1986 Ranger best oil

[Sunabozu]

I've got an 86 ranger, 2wd, 2.9, in front of a Tk5 five speed.

the engine is fuel injected.

What oil would be a good mixture of the following, in order of importance.

1. Protection
2. Life
3. Engine cleaning ability
4. MPG
5. cost
right now i've got no idea what oil is in it, it's been sitting for 2 years, but the oil looks clean, i don't know if they changed it before they sold it to me, but oil pressure is good and the engine doesn't click like 2.9s tend to.

 

[Johnny]

Pennzoil yellow bottle 5W-30 or 10W-30. Change it every 4-5K.

 

[Sunabozu]

on my old 2.3 i used HD40 and changed it at 3k religiously, but i didn't know that pennzoil was particularly cleaning type of oil.

is there any synthetic you might recommend?

 

[lexus114]

What about the 10W-40 that ridgerunner has?

 

[Johnny]

Originally Posted By: Sunabozu
on my old 2.3 i used HD40 and changed it at 3k religiously, but i didn't know that pennzoil was particularly cleaning type of oil.

is there any synthetic you might recommend?


You could use any of the major synthetics but I personally would not waste my money using a synthetic in an 86 Ranger when a top quality conventional will get the job done. The Pennzoil conventional does a nice job of keeping an engine clean.


Originally Posted By: lexus114
What about the 10W-40 that ridgerunner has?


Absolutely not.

 

[lexus114]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
Originally Posted By: Sunabozu
on my old 2.3 i used HD40 and changed it at 3k religiously, but i didn't know that pennzoil was particularly cleaning type of oil.

is there any synthetic you might recommend?


You could use any of the major synthetics but I personally would not waste my money using a synthetic in an 86 Ranger when a top quality conventional will get the job done. The Pennzoil conventional does a nice job of keeping an engine clean.


Originally Posted By: lexus114
What about the 10W-40 that ridgerunner has?


Absolutely not.


sorry J.

 

[ridgerunner]

Originally Posted By: lexus114
What about the 10W-40 that ridgerunner has?


Darn, you beat me to it!

 

[Sunabozu]

Originally Posted By: Johnny


Originally Posted By: lexus114
What about the 10W-40 that ridgerunner has?


Absolutely not.


just curious, but why not?

 

[Robenstein]

Because the older 10w40 oils were more sludge prone, and oils in general from that area were just leaps and bounds worse than modern oils.

 

[ncguy]

How about some Havoline 10w30? My '86 Bronco II ran smooth on it.

 

[Robenstein]

Havoline is good dino. Has a decent amount of moly in it. Havoline tends to blend their 30 weights on the thinner side though.

Mobil Clean 5000 is about the best buy as far as price to performance ratio.