European Ford 2.3 DOHC engine - syn. oil options.

[Extreme-Duty]

The oil I have to choose is for my parents car, a '98 Ford Galaxy van with 117.000 km on the clock. Ford wants a 5w-30 meeting WSS-M2C 912a. Because of all their short trips and "cold engine high speed driving", I got their shop to fill it with Mobil 1 0w-30 for the last three oil changes. From now on, we will be changing the oil ourselves, wondering what's the best oil for this application.

Is there anything special inside the 2.3 DOHC that does not allow us to use any 0w-30 ACEA A1 or A5 lubricant?

AFAIK, Ford was among the first to specify engine oil with an HTHS viscosity below 3.5 in Europe. Fuel economy is likely to be the main issue with the WSS-M2C 912a specification. WSS-M2C 912a has long been replaced by WSS-M2c 913a and in my opinion many oil formulas will exceed the old standard. Fully synthetic 0w-30 HTHS >2.9 lubricants are getting rare, while Mobil 1 0w-30 is the only one meeting a current Ford specification. The M1 0w-30 sold in Europe is actually different from the one in the U.S.

M1 0w-30 API SL

Another easily accessible type of products is VW approved long life pumpe düse stuff. One could expect better AW properties with VW 503.00/506.00/506.01 lubricants vs. Ford spec. oil, but do these properties help in a Ford engine?

Also, there are plenty of ACEA A3 0w-30 lubricants available, such as Castrol SLX longtec. These oils are more viscous over the entire temperature range and I do think we need an HTHS >3.5.

What would you guys advice us to do?

 

[ac_tc]

Cant imagine anything special inside that engine, its a "grocery getter" engine
Run any good brand and use syn oil because of their driving style. Dont get over exited abaut long OCI´s.
Or use my favourite: syn HDEO...(like many others)

 

[tig1]

Is that the same engine thats in the American Focus and the Ford Fusion?

 

[Extreme-Duty]

Originally Posted By: ac_tc
Cant imagine anything special inside that engine, its a "grocery getter" engine
Run any good brand and use syn oil because of their driving style. Dont get over exited abaut long OCI´s.
Or use my favourite: syn HDEO...(like many others)


Yeah, syn HDEO is the very best if you need one oil for all engines. We have Delvac 1 in two tractors and the Audi 80. If the Galaxy was used for towing and/or longer trips, D1 would be the choise. For my parents cold engine acceleration, a 0w-30 might be better, both in terms of protection and fuel economy.


Originally Posted By: tig1
Is that the same engine thats in the American Focus and the Ford Fusion?


Difficult to answer, but somewhere I read that North American models used a 2.3 DOHC engine with the same performance characteristics as the Galaxy engine, i.e. 145 hp and 202 Nm torque. This does not say anything at all, does it?

Also, the engine has a cast iron block. It uses a Motorcraft EFL600 oil filter, as far as that can help us for comparison. Is there an online parts catalog somewhere I can use to compare the internals?

 

[tig1]

The american engine has an alumiuum block.

 

[addyguy]

The Castrol SLX oils are excellent, as is 'Edge' line if you can get that easily.

 

[Extreme-Duty]

The GC-alike SLX longtec is easy to get and inexpensive on ebay, but I fear it is notably more viscous than the oil we are using now (HTHS 3.6 vs. 3.0). If we want a syn. 0w-30 with an HTHS of 3.0, there are basically two options i.e. Mobil 1 0w-30 (API SL) and VW 503.00+506.00+506.01 approved products. Other true synthetic HTHS 3.0 0w-30 lubricants might be available somewhere, but we cannot get them at a fair price. For now, it looks like we are going to pick Mobil 1 0w-30 or a VW-approved oil, most likely Mobil SHC formula LD or Fuchs Titan Supersyn Longlife Plus. I will start a new thread where people can vote for either product.

 

[ikeepmychevytoo]

For US it was the Fuel Economy engine oils, a standard thats there for decades. It was after Ford's introduction of those modern engines in 90's that I finally able to locate FE oils for my 1984 Chevrolet, which is capable of utilizing FE oils.

During the "scarcity" I tried several cross-platform oils, for similar reasons like this standard has this benefit of HTHS and others for detergency, low ashes etc. There were also a Ford diesel specific 10w 30. All ended up in that the engine sounded louder and not as peppy and with some plainly clattered. At the end I see a design is a unison of many parameters and a good engine oil/standard is a design.

In Eu market where many manufacturer specific standards root around, some oils (especially the Shell) have many offerings for a given weight. Many 5w 30s advertised as general oils but somewhere they state specifically, especially for VW's, PSA's, Ford's, GM's; these, those engines. It is importatnt to read "between the lines".

I'd personally favour the Ford's specifications, and if not go with a rather truly universal offering like Castrol's SLX. In my case Castrol "feels" allright, just overcorrective for high temp cruising, I feel the drag in comparison.

 

[gtx510]

it's probably a Mazda MZR / Ford Duratec 23 engine
iirc, Ford WSS-M2C 912a means a 30wt oil w/ an HTHS < 3.5
any ACEA A1/A5 oil should work fine