Which oil? Synthetic, dino... - Diesel Forum

bajarunner · 09-06-2001, 10:16 PM

So I just spent an hour searching the Gas forum for oil discussions. Nice to see they are not quite as heated as oil discussions in the diesel forums are. Figured I'd be OK checking with the crowd on the current consensus on oils. There was a lot of talk about the 0W/30 and 5W/20 when the owners manual on the older 99's reccomend 5W/30. Seems there is also a TSB to use the thinner oil. I am considering switching to synthetic. Please let me know at your liesure what oil you run, weight, synthetic, dino, and the change interval, if you could. If you can add anything, I would appreciate it. Pretty straightforward, refill with synthetic, right? Appreciate it folks.

Rob

NoMo · 09-06-2001, 10:39 PM

Run whatever you like that meets the required specifications. I prefer synthetics. When I had an '00 F250, I ran Mobil 1 5W30. I still changed it every 3000 miles, though.

Unfortunately, my '01 calls for 5W20 and the only oil that I can find that meets the specs is Motorcraft "Synthetic Blend"- whatever the heck that is!?! If Mobil 1 would make the oil- I'd buy it.

KXHauler · 09-07-2001, 12:13 AM

I have an 00 F250 with the 5.4L.

My previous truck is an 89' Ranger with a 2.9L v6. I used Havoline 10w-30 with motorcraft filters in it.. It has 220k miles and still runs fine with no repairs needed..
My family has similar experiences with engines approaching the 200k mark..

So, I do believe that dino oils changed every 3 to 5k with a quality filter are more than enough protection for a modern engine.

I want the same from my SuperDuty. So I started out running Havoline 5w-30 changing it every 3k miles, using motorcraft filters only.

I think decided to give Amsoil a try.. In order to try to compensate for the high cost, I decided that I would change the oil every 15k and motorcraft filter every 5k.
The oil is rated for 25k, so I feel that 15k is safe..
The first fill with Amsoil resulted in no other gains..

I decided to change all of the oil after having only 10k on the last fill with Amsoil.. After this change, there was a measurable .4 mpg gain in mileage.. I didn't notice it at first. Only when I went back and looked at all of my fuel mileage checks did I noticed the slight increase..

One thing to note is that truck consumes almost a quart in 5k, in addtion to doing the filter change at 5k causes me to have to add almost 2 quarts every5k miles.. This means in affect I'm using about 12 quarts of Amsoil per year..

All other Amsoil claims of drastically increased mpg's, more power, cooler running I didn't experience.

So bottom line: If you take advantage of Amsoils extended drain, the overall cost and performance of dino vs synthetic is about the same..

I'm not sure using a synthetic that doesn't support extended drain is worth the extra $$. Thats just my opinion..

mlucas · 09-07-2001, 04:24 PM

I went down this raod last week. I spent a lot of time looking at old posts and talking to Amsoil tech support. I decided that the Amsoil 0W/30 would be the best choice for my 2001.

wldwilliam · 09-07-2001, 04:31 PM

I'm runnin' 5W-30 Mobil 1 synthetic in my 2001. I haven't noticed anything different whatsoever but I feel pretty good about it [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]. The first two changes I did were at 3000 and 6000. I might go 5000 next time.

Ford Boy · 09-09-2001, 08:59 PM

I have to agree with KXHauler. I've asked several Ford techs how many engine failures the have seen because of a person not using synthetic. All of them said none. Oil related failures are almost none existant.

I've got a '93 Bronco with 163k miles on it. It has the original motor in it and does not burn a drop of oil. I just change my oil at 3k miles no matter what.

Just my $0.02