'11 Ford Powerstroke 6.7L Which Oil?

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Looking for an oil to switch to and stick with for the life of the truck. I have about 20k miles on it now and would like to switch to a Synthetic. I have heard good things about Amsoil, Rotella, Shaeffer's. But don't know which one would be best? Thanks for any input.
 
I think Rotella 5w40 is a great oil for the price and quality. I would do a UOA after a couple of runs to see how it is doing, but a great lube. If you are going to use it for a lot of towing and heavy duty work use 15w40.

Amsoil only has one CJ-4 5w40, I am sure it is great though. Expensive
 
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Rotella T6 is hard to beat for price and availability.

Nice engine, my buddy is one of 2 Ford diesel techs at a local dealership and he pretty much makes his living off of 6.0 & 6.4s, he hasn't had the opportunity to turn a wrench on the new 6.7 yet. They've been on the roads for almost 2 years now and he's gotten one with a urea injection code. Other than the 400 HP reflashes for the early 11s, that's all he's seen.

I have a feeling the new 6.7 is going to be the true successor to the 7.3, a bulletproof Powerstroke is here again.
 
Originally Posted By: Ben99GT
I have a feeling the new 6.7 is going to be the true successor to the 7.3, a bulletproof Powerstroke is here again.


Two things:
1. We can only hope.
2. It's about [censored] time!
 
Originally Posted By: Balla
Looking for an oil to switch to and stick with for the life of the truck. I have about 20k miles on it now and would like to switch to a Synthetic. I have heard good things about Amsoil, Rotella, Shaeffer's. But don't know which one would be best? Thanks for any input.


The best is a tough word to define, really it comes down to your operating conditions and of course budget. If I may ask, why do you want to run a synthetic? Rotella is a great bag for your buck IMHO.
 
Originally Posted By: rufushusky
Originally Posted By: Balla
Looking for an oil to switch to and stick with for the life of the truck. I have about 20k miles on it now and would like to switch to a Synthetic. I have heard good things about Amsoil, Rotella, Shaeffer's. But don't know which one would be best? Thanks for any input.


The best is a tough word to define, really it comes down to your operating conditions and of course budget. If I may ask, why do you want to run a synthetic? Rotella is a great bag for your buck IMHO.



EXACTLY!

What does "best" mean to you?

There are only two good reasons to run synthetics:
1) extreme cold temps where start up is an issue
2) extended OCIs

#1 is obvisouly not an issue in FL. In fact, if you choose a 10w-30 dino HDEO, you can rest assured of decent starting all the way down to -10 deg F or lower. There really are not that many places that get that cold for the bulk of our membership. You certainly are not going to experience these kinds of temps, so this topic is moot in your application.

#2 How often are you going to change oil? If you intend to stick to a traditional OEM defined OCI, then synthetics are not "better". Please spend some time looking over the multitude of UOAs and you'll see that in short-to-moderate OCI durations, dino oils perform every bit as well as syns. Even under extremely heavy use (I have one such UOA as proof). Since syn's cost approximately 3x more money than a convantional oil, you'd have to run your OCI for 3x longer just to break even on money.

All that said, if you're going to extend your OCIs, then any of those three brands you mentioned are very capable products and I've seen excellent results from all of them.

Overall, believe it or not, most engines really don't care about the brand/grade of oil you put in them. As long as the equipment is in good operating condition, and you select a lube that meets/exceeds the OEM critera, it matters much more to your wallet than it does your engine. I've seen far too much UOA evidence to state otherwise. ALL the brand name oils do well because they are all well designed and made. Typically, it you see a poor UOA, it's not a matter of the lube but rather a parameter than has gotten out of control (contamination, leaks, overheating, mechanical failure, etc).

People want synthetics far more often than they need synthetics. I'm not saying you cannot use one; you certainly can. But until you define what "better or best" means to you, you'll have no idea what to choose or why. The components of your maintenance program should be complimentary, not contradictory.

Read my signature line; that says it all.
 
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I am under the impression that the 6.7 actually is speced for 10w-30. I don't own one, but I read it somewhere, what does your owners manual recommend?
 
This is from one of our 6.7L manuals
CJ-4 or CJ-4/sm required to ensure emission systems compatibility
Preferred 10W-30
5W-40 or 15W-40 recommended for severe duty or biodiesel applications

Interestingly enough Ford does make a Heavy Duty 0w-30 oil. I saw it on their website but never in person.

If your towing a lot I would pick rotella 5w-40 or the 10w-30.. Our fleet trucks just switch to 5w-40 in all diesel engines after conducting many uoa. It will sure beat the 15w-40 in the cold Iowa winters
 
Bella: Alot of good advice above... You said you would like to switch to a synthetic... There are many to pick from...

All the well known Brands will do an superior job protecting your new 6.7L--->Amsoil-Schaeffers-Rotella T6-Mobil 1 TDT-Valvoline- all 5W-40 for yr round use... All great oils...All depends on the size of your wallet... There is not a such a thing as the Best...

dnewton has the best advice around... Listen to his advice and thoughts...

My personal opinion... If your new 6.7L will be used to tow and work hard 24/7? I would pour in a 5W-40 for yr around use...As for OCI? Depends on if you want to use a UOA... If not? I would stick to the manual OCI until your warranty is up...

If your truck will be used as a daily driver and only tow on occations? I would stick with the Ford 10W-30 or Rotella T5 10W-30...Both great robust oils... T5 is a semi-synthetic blend...
Stick with Fords OCI...

Now: If you are dead set on using a synthetic? Switch to any of the 5W-40 oils and use yr round...Just make sure you stick to Fords OCI...until that warranty runs out... Which in many cases the oil that you drain out, could possibly still be run for many more miles... After the warranty is out...Then you can begin to run UOA to determine just how long you can run the oil and gets its full life...

Congrats on your new Ford... I have driven a couple of them... and they are Awesome trucks...Ford is heading in the right direction with this new engine...
 
Rotella T6 is a very good value in a 5w40 synthetic. I picked up a gallon about a month ago at Meijer for $20. Around here, it's always $1 cheaper than TDT, and I think it's a better oil. I tried to get Schaeffer's at the 3 distributors that are listed on their website for my area. None of them had it in stock. They all said they could get it, but I don't want shopping for oil to turn into a quest. I want to go into a store, and pull it off the shelf. RT6 is available everywhere, and it's a good value.
 
Thanks for the wealth of information guys.

I will moderately tow my 29' Everlgades, But other than that i wont be doing any Hardcore towing with it at this time. My cousin has been running Shaeffer's 9000 in his 7.3L for about 50k miles and has had great results. So I might go with Shaeffer's being that its about the same price as all the other Synthetics & We both can order it in bulk and save a few $$$.

With this new engine it seems to turn the oil black with less than 1k miles. Whereas my cousins 7.3L will go 3-4K mi before it gets dark.
 
Common rails, multiple fuel injection events and EGR will do that, especially compared to the nearly emissions free 7.3.
 
Since you're in Florida, you don't have any hills to climb while towing, so you won't be stressing the oil. It's amazing how easy these modern trucks tow when they have diesel engines in them.
 
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