Oil recommendation

[esahlin]

I have a 1994 Mercury Sable 3.8L with 143,900 miles. I bought the car at 107,000 miles with blown headgaskets. When replacing the headgaskets (at 107K miles) I also replaced virtually all the engine gaskets. I had a machine shop bake/clean and check the heads for cracks. I installed new valve stem seals and also removed the oil pan and cleaned it out to get rid of the sludge...also did the valve covers. So the engine was pretty much sludge free. Ive used Dino oil (Rotella T) 10W-30 pretty much every oil change with Fram filters. My oil changes have been around 3-5K miles. The car burns about 1/2 a quart every 1K miles. I'd like to try a synthetic oil and use about a 5K or so OCI....or twice a year.

 

[FMC]

I would just stay with the Rotella and do your 2x a year OCI, your adding "make up" oil so it's getting some fresh oil along the way.

You can try a engine cleaner like Auto RX to help clean the rings, it may help with your oil consumption.

 

[Coastal]

Why not keep using the Rotella if you are happy with it so far? I don't know much about Rotella but it should compare pretty well to Delo and I would think that either HDEO would be capable of going to 5k with no trouble even without make up oil. Since you are burning about 1/2 a quart every 1000. That means just before you change your oil you've already changed 2 quarts of oil. Personally I'd just stick with 5k changes on Rotella. They only thing I might do differently is change oil filters. I'm not a Fram basher by any means, but if you are using the orange can, I'd probably feel better with something with a little more robust construction. Otherwise, rock on. The other filters might be pretty decent based off what I have been reading and seeing on here. If you really want to try some synthetic and you are after cleaning power, a good run of Ultra might not be a bad idea, although I'm not really sure how much more cleaning power Ultra might have versus a diesel oil like Rotella.

 

[mechtech2]

If you burn 1/2 qt in 1,00 miles, that's about 2 1/2 qts in 5,000 miles.
You could then have a MUCH longer OCI than 5 K!
You are constantly replenishing the oil with fresh.

I would stick with a dino and go 4-5 K in your situation. M aybe longer.

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: mechtech2
If you burn 1/2 qt in 1,00 miles, that's about 2 1/2 qts in 5,000 miles.
You could then have a MUCH longer OCI than 5 K!
You are constantly replenishing the oil with fresh.


Very true, but now you have a question mark about the filter.

 

[FMC]

I would use the Motorcraft FL400s filter.

 

[Coastal]

If that is the recommended filter that is what I would use as well. I just took apart a 400S that I no longer needed and it was very nicely built IMO.

 

[esahlin]

All great information.... thanks!

Today I saw a sale on Penzoil Platinum at O'Reillys and a Wix filter. So I decided to get the PP and give that a try. I'm interested to see if the PP reduces my oil consumption. My 1994 Ford/Mercury Taurus/Sable manual says 1 quart per 1,000 miles of oil consumption is normal after about 16K. I was surprised to read this...That seems like alot. I did buy some of the Motorcraft FL-400s filters (on Rockauto.com) so I will be switching from Frams to those. I do like the Rotella Dino so I will see how it goes with the PP and then maybe go back to the Rotella Dino.

 

[ronrackley]

I think the new Rotella T5 synthetic blend 10w30 is an excellent oil. I'd use it in that engine if it were mine.

 

[Coastal]

I'm sure the PP and Wix will work just fine. Let us know if you see any improvement with the PP. My wifes 5.4 Expedition drank about 3 quarts of oil in 6k on 5w20 MC, but seems to be holding steady about 1k into PU 5w20. I won't know until I've gotten through an entire OCI, but if there is build up on the rings, that may be where its going and if PP or PU can clean that up then maybe consumption will go down.

No smoke out the tailpipe and no wet parts under the bottom of the Expedition so the verdict is out. Most mfg allow for 1 qt per 1,000 miles, but I've never been really comfortable about that either. If it continues in her car, I definitely won't be using high dollar oil. I guess I will look at the bright side that if I really wanted to I could just top off every 1,000 and change the filter every 5,000 and not have to fully drain the oil, although I am unlikely to do so.

 

[901Memphis]

Not sure if the 400s is the correct application for the 3.8 that year but its what i use on my 99 3.0 Taurus. Its a clear winner over the Fram and only about $3.69 too.