Oil Suggestion please: 2 vehicles!

[Acroy]

Howdy all
I’ve got 2 very different vehicles I’d like to get some oil suggestions for:

Vehicle #1
2002 Mazda Protégé 2.0, daily driver, 102k miles. 0-50k I used 3k OCI with cheapest conventional oil I could find, didn’t know better at the time… At 50k I did the auto-rx treatment and switched to Ford Motocraft synthetic blend and 4k OCI, 10W30 as it’s hot in TX. Napa Gold filter every oil change.

At 100k I pulled the valve cover & everything looks brand new, zero sludge evident. The motor is naturally a bit thrashy but the Synthetic Blend quieted it down compared to the old conventional oil.

I’d like to switch to a QUIET full-synthetic and extend OCI to 7500 miles or so. The car is used for everything: short hops, road trips, etc. Based on reading, the Pennzoil Platinum sounds like a good choice. What oil weight? Any other suggestions?

Vehicle #2
2000 Dakota with 4.6l V-8, 75k miles. The truck saw a lot of use till the last couple years - pricey gas. Again, I used whatever was cheap with 3k OCI, auto-rx at 70k miles. Now we put maybe 1000-1500 miles a year on it. Also been using Ford Motocraft 10-30, oil/filter change once a year regardless of miles. Suggestions for this vehicle?

Thanks all. Been lurking here for years, good stuff!

 

[Steve S]

You are doing fine .

 

[XCELERATIONRULES]

You might as well stay with what got you here.
You can spend a few more dollars if you like,to increase the oci,but as the motor gets higher mileage it tends to start burning or leaking oil,so spending top dollar for synthetic might just be a waste of money.
A valve adjustment might be just what the doctor ordered to quiet down the engine.
I tend to stick with 5 w 30 as most wear happens at start up.

 

[HTSS_TR]

For Dakota, you may consider to change oil only (keep the filter) at 6 months OCI if mileage is less than 3k.

For Protégé, if you want to use synthetic to extend OCI to 1 year/8-10k miles, PP xW30 is a good oil and so are other synthetic oils such as Valvoline Synpower, Castrol Syntec ... that you can buy on sale.

 

[ryan2022]

I'd go with Syntec 0w30 for the mazda, seeing how they can burn a bit of oil. It would handle 7.5K OCI's with zero problems, and probably quiet things down, being on the thick side.

For simplicities sake, I would stay with Motorcraft in the truck at 1 year intervals. If you can find the GC at a good price, it would probably work well for both vehicles, although so would any decent synthetic.

 

[Acroy]

Thanks for the suggestions!

FYI, i did check the valves at 50 and 100k on the Protege, all are OK. the motor has no balance shaft, the mazda 2.0 just seems to be a "coarse" motor. kind of a tractor engine, but quite reliable.

So the Ford Motocraft oil is still considered good stuff? I think it's around $2.25-2.50/qt

Would moving to Synthetic would encourage burning or leaking oil? Neither motor uses any oil at all between changes, and no leaks.

 

[02zx9r]

MC is a good oil

not really. If no oil useage or leaks i would stay with what you have been doing.

Could do a used oil analysis and see how far you could push the oci's for the mazda[

quote=Acroy]
So the Ford Motocraft oil is still considered good stuff? I think it's around $2.25-2.50/qt

Would moving to Synthetic would encourage burning or leaking oil? Neither motor uses any oil at all between changes, and no leaks.[/quote]

 

[Nickdfresh]

All the suggestions are fine. Mobil 1 High Mileage 10w30 might be a good candidate for the Protégé though....

The Dodge, I wouldn't worry. Even Supertech High Mileage would be fine for a once-a-year OCI...

 

[Acroy]

I got a wild hair over the weekend and picked up a few quarts of the Euro Castrol 0w-30, will try it in the Protege. Never thought I's spend $7/gt on anything other than booze

 

[Saturn_Fan]

Originally Posted By: Acroy
Never thought I's spend $7/gt on anything other than booze