Mustang Coyote 5.0L V8 engine oil recommendations - Ford has spec’d 5W20, 5W50, and 5W30 for it before.

VQAndrew said:
I am the OP on this thread. Right on time, after my first 1,000 mile change the infamous barbecue tick has started. Here are two videos of it.



I hear Ceratec does work, but a guy on Mustang6G did an experiment that it fell out of suspension after sitting for a week and even left a bunch of sludgy residue at the bottom of his experiment jar. So I'm a bit weary of running an additive. Gonna switch to 0W40 next oil change and see what happens. What comforts me is every 2018-2022 owner GT I've seen at car meets has the same sound. And the common denominator? Ours all started after the first oil change. So I bet Ford gives a special additive to it in the factory fill 5W30 to make it quiet. UOA from factory fill show high moly and boron so I am trying to find a full synthetic 0W40 or 5W40 that will be higher in those two ingredients.
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My 2017 had the tick. Ceratec does work, that tick will go away instantly. Why? I don't know. I also noticed that Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w30 greatly subdued the noise, nearly eliminating it in my case. Since oil brand and additives influenced the noise I decided there was not a real issue to worry about.

I track my car. I ended up cracking the ring land on the #8 piston and lost compression with 19,XYZ miles (my fault). I rebuilt the engine in my garage. Everything inside was immaculate except for the piston that had cracked and scored the bore. All of the bearings were perfect, I could still see the ink stamps on the bearing surface. The crank was perfect and the rod side/side clearance was in spec. Didn't measure main or connecting rod bearing clearances since it all looked perfect and I wasn't reusing the stock rods anyways. Oil pump and valve train was perfect. Had the block lined honed and bored 0.010" over and rebuilt with Manley rods and Wiseco pistons. I replaced everything that could be considered consumable except the primary chain guides because they were fine, and the secondary chain tensioners because the ones I ordered were wrong and I got too impatient to wait for the correct ones. It hasn't made the BBQ tick noise once since the rebuild. Now I just have minor piston slap until the forged pistons warm up.

I'm just stating all of this to say that I saw absolutely nothing that indicated there was an issue with the engine. Yeah it's a sample of 1. Dump the Ceratec in if you want it to be quiet.
 
thelostotter said:
My 2017 had the tick. Ceratec does work, that tick will go away instantly. Why? I don't know. I also noticed that Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w30 greatly subdued the noise, nearly eliminating it in my case.
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If adding a small volume of Ceratec makes the tick go away instantly, it's got to be something mechanical clearance wise that is effected by the friction level of the oil between moving parts. Does Pennzoil Ultra Platinum have a lot of Moly in it? I'd think oil that has a lot of AF additives would help with the ticking Coyote.
 
thelostotter said:
My 2017 had the tick. Ceratec does work, that tick will go away instantly. Why? I don't know. I also noticed that Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w30 greatly subdued the noise, nearly eliminating it in my case. Since oil brand and additives influenced the noise I decided there was not a real issue to worry about.

I track my car. I ended up cracking the ring land on the #8 piston and lost compression with 19,XYZ miles (my fault). I rebuilt the engine in my garage. Everything inside was immaculate except for the piston that had cracked and scored the bore. All of the bearings were perfect, I could still see the ink stamps on the bearing surface. The crank was perfect and the rod side/side clearance was in spec. Didn't measure main or connecting rod bearing clearances since it all looked perfect and I wasn't reusing the stock rods anyways. Oil pump and valve train was perfect. Had the block lined honed and bored 0.010" over and rebuilt with Manley rods and Wiseco pistons. I replaced everything that could be considered consumable except the primary chain guides because they were fine, and the secondary chain tensioners because the ones I ordered were wrong and I got too impatient to wait for the correct ones. It hasn't made the BBQ tick noise once since the rebuild. Now I just have minor piston slap until the forged pistons warm up.

I'm just stating all of this to say that I saw absolutely nothing that indicated there was an issue with the engine. Yeah it's a sample of 1. Dump the Ceratec in if you want it to be quiet.
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What exactly is Ceratec (chemical element-wise)?
 
aquariuscsm said:
It's weird that the tick is random and sporadic, and not rhythmic.
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That's why I think it's rod big ends "dancing" side-to-side on the crank journals, like in the video in post #80. And for some reason, the friction of the oil causes them to dance or not. If the rod side-to-side clearance is on the excessive side it could make it worse. All it would take is one or two rods dancing to make the random ticking sound.
 
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Brian123 said:
You said you track your car, you might want to use something a bit thicker than a 5W-30
Do you have any oil consumption issues with using a 5W-30 and what are your oil temps like?
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I run 5w50 nowadays. Temps peak around 265F during the summer. That’s about as hot as I’m comfortable with, I need to mess with my oil cooler setup to bring that down closer to 250F or less. No significant consumption issues, it uses a little bit during a track day.
 
I'm late to this topic, but I have owned two 5.0 Coyote engines, a gen 1 in my 2012 GT and a gen 2 in my 2016 F150. I ran oils from 5w20 to 0w40 in both engines, and I noted smoother engine performance with thicker oils in both engines. I also ruitinely ran MoS2, but never ceratec, and occasionally performed UOA's with good results. No ticking from either engine.

The Mustang was mostly stock aside form a tune, but I did do some road course work with that car, and the 0w40 afforded me more headroom from the higher oil temps. Never any issues with that engine.

My F150 is a bit of a special case, she was supercharged, 13psi making around 700hp and shifting at 8200rpm (Roush kit with a pulley, tuning, exhaust, and fuel system). I put 45,000 supercharged miles on that truck, with thousands of hard launches and lots of legal drag racing. She regularly ran low to mid 11's in the 1/4th, and while I owned her was fed a steady diet of Amsoil SS 5w30 and Mobil 1 0W40. Due to the fuel dilution issues I discovered by UOA, I switched to Mobil 1 0w40 later on in my ownership. All that said, she always returned a good UOA, with oil changes every 5k miles or so. I sold the truck at 45,000 miles, and shortly after the transmission started slipping from all the "abuse," and the new owner put a new transmission in it; but last I checked the engine was still running strong.

I think the moral of the story, is Coyotes can run succesfully on all sorts of oil grades. I would just pay attention to effective viscosity at whatever oil temperature you are experiencing in your intended use scenario. Road racing? Then using 5w50. Drag strip? Then probably anything would work.
 
Dave Hess said:
I use any brand 10w30 synthetic oil in my wife’s Mustang. ZERO need for a 50 weight oil in a Coyote engine even if it’s making 900 horsepower.

I once used 10w30 Mobil 1 and 10w30 Rotella T5. Engine absolutely purrrrrrrs like a kitten with this blend @ 7500 RPMs.


View attachment 110849
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Roush, VMP, and Whipple all recommend 5w50.

The GT500 which is a coyote variant uses 5w50. Can many get away without? Probably but making big power and spinning 8,000 rpm I’m leaning on the 50 weight.
 
Anthony said:
Roush, VMP, and Whipple all recommend 5w50.

The GT500 which is a coyote variant uses 5w50. Can many get away without? Probably but making big power and spinning 8,000 rpm I’m leaning on the 50 weight.
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A XOM engineer told me that you can mix FS 0W-40 and FS X2 5W-50 in whatever proportions you desire since they use the exact same additive package.
 
Depends on how you drive. Drive it like Miss Daisy, run 20. Drive normally with a few rompy romps here and there, a 30 should do you. Beat on it, run at least a 40.
 
DAVIDO49 said:
Never heard of 5.0L Coyote consuming oil. Is it an old abused engine your referencing? Know a few guys w/ 5.0L in there F150s & Mustangs ..all no more than 10yrs old. No probs. My buds truck is 02-03 w/well over 200k mis. Never heard him complain ..he seems to love that truck . Planning order new F150 Tremor an keep Ole truck for business purposes. Heard of Subaru an some German vehicles consuming oil when new tho. I've had a few Ford trucks w/Gen1 & Gen2 TGDI Ecoboost engines that were excellent . Zero issues. Just good basic maintenance on em. Nothing else. When your #1 in trucks (or anything) it usually puts a target on your bk . Ridiculous but ppl can be petty. Can't be best selling truck *45 yrs straight* w/ out building an excellent product. That's my engineering logic.
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google oil consumption 2018 5.0.
that was a particularly consuming year.

02-03 had no 5.0 option

I'm a big Ford fan. Many newer 5.0's burn oil, many more do not. I've owned 3 that did not, doesn't mean it isn't happening.
 
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