Oil Recommendation - 00 Mustang GT

[Thunderfan]

Hi. Looking for an oil recommendation. I drive a 2000 Mustang GT, 81K miles, 5spd transmission. It has some performance modifications including: "cold air" intake, improved upper intake (throttle body and plenum), offroad midpipe (no cats), axle back exhaust, short throw shifter, 3.73 ring and pinion, and a tune with timing bump for 91 or 93 octane. I drive approx. 2500-3000 miles per YEAR. A lot of my trips are back and forth to work, which is about a 3 mile drive each way, so many times my car never reaches full operating temp before I reach my destination, unless it's the heat of the summer. This car is very rarely every driven on the interstate. This car is never raced. I am very easy on this car. Sure, I let it loose every now and then, but for the most part it is babied. I've been using Mobil 1 5W20, changing it about every 10 months or so. I use a Mobil 1 or Napa Gold filter. What do you guys think on which oil to use and frequency of change? I've always been confused on how frequently to change it due to the limited number of miles I put on it. I live in Oklahoma. Thanks.

 

[DieselTech]

stick with what your using. get a used oil analysis done to determine what you need to do on intervals. if the times it is driven the stang gets up to good operating temp for atleast 10 miles you can do yearly OCI.

BTW welcome to BITOG

 

[Thunderfan]

Well that's the thing, driving a solid 10 minutes with the car at normal operating temp is not very common with this car. I live in a smallish city and I live close to work, etc.

 

[DieselTech]

The oil is up to the task but condensation will be high and not good. I would go down to Motorcraft syn blend and change twice a year unless you wanna run mobil and change twice a year. your really not gaining anything special and throwing more money away though.

You can also stick with what your doing but every week take the car out for a good run to burn off condensation.

 

[SWSportsman]

I have a similar 1998 GT and use a good non-synthetic 5W30 with annual oil changes. Nothing wrong with Mobil 1, but no advantage to using a synthetic under your circumstances. Mine likes to start-up-clatter with anything other than a Motorcraft filter (don't ask me why).

 

[Thunderfan]

Thanks for the replies. My O'Reilly ran an ad awhile back for 5 qts of Mobil 1 PLUS a Mobil 1 filter for 29.99 so I was all over that. If I see that again I'll just keep using Mobil 1, but it sounds like I should probably go no more than 6 months between changes based on my driving.

 

[DieselTech]

Originally Posted By: Thunderfan
Thanks for the replies. My O'Reilly ran an ad awhile back for 5 qts of Mobil 1 PLUS a Mobil 1 filter for 29.99 so I was all over that. If I see that again I'll just keep using Mobil 1, but it sounds like I should probably go no more than 6 months between changes based on my driving.


I agree but it still need to be taken out and ran real good to.

 

[JustinH]

Who did the tune?

I would have an oil sample sent to the lab after a 4-5k run to see if they are dumping too much fuel into the oil.

Are you running a cooler copper plug to fight detonation?

What mass air sensor?

 

[Thunderfan]

I did the tune. Handheld sniper, interfaced with PC. Got the tuner to recalibrate speedo after gear install. There's no air fuel tuning being done here. I would not touch that. That needs to be done on a dyno with the proper AF meters. I simply advanced the timing a couple of degrees and run a higher octane fuel, nothing crazy. Factory mass air sensor. 99-04 Mustangs are notoriously "detuned" from the factory so you can put [censored] gas in it and still avoid detonation. modifying the timing modestly and running higher octane makes a nice improvement.

 

[Thunderfan]

By the way, I'm curious why it has been said that I don't stand to gain anything using Mobil 1 over conventional for my circumstances.

What about Redline?

 

[DieselTech]

Realize this forum is mainly based on opinions. One of the biggest benefits to synthetic oil is the capability of extended drain intervals. Without you getting the oil to temp you cannot take advantage of this. Your not going to gain the added cleaning abilities of synthetics and for the most part most synthetic blends flow as well as full synthetics.

Redline IMO is the best oil money can buy. With it being poly-ester based it is very resistant to heat and shearing along with superior cleaning ability. Once again something your driving habits dont warrant.

We base our reccomendations not solely on the vehicle but your wallet to. if something is a waste we will tell you. I myself run very high quality oil in my vehicles and yes for the most part it's overkill but I get the warm and fuzzies when my Redline orders arrive and I love testing new products aswell.

 

[JT1]

Yes, this forum is >85% opinion based.

So my opinion is you run whatever you dern well like. Mobil 1 is the stuff!

 

[SevenBizzos]

Those are some low miles and short trips!

Nothing wrong with the M1 you're using. The MC is also a good choice. Since there's nothing really "wrong" with what you're doing now, stay the same.

You need to drive that car on your off days a little more!!