yea , i usually like to run Napa Gold Filters , which are made by Wix , but oil , i currently run castoral , but my dad lives by quaker state , and my stepdad buys whatever is on sale at autozone , i really like shell , and they just came out with the synthetic Rotella T 5w-40 , but i am afraid of what it may do to my engine , since the engine has 100k on it and the shell oil is full synthetic
This is a common misconception about synthetic oils. You can switch to synthetic any time you want, no matter how old your engine is. Nothing bad will happen. I'm switching over all my vehicles and lawn equipment to synthetic, one by one, including my 1994 Explorer with 143k miles and my 1992 Accord with 131k miles. I've already switched both vehicles and they are running great, with no bad side effects, just as I suspected. What are you so afraid of, i.e. what exactly do you think will happen if you put synthetic in your engine?
i dont know about now but quaker state was designed yrs ago to gunk up to preserve aluminum blocks, and in turn was great for stopping up oil pumps. the synthetics may not do this but the mineral oils did, and when you changed the oil you had it coming out in glops like oatmeal and milk, i dont like that in my engine. i seen it do it one time when somebody had their oil changed, and my half brother worked at an oil shop in town and every car that had the quaker state oil change that had it in there b4 did this when he drained the oil out. sorry but quaker state isnt high on my list of oil choices, they may have changed the formula and it doesnt do it anymore. i remember seeing it when i was kid (about 8 or 9), just stayed away from it ever since.
I'm calling
on this. There is no way an oil company purposely designed their oil to gunk up. In fact, that's one of the main things oil companies design their oils NOT to do. I think the cars you've seen were just cars that weren't maintained well, and they went a long time without an oil change. You would be amazed at how poorly a lot of people maintain their vehicles. Even if Quaker State did make their oils gunk up 30 years ago, they simply don't anymore. Like you said, they reformulated their oil since then. In fact, EVERY oil manufacturer has reformulated their oils DOZENS of times since then.
So take any oil biases and rumors from 10+ years ago and forget them already!
As for Fram filters, I don't use them. If you use one, your engine will probably run fine and I doubt you'll have any problems. But the fact is there are filters that are constructed better and are higher quality for less money. If the Fram is on sale, go with the Fram. If a Motorcraft or Wix is the same price or cheaper, go with that.
When it comes to oil, I believe there are only 2 things you really need to consider (actually 3, if you include the price), and they are: 1. Type (conventional, synthetic, or syn. blend) and 2. Viscosity. The type you should use depends on many things, including cost, how often you change the oil, driving conditions, etc.
As for viscosity, I pretty much just recommend going with what Ford says to use as they are the ones who designed the engine after all. In the 3.0's case, it's 5w-20.
After you decide on these things, go with whatever's cheapest, or whichever bottle is your favorite color. You can't really go wrong with any brand.