidding about the bacon and booze. Just responding to our resident Marine! If I have anything besides oatmeal or cereal for breakfast, I'm a train wreck the rest of the day. I have my heavier meal, at the Dinner time. I like my beer, sometimes Seagrams VO, it's Canadian, and you know where Moose are plentiful!


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[USMCBuckWild]

Over the past 5 months I have had both of my hips "reconstructed", right one in August and left one in December. I have been sequestered to bed and the couch as I recuperate. With all this extra time I figured I would make an attempt at being usefull. So, I continue to research on the oil and filter subject and have taken to reviewing a wide expanse of other forums. General concensus is as follows:

MotorCraft filters are excellent and highest recommendations. Have specific bypass spring with most consistent performance.

WIX filters, AMSOIL filters, Purolator white filters are all top tier performers.

Fram, ac delco, K&N and store brand filters were low performers.

As for oil, there is a TON of difference in opinion. One thing that remained constant was peoples geographic location in regards to oil viscosity. Most northern states and Canada ran 5w30/0w30year round. Turns out until the CAFE push, 5w30 was THE oil for mod motors. Southern states and southwest states seemed to lean towards 5w40/15w40 and some people even leaning into 20w50. In the racing and severe mod forums, people have been running the high end oils (Brad Penn, Motul, AMSOIL) and Rotella T6 (add on forced induction being most common). One universal acceptance is that with the 30 and 40 viscosity oils the "Ford tick" went away immediately, with no negative affects on the timing chain tensioners or the VVT.

As always there were the "so you think you are smarter than a Ford Engineer" crowd who uses strictly Motorcraft 5w20 and nothing else. But, a bunch of these people also used whatever filters were on sale.


After All this reading and difference of opinion I am going to conduct a test of my own. I am almost due for an oil change, so i will pull a Used Oil Analysis sample and ship it off to Blackstone. This oil change I am going to switch to Rotella T6 Full Synthetic 5w40 with the MotorCraft filter. Going to change it after 500 miles (its a higher detergent oil and I don't want to skew results of further testing) and then refill with the Rotella and go 3k miles. At that point I will pull another UOA sample and send for testing. Then continue to run that oil out to the 5k and 7.5k mark, pull samples at each of those milestonesand have it tested. This way I will have a detailed analysis over the typical course of recomended oil change intervals.

 

[1955moose]

Sorry to hear about your hips. Years back a oil company, I believe it was Pennzoil or Castrol, can't remember, did an oil wear test on two New York City taxi cabs. I believe they were Ford crown Victoria's with 4.6 modular motors. They ran both cabs hard, typical taxi driver usual, for 100k. One cab they ran the brand name conventional oil, the other, a bargain oil like Flag brand from Oreillys, formerly Kragen. After the 100 k, they dismantled both engines down to the crankshaft. They found 0 difference in wear between the 2 engines. A third taxi was also tested, but used full synthetic. Their was a big difference, basically that taxi had no wear on bearings, cylinder walls, etc. I may be off on the mileage that they tested these 3, but they all had regular oil changes. Not sure what filters they used, but I'm assuming it was a quality one. Years back when I worked with a cab company, our 4.6 crown Vic's would routinely go to the mandatory 350k with original engines before we had to pull them from service. If


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[USMCBuckWild]

Sorry to hear about your hips. Years back a oil company, I believe it was Pennzoil or Castrol, can't remember, did an oil wear test on two New York City taxi cabs. I believe they were Ford crown Victoria's with 4.6 modular motors. They ran both cabs hard, typical taxi driver usual, for 100k. One cab they ran the brand name conventional oil, the other, a bargain oil like Flag brand from Oreillys, formerly Kragen. After the 100 k, they dismantled both engines down to the crankshaft. They found 0 difference in wear between the 2 engines. A third taxi was also tested, but used full synthetic. Their was a big difference, basically that taxi had no wear on bearings, cylinder walls, etc. I may be off on the mileage that they tested these 3, but they all had regular oil changes. Not sure what filters they used, but I'm assuming it was a quality one. Years back when I worked with a cab company, our 4.6 crown Vic's would routinely go to the mandatory 350k with original engines before we had to pull them from service. If


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I vaguely remember that study. From what I remember that was synthetics were first being commercialized to the civilian markets. Had to be almost 20 years ago.

I have had my own experiences with higher quality oils and the Rotella Synthetic won me over with my Subaru. So, we'll see what we get for results here.

Thanks for your input.

 

[1955moose]

A lot of our members have had good results with the diesel oil. Even Harley Davidson recommended it. I used a 55 gallon drum of it in my fleet of 2004 Harley's, not an issue with any of them.


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[USMCBuckWild]

Excellent breakdown and dissection of OEM and popular oil filters:

http://hillerford.com/resource_library/2010/motorcraftcompare.pdf

 

[1955moose]

How does the premium Fram filter compare? Does it have any more flutes? What about a silicone seal?


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[Adieu]

Oooh, T6 is ok here too?

That would be nice.

 

[Snag]

A long string and a lot of good information. I, like others had used Fram for years, but the last many years have heard horror stories of their quality, but I know of no one who has had a Fram filter kill their engine. BUT, after viewing a number of sites where they cut a number of filters apart the Fram certainly looks cheaper made. So in saying that, would I buy Fram again, probably not. At Wally World I got my last 2 FL82S Motorcraft filters for 2.82 each, (just checked, today they are 2.68)...so why buy any other. They have the proper drain back features and are reasonably priced. You would never kill your engine using them. Oil change intervals is the life blood of any engine or moving part. For the most part oils today are of very high quality. In my car racing days it was Valvoline, now I feel most are more then adequate for protecting your engine. Use a Motorcraft filter, keep oil fresh, 3000 mile drain intervals (depending on severe duty use), especially in the modular engines. Oil changes are the cheapest thing you can do to keep that engine running properly for the longest time, and its about the only thing "cheap" on a Ford Modular engine.

 

[USMCBuckWild]

Oooh, T6 is ok here too?

That would be nice.

Conducted thefhange to T6 on Monday. Sent the Motorcraft 5w20 with 3,069 miles oil sample out yesterday. Should know by Tuesdaynextweek.

I noticed an immediate difference in engine valvetrain noise. I also am hesitant to say the VVT seems to work more efficiently. Gonna give it 500 miles and change again as previously stated.

 

[USMCBuckWild]

My typing is horrible as I have bandaids and med tape on both thumbs. I'm a mess.

 

[GalaxyPilot]

I go with Mobil1 5w-20 and OEM motorcraft filter. Change it every 9k miles, had blackstone analyze the oil and they said I could go longer, but 9k already feels like way too long haha.

 

[LEOL]

I used to use cheaper brands simply because i religiously change my oil and filter every 3k even on newer vehicles that really dont need it changed quite that often... HOWEVER.... ford has chronically had design flaws specifically related to timing on multiple block variations since the late 90's. theres all kinds of argument about this and that, regarding pressure and flow from filters and viscosity, but after having a couple different ford engines that ended up with these annoyances and no real actual facts about much of anything... im inclined to just stick with OEM specs regarding filter size/flow.

And frankly ive changed a Lot of oil over the years both at home and professionally... so as a guy who has seen vehicles with 300k miles drain oil that looks better than the oil im putting back into it, simply by using AND CHANGING higher quality filters (that means air and fuel filters too) on a religious 3000k mile schedule.... im a firm believer in making vehicles last.

On the other hand, as far as viscosity goes, again theres all kinds of argument about 5.4/4.6 engines regarding oil viscosity. Ive seen lots of internet mechanic theory on why you shouldnt use anything but 5w20, or dino vs synthetic... some of it even makes logical sense to me... but the bottom line is ive not seen any complaints (much less proven) that using 5w30 has actually caused anyone problems in these engines, neither short nor long term. I have seen however, (regardless of being true and accurate or not) seen more than a couple "claims" that changing viscosity helped or solved certain problems.

There is a time to, and not to use synthetics or change viscosity, this mostly applies to older engines, but this rule can still apply to modern engine design on a much longer-term scale.

Personally, i recently bought a used vehicle with 170000 miles on it, so short of cracking the valve cover to see the level of varnish it has going on... i have no way of knowing if, or how often synthetic was used, or what viscosity... so my default choice is to use a synthetic blend designed for high mileage engines. (regardless of whether it seems gimmik'y or not). i also try to do actual research on specifications and whether a product meets them, because reviews from 500 walmart users on walmarts website doesnt really amount to a hill of beans in terms of intelligent analysis on much of anything. LoL.

i've used valvoline maxlife synthetic blend in the past, but honestly ive been going with mobil high mileage for the price and trusted brand.

since i have 3 regularly used vehicles, I recently was looking at a brand called milesyn that walmart carries in 5 gallon buckets of synthetic blend (usually only ship to store). It seems to meet specifications and is apparently API licensed so im seriously considering looking into it some more and giving it a shot.

 

[1955moose]

The reason Ford switched their viscosity on Expeditions and F150 pickups,is they discovered an oil pumping problem on a lot of the second generation 3valve engines. From what I've seen on all the videos and articles, is that the oil pump has trouble pumping sufficiently. On top of this the plastic cam chain guides start to disintegrate, and clog up the pick up screen, which adds to a lack of oil. Rather than fix the problem with a recall, or as we used to say at the dealers, a campaign, they said put a thinner oil in. It helped in a few cases, but all the others had to fight with their dealers, if lucky to be under warranty. The rest have to pay out of pocket.


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[LEOL]

oh right. i do recall the oil pump issue. I was under the impression from reading a so called Statement by ford at some point, that they changed the viscosity in the 5.4/4.6 simply for oil consumption gas mileage improvement. i was also thinking they made that viscosity change before 2nd gen, but i havent really read much on it, and it seems just as likely a scenario either way, since like i said ford has refused to fix their timing design flaws for 30 years.... like those disintegrating plastic chain guides you mentioned, that have been bricking motors since the mid 90's that they STILL use despite the very obvious problem with plastic chain guides.... which is plastic chain guides, LoL. Anyway, im curious... did they change the oil pump on 3rd gen's?... and is it backward compatible on a 2nd gen.

 

[LEOL]

Oh and plastic or not, as far as timing jobs go... i actually really like the 5.4/4.6.... at least you dont have to pull the engine like the 4.0 SOHC and there are MUCH worse vehicles to have to replace timing componants on. LoL.

 

[1955moose]

Don't know if they finally fixed the pump, but apparently a aftermarket mellings unit, part number on a post this past week or so, is supposed to be way better than Fords inferior part. I don't have an updated chain guide for you, maybe one of our members can help there. What amazes me is that in the past, car or in my case motorcycle manufacturers like Honda, or Yamaha, screwed up, they made an improved part. In the 70's when I worked on bikes full time, I would have to bring Vin, and production date, Honda once changed a part 3 times in one year. Wish Ford did that, if you've read my posts you know I'm Oem positive, simply because most aftermarket doesn't work. Does anybody know if items like oil pumps or cam phasers for 3 valve, have improvements on the replacement parts, or do we have to go aftermarket on these. I've heard oem is the best way to go for the dreaded failed cam sensors. But their like $800.00 for the parts.


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