Newbie to Forum: Many questions

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As stated, I am new to the forum.
I have an '88 Ford F-150 w/the 4.9 straight 6 engine. It has 133K miles on it and still runs very strong. I bought it at about 119K and believe the truck/engine was well cared for beforehand. When I bought it, it had a sticker on the windshield indicating that on it's last Oil change, Pennsoil 10-30 had been used. And that's what I've used in it since, changing the oil at 4-5K. My driving is nearly all highway miles and the oil doesn't look very dirty at those intervals. Also, the engine "uses" about 1 1/2 to 2 Qts in between changes. I get the Wal-Mart special, $20. oli change and lube which uses Fram oil filters.
1st Question: Is Pennsoil a good oil or should I change brands. So many people have thier favs. What's the real truth?
2nd. Does it hurt an engine to change brands of oil?
3rd. At what milage, or when should I consider changing to 10-40 oil?
4th. Are there any additive I should consider using?
5th. Alot of bad talk about Fram filters. Whats the best one I should use? Thanks in advance.
 
1...Pennzoil is one of the best conventional oils on the market.

2.....No.

3....When oil consumption becomes excessive. There are other alternatives to 10w40, such as 15w40, 10w30 high mileage oils, etc.

4.....Lube Control seems to work very well according to UOA results.

5....If I owned a Ford, and wanted a good cheap filter......I would probably use a motorcraft.
 
I had a 1990 4.9L that I just got rid of at 178,000 miles. I always used 5W30 Valvoline Durablend with Motorcraft or Napa Gold (Wix) filters at 3-4,000 mile intervals. The most it ever used at that interval was 1/4 qt. It was a great engine. Many people hate Valvoline here, but I never had any problems with it.

Penzoil is supposed to be a great dino oil, so I don't think anything is wrong with that choice. I see you are in Oklahoma, so a 10W30 is probably good since it doesn't get as cold as Minnesota. I would get rid of the FRAM and go with a Motorcraft filter. They are a much better filter and I think they are cheaper than the FRAMS at Wal Mart. Besides that Ford recommends Motorcraft.
 
What they said. By the way if you maintain that thing properly you may never wear it out. My son has one with over 200,000 miles and it runs like it did the day I bought it and it only had 50,000 on it then. One of the toughest little pickup motors ever.
 
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That 4.9 inline 6 has to be the most durable inline 6 ever made. You cant kill them unless you really are trying to. Usually they die when the water pump gets replaced.

What happens is.....

The water pump goes out and Mr.Owner decides to replace it. The 4 bolts that hold the w/p to the block also enter the coolant. The bolts are rusty and one or more break off. Mr.Owner decides to drill out the broken bolts and manages to drill a hole directly into the #1 cylinder!

I've seen this many times, 3 times in the last year!

We jokingly now call Mr.Owner "the golfer" cause he got a hole in 1!
 
You might be interested in getting an oil pressure reading off your engine. I got my '95 F150 with the 300 straight six at 58,000 miles and ran 5w30 Durablend in it for four years. Then I got an oil pressure gauge and found it was only getting 36 psi and spec is 40-60 psi. Not that far off, but now I am getting 45 psi with 10w40. Currently have 108,000 miles on it.

Not sure what the Pennzoil 10w30's flash point is. Have a chart someone put together that says it is around 221C (check it out on their website). A higher flash point might help reduce consumtion. Valvoline Maxlife 10w30 lists a 230C flash point; Maxlife 10w40 lists 242C.

I am on my third truck with the 300 straight six; only engine I ever want. Guy driving my '84 is past 200,000 miles.

Wix, Purolator, Motorcraft--all pretty good filters. I am trying some Fleetguards next. I am running the longer filter from the F700 truck (Motorcraft filter number FL299). Same as the FL1A, but 1.5 inches longer.

[ March 24, 2004, 12:50 AM: Message edited by: TallPaul ]
 
Wix, Purolator, Motorcraft, Supertech (my fav since I'm cheap).

Funny story about those I6s.

My friend had a F150 with an I6 that was the biggest POS ever. He bought it for $200. After much offroading and lots of 17 year old driver abuse he decided to kill it and sell it to the junkyard for $50 instead of selling it to someone else for $100.

So all of proceed to drain out all of the coolant. He drove it for a week with no coolant!

Then we took out about half of the oil. Still no problems.

After two weeks of no coolant and a week of about 3 quarts of oil he finally fills everything back up and sells it. LOL. Now that's DURABLE!
 
Walmart is fine for changing oil and esepcially at around $20 for dino and you can request any bottled synthetic for $27 (I choose Mobil 1). Just request to use a SuperTech or MotorCraft oil filter in lieu of the Fram. I do this on my vehicles, they refund you $1.88 and charge the price of the oil filter. Stick with Pennzoil.
 
quote:

Then I got an oil pressure gauge and found it was only getting 36 psi and spec is 40-60 psi. Not that far off, but now I am getting 45 psi with 10w40. Currently have 108,000 miles on it.

First off, this is a question not criticism. Are you any better off using a 10W40 to get your oil pressure up? Aren't you just reducing the volume of oil that is pumped by going to the 10W40? I understand that the pressure will increase, but is it really any better for the engine since less oil is probably flowing to get the higher pressure?
 
quote:

Originally posted by tmorris1:
Are you any better off using a 10W40 to get your oil pressure up? Aren't you just reducing the volume of oil that is pumped by going to the 10W40? I understand that the pressure will increase, but is it really any better for the engine since less oil is probably flowing to get the higher pressure?

Excellent question and one that I have wrestled with. You are definitely right about less oil flowing to get the higher pressure, by definition your pressure is created by flow restriction. But where the oil goes, I guess depends on where the excess flow (seepage) is.

If excess oil is coming out at the mains and rod big ends, then is it possible that the thicker oil reduces that flow and forces more to the top? At the same time the greater resistance from the top end dealing with a thicker oil very well may reduce upper engine oil flows. Might be a 6 of one and 1/2 dozen of the other situation. Or it might still be passing mostly through the lower end and the top end gets reduced even more.

Another possibility is that the low pressure is from a weak oil pump bypass valve. Then the engine could get even less oil.

Not sure there is any way to really know without a tear down. But with the 5w30 (and presumably with a 10w30) when I drive it really hard I can knock the pressure down to 30 psi, whereas the same hard driving knocks the 10w40 down to 40 psi. Anyway, I feel the step up from 30 wt to 40 wt is not that big to significantly affect top end lubrication under any of the scenarios above. It would probably be foolish, though, to run a 20w50 though.
 
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