Hmm I learned something new today.

I was under the impression that the higher the number after the W, the better protection the oil offers. I also read on this forum before that 5w-50 will break down to a 5W-30 (or 20..can't remember) after some use. If that's the case the oil would thin out and become less viscous at operating temp. Is that also nonsense?

Either way, thanks for the correction. I'd hate to tell people wrong information.

 

I am using Motul 5w40 which is a pure synthetic oil and no ticking issues here at all.

 

Mobil 1 5W20. No tick.

 

I use Motorcraft 'full synthetic'.

The 3.7's had an 'engine tick' problem on some of the early build
models.

I may become a local Amsoil distributor in a few years. I've never used it because its so hard to find.

Most all oil sold nowdays is pretty good. Use whatever kind your happy with.

 

It's the oil's SAE multiviscosity rating. 5w-20 means it flows like a 5 weight oil when it's cold, and like a 20 weight oil when it's fully warmed up.

Where is the "texasboneking"? I posted that I used 5w-30W in my 2011. He said the variable valve timing would suffer damage by using the higher viscosity oil. Interesting enough, 5W-20 is not available in some places in Europe (such as England), and Ford recommends 5W-30 there. Never did see any proof that a higher viscosity oil will damage the Ti-VCT.

 

No problem!

On the breaking-down or shearing to a different oil weight, it does happen to some oils. The oil Ford uses is notorious for shearing down to lower weights. The higher-quality oils (read: more expensive) aren't going to do this as much, but the reason oil has to be changed is because it no longer provides the protection the engine needs--not because it gets dirty (that's what the filter is for). It's not uncommon to find used 5W 50 oil shearing down to a 40 or as low as 35 in some cases, depending on brand and use.

 

Good stuff.
Thanks for the education, I guess I needed it more than I originally thought

 

Bro, you said it. The same Ford vehicles in Europe use 5W-30 yet same vehicle here calls for 5W-20. Same car, same engine, same specs. Instead Europe doesn't have CAFE regulations like we do. The 5W-20 is for fuel CASE mpg. I use 5W-30.

Mustang X in US 5W-20
Mustang X Europe 5W-30

 

Isn't 5W-30 better for those that drive there Stang in the winter? I don't but I thought I saw that somewhere. If so, why?

 

Cold weather, 5W-20, 5W-30 is better for warmer/hotter climates. That's why some will change oil in winter and put 5W-20 and then summer comes around and put 5W-30 in.

 

I have a Track Pack Stang and the recommended viscosity is 5 W50 full synthetic. So far the only choice I've found is Motorcraft. Royal Purple only goes up to 5w40.

Scott

 

Redline makes 5W50. I have not used it on the Mustang but I used nothing but Redline on my other car.

 

I have a Shelby with track pack and it uses 5W-50. Mobile 1 makes it and its what I use, think I get it from my local NAPA. Mobile 1 doesn't shear like the Motorcraft does.

 

Mobil 1 baby. Its da best! Next to all the other thousands of opinions of the best. Lol.

 

I've wondered if sythetic oil is mostly marketing hype, I've had several cars over 200k mileage, including one over 300k using regular motor oil, all of them without internal motor problems. I think changing your oil on schedule is much more important than the brand/type of oil used.

 

Redline makes some great stuff. Redline, royal purple, and Amsoil are the best stuff out there.

Yep... That was my point from earlier. Just change oil when needed and don't skip. Don't matter the brand.

 

Mine is a new v6 with only 1k km on it so far. I won't be changing it out early, but I'll change it to a full synthetic after the first scheduled oil change at 10k km. I remember my 99 usually felt like it ran a bit rougher a month before the an oil change was scheduled. When I switched it to full synthetic, I never noticed that "roughness" period. Could be completely subjective or coincidental, but it works for me, and it's not that much more $$.

 

And out of curiosity, what was the horsepower to displacement ratio of those engines?


Engines, especially older engines can suffer a LOT of engine wear and keep on running. I used to have an old 80 Chevy Stepside pickup that you could turn the engine by hand and hear the air squeeze past the pistons, but it still ran. However, those engines didn't produce much horsepower to begin with and the wear reduced that further. So after 200,000 miles your 180hp car would only be producing 120hp. However, if you only had 180hp to begin with your probably wouldn't notice much change.

You could do the same with a new car. The same amount of wear might result in as much as a 10hp loss per year though.

 

Sorry... don't remember the name of the program. Saw it last few months. It was British and they review hp loss on a dyno after high mileage, how to recover (such as tune-up type stuff), and even with excessive miles, the loss of hp from loss of compression was nothing near that high. IIRC it was more like 1hp/year (10hp over 10 yrs, think the car was in excess of 100k), although it's not the years, its the miles.

Sorry I can't be more specific. I'll try to hunt sometime.

It surprised me a bit that a number of sources cite ticking with all synth. Ford has done OHC for many many years. They recommend synth-blend for a reason.