What oil weight do you recommend for a 3.0 V6 with 120K miles

[exbass94]

When I drain at 3000, it's definitely browner than when it went in. I don't know if that's my motor wearing or the PCV or something else making it dirty.

That's all the byproducts of combustion in the engine that the oil cleaned up. It's the reason you ave to change the oil in the first place: it gets dirty. Doesn't matter what kind of oil you use, it will get dirty.

Older engines shouldn't use oils such as Mobile One as it, among others, does not have Zink in the oil. So even though the Mobile one will suffer more heat and still lubricate it will NOT fill in worn places and slow the wear in an older engine.

Most modern, if not all, oils will preform similiarly in newer less worn engines. With or without the zink. However with an older engine always look for the Zink.

This is absolute nonsense. Mobil 1 has just as much zinc as any other SM, GF-4, rated oil today (which addmittedly, is not much.) EVERY oil that has the GF-4 spec written on the bottle has a reduced amount of zinc. And just about ALL oils today (conventional AND synthetic) have the GF-4 spec, except diesel-rated oils.

So, thicker oil gives less wear supposedly, right?

Maybe running the 10-40 might not have been that bad.

What is the proported advantage of using the "lighter," lower viscosity oil?

Lighter oils flow better and get distributed throughout the engine faster, especially at startup. Thicker oils like 10w-40 are not necessary and shouldn't be used in factory Ranger engines IMO.

All mobil 1 does that normal, on sale, oil don't do is to lubricate at heat temps that our engines don't get up to. (above 400*F)

So if we can never use it's ONLY potential...why spend the bucks?

Advertising at it's best is why.

Oh yeah, high temperature protection is the only advantage all right...never mind the ability to flow much better at cold temperatures and extended oil change intervals...

 

[Rearanger]

Your oil alalysis is after it has went thru your engine.. read on the can to find the zink. The oil analizers of new oil in the can say it don't have zink in it..

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=478127#Post478127

First, oil manufaturers don't put their ingredients on the can. The VOAs in the link above are in alphabetical order, go down to Mobil 1 and look at the far right column - ZINC (with a c).

Possibly your Mobil 1 has rinsed the zink out of your worn spots in your engine.. and now you have less protection from wear..

Baloney!

 

[fourwheelford]

I am thinking of switching over to synthetic but I am not sure about it. Is there anything special that needs to be done in order to do the switch? Im gonna use castrol synthetic, most likely 5w-30 as winter is coming soon.

 

[Rearanger]

Is there anything special that needs to be done in order to do the switch?

Nope. But I think using synthetic (price) without extended drains is a waste of money.

 

[Big Jim M]

I stand corrected

I should have said there is very little ZDDP left in automobile oils. As the zink is known to cause premature cat failure. ZDDP has been phased DOWN to very low levels. Mobil 1 has about 800 ppm for autos. For racing and diesels Mobil 1 has about 1700 ppm.
If a guy has an older engine using the 1700 ppm might help with extra wear...but it also may clog his cat! So damned if you do and damned if you don't.
But if one isn't using a cat the 1700 ppm is the way to go.

I will say this. But for all the advertising...such as PAYING GM to install it in their vettes and caddys.. and many other such bribes, none of us would spend the money for synthetic oils. Truely oil just lubes the bearings.. and the oil we were using before all the advertising was and still is working fine.
Synthetic oil will lubricate at higher temps than dino oil will... but it NEVER sees them temps in our engines.. so why spend the money.

Then there are the guys that spend the money and rave about how good synthetic is.. but they never say what has changed.. They are so proud to have spent extra money to do what less money would have done just the same.

I guess I would be considered a tightwad.. I change my oil every 9,000 or so miles and use whatever is on sale at the time.. rarely using the same brand twice in a row. My engines last as long as the next guys. In fact I've not worn out an engine or blown one since most of the readers here have been born.
Big Jim

 

[Duke]

Here is a website I found where Car Craft does a comparison of conventional vs synthetic.

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/synthetic_vs_conventional_oil/index.html

Here are some of Car Craft's findings during the comparison:

"Racers also know that most engine wear occurs at start-up, so it's critical that engine parts receive proper lubrication as soon as possible--hence the need for an initially thinner, so-called "winter" viscosity.

Because a synthetic oil's molecules are much more consistent in size and shape, they are better able to withstand extreme engine temperatures.

Because a synthetic oil is chemically produced, there are no contaminants in the oil. By contrast, conventional oils contain small amounts of sulfur, wax, and asphaltic material that can promote detonation as well as varnish and sludge buildup. With no wax, synthetics will flow at much lower temperatures than conventional oils.

An 0W-30 synthetic oil is capable of pumping easily at -62 degrees F and flowing at even lower temperatures. Conventional oils are essentially frozen solid at that temperature, so there's simply no conventional equivalent to this new grade.

In terms of peak numbers, we found that the engine gained nearly 7 hp with the thinner conventional oil, and was up nearly 10 hp with the synthetic. No peak torque gains were observed by changing from 20W-50 to 10W-30 conventional; however, the synthetic was up 15 lb-ft of torque at the peak.

However, thinner oil also translates to lower oil pressure: The 0W-30 oil developed 10 psi less than the baseline 20W-50. Only 46 psi was on tap at 6,200 rpm--kind of shaky as most gearheads like to see at least 10 psi per 1,000 rpm. Still, the engine ran OK, and the bearings looked fine on teardown, seemingly verifying synthetic manufacturers' claims that their products' greater shear strength more than makes up for lower viscosity."

You guys can buy whatever you want, but I am going to continue to buy synthetic oil of the recommended grade for all my vehicles.

 

[bigcountry]

i use motorcraft 10w30 in the summer and in the winter i use motorcraft 5w30 forgot to mention i use lucas oil stabalizer when i change my oil to keep it running good

 

[Big Jim M]

Holy cow!!

Here is a website I found where Car Craft does a comparison of conventional vs synthetic.

Scuse me! What on earth did you think a magazine would say about products that are advertised in their book?

You gotta be kidding..you are, right?

Them guys make their living saying glossy things about car products... how long do you think they would stay in business if they told the WHOLE COMPLETE TRUTH?

If you read your post again it really doesn't say much anyway.. -62* and it flows.. so WHAT! How many of our vehicles will EVER see that temp and we NEED to go somewhere?

Really the only thing truthful that you repeated is that synthetic will withstand more heat.. But we don't need oil that will withstand more heat... As we don't HAVE more heat! Dino oil takes care of our heat just fine.

By the way.. There are no contaminants in modern oils. That paragraph is simply scare tactics.. Might have even been written by the synthetic company..

Big Jim



[QUOTE="Duke, post: 509710, member: 18764"]http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/synthetic_vs_conventional_oil/index.html

Here are some of Car Craft's findings during the comparison:

"Racers also know that most engine wear occurs at start-up, so it's critical that engine parts receive proper lubrication as soon as possible--hence the need for an initially thinner, so-called "winter" viscosity.

Because a synthetic oil's molecules are much more consistent in size and shape, they are better able to withstand extreme engine temperatures.

Because a synthetic oil is chemically produced, there are no contaminants in the oil. By contrast, conventional oils contain small amounts of sulfur, wax, and asphaltic material that can promote detonation as well as varnish and sludge buildup. With no wax, synthetics will flow at much lower temperatures than conventional oils.

An 0W-30 synthetic oil is capable of pumping easily at -62 degrees F and flowing at even lower temperatures. Conventional oils are essentially frozen solid at that temperature, so there's simply no conventional equivalent to this new grade.

In terms of peak numbers, we found that the engine gained nearly 7 hp with the thinner conventional oil, and was up nearly 10 hp with the synthetic. No peak torque gains were observed by changing from 20W-50 to 10W-30 conventional; however, the synthetic was up 15 lb-ft of torque at the peak.

However, thinner oil also translates to lower oil pressure: The 0W-30 oil developed 10 psi less than the baseline 20W-50. Only 46 psi was on tap at 6,200 rpm--kind of shaky as most gearheads like to see at least 10 psi per 1,000 rpm. Still, the engine ran OK, and the bearings looked fine on teardown, seemingly verifying synthetic manufacturers' claims that their products' greater shear strength more than makes up for lower viscosity."

You guys can buy whatever you want, but I am going to continue to buy synthetic oil of the recommended grade for all my vehicles.[/QUOTE]

 

[Duke]

Big Jim M,
Are you trying to be helpful or offensive? The fact is there is a better product out there than dino oil, even if it does cost more. Don't get me wrong it's ok to use the old conventional oil, and your engine will last pretty long, but the times are changing, synthetics are getting cheaper and are better than conventional oils. I'd trust a reputable magazine testing products before I'd trust someone stuck in their ways who doesn't.
I would like to hear how you know so much without using any assumptions

 

[Rearanger]

Big Jim M is right about being no need for higher heat tolerance of synthetic oil in street machines. He'd also right about no real need to run synthetic over dino for most street engines. Depending on how long you keep your trucks most people will never see the benefits of spending more money on synthetics. The biggest advantage for most will be its cold temperature flow characteristic. As I said I only use synthetic because I can use less of it with extended drains. I'm doing less oil changes which saves me crawling under the truck. I have arrived at using Mobil 1 by doing used oil analysis (UOA) and found that paying even more money for the cafe brands, such as Amsoil, gave me no better wear numbers. Mobil 1 is easily available and priced ok, but I won't say it's the best, just as good as other brands. Even when you do UOAs it's hard to equate better wear numbers to how many more miles that will give you. For me it's a hobby and something I find interesting, but I'm probably way too anal about oil in my vehicles. Put whatever brand/oil you want in your engine and just follow the recommended drains, then sleep soundly.

 

[Bob Ayers]

I have arrived at using Mobil 1 by doing used oil analysis (UOA) and found that paying even more money for the cafe brands, such as Scamsoil, gave me no better wear numbers. .

The reason Scamsoil is so expensive is because of Multi Level Marketing (pyramid scheme). They are only a blender / packager, and buy the base oil stock from REAL oil companies. They try to deceive you into believing all of their oil products are API certified, but in reality, there is only 1 (XL).

It is interesting that Scamsoil recommends their ONLY API certified oil (XL) and to follow vehicle manufacturers recommended oil change intervals in applications known to develop sludge:

http://www.smartsynthetics.com/pdf/TSB-engine-sludge-issues.pdf


It's also interesting to see Scamsoil isn't on the VW "approved" oil list that
has testing for sludge:

VW oil:

http://pics.tdiclub.com/data/500/vw_tb_17-05-04.pdf



http://dejong947.com/audi/tsb/audi.tb.17-05-01.pdf

 

[Beanmachine7000]

Wow... Um, guys... It's oil... Use what is recommeneded and change it every 3,000 miles and it'll be fine... It's not that big of a deal... This isn't a strung out engine that operates at 10,000 rpm or extreme heat ranges... Use whatever is cheapest because all the expensive stuff will do is cost you more money... Like I said, Motorcraft 5W-30, cheap, and what Ford recommends...

 

[exbass94]

Wow... Um, guys... It's oil... Use what is recommeneded and change it every 5,000 miles and it'll be fine... It's not that big of a deal... This isn't a strung out engine that operates at 10,000 rpm or extreme heat ranges... Use whatever is cheapest because all the expensive stuff will do is cost you more money... Like I said, Motorcraft 5W-30, cheap, and what Ford recommends...

Fixed.

 

[Big Jim M]

Ok Duke I'll bite

Big Jim M,
Are you trying to be helpful or offensive? The fact is there is a better product out there than dino oil, even if it does cost more. Don't get me wrong it's ok to use the old conventional oil, and your engine will last pretty long, but the times are changing, synthetics are getting cheaper and are better than conventional oils. I'd trust a reputable magazine testing products before I'd trust someone stuck in their ways who doesn't.
I would like to hear how you know so much without using any assumptions

If there was a better product out there.. don't you think that product would advertise.. HEY GUYS THIS IS A BETTER PRODUCT.. IT WILL DO THIS AND THIS FOR YOUR ENGINE.. SO YOU WILL GET LESS WEAR AND HAVE BETTER MILEAGE AND ON AND ON!!!

But do you see or hear that? Nope you don't! You get this and that from magazines that depend on advertisements.. What REAL evidence is there that synthetic will do ANYTHING for our engines except withstand more heat than our engines actually have?

You get the same crap written about carb spacers.. we all know that is just crap advertising.. So why do we stand for the crap advertisements about oil?

We get similar crap advertisements about air cleaning filters... most of us have got so accustomed to them that we hardly see them anymore.. but OIL? We still think there might be some gain for synthetic.. even though we don't get ANY hard facts about it.

If it was better for any part of our engines the manufactures would advertise THAT fact.. but they don't. They have to resort to PAYING GM to put it in their highest priced automobiles.. just to make the rest of us THINK it is better.

Don't get me wrong here. I do believe synthetic oil is better than dino in some applications.. But I don't think street engines is one of them applications.

In fact I doubt any automobile engine benefits in any way from having synthetic oil in it. Somewhere there is a use for high temperature oil, we just don't have that use.

Most of us have failed to see that standard motor oil has reached a pinnicle of performance in the last few years. Motor oil is better now than it has been over it's history.
Big JIm

 

[wahl_7s]

Man this is hilarious, here's a little more fuel.I race 7s class ranger W/4.0SOHC I run Mobil 1 0W20 diesel spec.(now i've done it gave up secret info) in the deserts of so.cal, 6000 to 8000 rpm all day 200 + engine temps no failure do to oil. Because i have an oil sponsor I run the same oil in all my trucks, and change every 10,000 miles no engine failures