I have a '95 F-150 5.0L with 80,000 miles. I have always used Quaker State 10W-30 oil. I am thinking about changing to a synthetic oil. Should I have any concerns with changing at this point? Anything special I should do, or just change the oil as always? One more question...what type of synthetic oil would you reccomend? Thanks.
I say go ahead and change to synthetic won't hurt nothing if anything it will help better perfomance gas mileage don't get me wrong but it won't be a great increase but will help.
Changing to syn. can trigger temporary oil leaks, especially at the F&R main seals, until the seals become conditioned to the new oil. So check the level FREQUENTLY after changing, and top-up as needed. I didn't on my '94 CV, and the engine seized at 70mph ~1,000 miles after I changed. That's why it has a '00 engine now.
But on these old smallblocks, you won't see enough improvement to justify the cost of synthetic oil (which typically contains NO synthetic oil anyway). IMO, that money would be better spent on a good professional engine flush (I recommend BG products), or intake system cleaning (again, the BG 3-part process). Call a few local shops to find out which ones use BG products.
If you want to read more about why "full 100% synthetic oil" is made of 100% dino oil, check BITOG Welcome .
I haven't had any problems changing to synthetic oils. I've been running Amsoil products in all my vehicles for the near part of a decade. I change the oil once a year and for $15 mid year I send a 1/4oz sample out for analysis and it tells me I don't have to change it for another year on top of the 6/7 months I already drove on it. My work SUV has always ate a bit of oil, about half a quart every 3000miles, and now with running synthetic I only need to add a quart every 7000miles, so consumption has dropped slightly; and it tows 4-6K every weekend.
If you like changing the oil regularly, I'd stick with the non synthetic stuff. I changed reg oil in my old 2.5L I4 3speed Dodge Spirit every 2500miles and the engine still ran strong with over 260K on it. If the frame didn't rot through I'm sure it'd still be running now. I find you can go farther with your money using synthetic oil due to the increased drain intervals. I know a few folks who still change it every 3-4K, but it's a waste of money then. What brand or grade you want to use ultimately comes down to personal preference.
Quaker State is a good oil, but here they want almost $5 for a quart of QS 5W30 non-synthetic! For double the price I can get Amsoil Synthetic and drive 20K/yr on it. Best part is that it's still golden brown at 9K of driving, where as reg oil turns black on me at the 3K mark in all my vehicles.
Nothing but Amsoil but I have a couple of sources locally. I also use something called AutoRx. It's a fantastic cleaner for anything but fuel. Go to their website and check it out. It's nice having everything as clean as the day you bought it. I also quit using Fram filters when I saw some cut open and switched to Wix. I have one for the trans and the other for the engine. Both are remotely mounted on the front frame rails and are a lot easier to change now.
I bought some with a group deal on another site three years ago. I have two bottles left, out of six. I ran it mostly on my older Dodge's. The engine was superbly clean even with 268K on the odo. The only downside to that car was that I had to spend a day every year and a half changing out the head gasket. I never did put any AutoRX in my Taurus. The engine is still clean from what I can tell, as far as changing out plugs and such. I've been running synthetic in it since I bought it. :thup:
I ordered head gaskets by the half dozen for my older Spirit cars, since I owned two. I think I still have one in the garage somewhere! The spring of '07, I ordered a gasket for my old boat (5.7L Merc/GM) online since they were hard to find locally. Anyway, the idiots that mailed it, folded the gaskets in half so they could save on packaging! Ugh. Took me another three weeks before I got a replacement set - that weren't folded over!
Along with AutoRX, there's a product in a can (yes a can), called Restore. A few friends of mine have used it on vehicles in the past for years, and swear by it to boost compression back up toward OE levels. Still, the Restore looks like a thickened engine oil. At least it's a lot less than AutoRX, but at least I can say that ARX works better than a lot of engine cleaners I've tried, including the Amsoil one.
McCord was developing a grafpac head gasket for racing. When I would go to a nascar race with him I got me a bunch of what ever was being developed. Worked great on the street and track. Glad I got mine unfolded. How ignorant.
Our overtime trying to make a gasket for the new modular 4.6 paid for the nascar grand national class chevy V6 I was doing and the original V6 was wearing out. I would get a big bottle of RESTORE and use it till it ran out then add another. It filled in a lot of the little places that leaked combustion gases. A guy could dump some of that stuff in and sell the car as if it had a rebuilt engine. Even got 135k miles out of the trans to. Turned that ride into a race car on the street modeled after our late model.
I might try Restore one of these days. Perhaps if it came in a bottle like other oil I'd be more willing to try it? Hmmm. I've used Felpro gaskets for the most part. Inexpensive, and run a long time, except on my Spirit cars which were prone to head gasket failures (average was around 50K/gasket), so every two years I'd replace it as if it was in the regular maintenance schedule in the owners manual! Still, it still irks me that a performance shop would ship a gasket folded over. Perhaps it's worse that they actually thought I'd be able to use it!
Good to know, thanks! I haven't had to buy one in a long while now. I gather in the next couple years I'll need one for either my Taurus or Durango. Who makes the gaskets you speak of?
I don't know specifically but copper is usually a race only item. Multi layer technology has grown from when I first saw it. Google what you want and see what pops up. Felpro has been an industry leader and I would look there first.
I've generally used Felpro from the get-go. Perhaps I'll just stick with them and use whatever they decide to send me (or the store I get them from at least); preferably not folded.
Of course I got my gaskets for free from work but we would confer with the engineers on certain applications. On occassion they would say to use a Felpro. Couldn't complain about the bearings since they were the Michigan77 brand.
Braggart! All I get from my work, is grief. My Taurus rarely cruises above 65mph, where the rpms are a modest 2200rpm. I'm certain the gasket on that baby'll last well toward 200,000miles. Providing I still have the car then. Next on my to do list however, is body work around the fenders.
I've heard Bar's Leak has made leaps in technology in that area. lol
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