Used F-250 Ford

[OneEyeJack]

Just met a guy with a white 2000 F-250 4x4 crewcab V-10 pickup spec'd for 5w-20 oil, with just over 250K miles on the clock, a real, hard working truck. About a quarter of the miles are off road/dirt roads with lots of horse trailer towing. The interesting part is that the owner, a HD motorcycle guy uses Red Line 20w-60 motorcycle oil from 1K miles when he dumped the factory fill and now changes the oil every 10K miles with a WIX 51372 oil filter every other oil change except if there's been a lot of off road and towing then it's every oil change. The engine runs great and the oil consumption is not enough to require topping off between changes.

Here's one guy that is not on the 20 weight oil band wagon. He glued a piece of very carefully crafted plastic over the oil fill cap with a Red Line logo. He drove my high mileage Red Line oiled Honda and said he would have expected no less of a car with the right brand of oil. (lol)

 

[CT8]

Who woulda thunk it. You know how horse owners are.

 

[surfstar]

But just think, if he saved 1% on fuel using a 5w20 (which has never shown to result in early engine failure), he would be hundreds of dollars ahead. Oh and if he used a low priced 5w20, there's more savings over $redline. So maybe ask him why he likes to spend money needlessly?

 

[Kawiguy454]

...But just think, If he wanted to save a few pennies a tank in gas not using heavier oil (which has never shown to result in early engine failure), he would be hundreds of dollars ahead. So maybe ask him if saving a few hundred dollars is better than replacing a worn out engine. the only thing needless is a two dimensional view of things.

My 02 f150 @190K+ needs no oil add between changes and runs like a top using Mobil 1 15w50 its whole life. @250k I'll mail a postcard.

 

[buck91]

My truck will never make it over 75k with 5w20 summer and 0w20 winter oil!

 

[cptbarkey]

so is this some sort of viral disruptive product placement forum post or what?

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: Kawiguy454
...But just think, If he wanted to save a few pennies a tank in gas not using heavier oil (which has never shown to result in early engine failure), he would be hundreds of dollars ahead. So maybe ask him if saving a few hundred dollars is better than replacing a worn out engine. the only thing needless is a two dimensional view of things.

My 02 f150 @190K+ needs no oil add between changes and runs like a top using Mobil 1 15w50 its whole life. @250k I'll mail a postcard.


What worn out engine? Do you have evidence that 5-20 will cause the engine to have a shorter life? If so, lets have it.

 

[69GTX]

The 20w-60 might be fine for Arizona and SoCal...what about Maine and Montana?

 

[donnyj08]

Originally Posted By: 69GTX
The 20w-60 might be fine for Arizona and SoCal...what about Maine and Montana?



People seem to think they know better than the manufactures. I see modular fords in the 250-300k range that still run well and have been ran on 5w20 MC their whole lives.

I've seen many SBC and LS engines with very high miles as well. Most ran on conventional 5 or 10w30's

"thin" oils can take one of these engines just as far as thick oil.

 

[Ethan1]

250k miles in NOT impressive for any Modular motor that's had regular oil changes or for ANY motor that's had ultra-expensive boutique oil changes since it was new.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: Kawiguy454
...But just think, If he wanted to save a few pennies a tank in gas not using heavier oil (which has never shown to result in early engine failure), he would be hundreds of dollars ahead. So maybe ask him if saving a few hundred dollars is better than replacing a worn out engine. the only thing needless is a two dimensional view of things.

My 02 f150 @190K+ needs no oil add between changes and runs like a top using Mobil 1 15w50 its whole life. @250k I'll mail a postcard.


What worn out engine? Do you have evidence that 5-20 will cause the engine to have a shorter life? If so, lets have it.


I saw one go 550,000+ miles in the brutal duty of an F550 repo truck. It never got anything but whatever 5w30 the company got the cheapest by the drum!

 

[Lyman]

I used to run Redline 20w60 ..................In my Harley.

 

[OneEyeJack]

Originally Posted By: 69GTX
The 20w-60 might be fine for Arizona and SoCal...what about Maine and Montana?


I looked it up. This 20w-60 oil has a pour point of -49F. That might cover some of the winter up north. The pour point for Red Line 0w-20 is -76 and Amsoil 0w-20 is -63F which are both much better but any of these temperatures are a bit too cold for me. Besides horses don't do to well at those temps, either.

 

[Rolla07]

The thick vs thin argument will never die. Im not sure whats wrong with running what the mfr recommends? I use whatever the mfr says i can use. 0w20, 0w30, 5w20 or 5w30. Someone put in 5w50 when i first got the car and the only benefit i got was lower gas mileage.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Just met a guy with a white 2000 F-250 4x4 crewcab V-10 pickup spec'd for 5w-20 oil, with just over 250K miles


I guess I don't know what's so unusual about that. Around here we have lots of farmers with a lot more miles than that using whatever engine oil is cheapest from the bulk distributor who delivers to the farm. And they also don't baby their trucks.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Just met a guy with a white 2000 F-250 4x4 crewcab V-10 pickup spec'd for 5w-20 oil, with just over 250K miles on the clock, a real, hard working truck. About a quarter of the miles are off road/dirt roads with lots of horse trailer towing. The interesting part is that the owner, a HD motorcycle guy uses Red Line 20w-60 motorcycle oil from 1K miles when he dumped the factory fill and now changes the oil every 10K miles with a WIX 51372 oil filter every other oil change except if there's been a lot of off road and towing then it's every oil change. The engine runs great and the oil consumption is not enough to require topping off between changes.

Here's one guy that is not on the 20 weight oil band wagon. He glued a piece of very carefully crafted plastic over the oil fill cap with a Red Line logo. He drove my high mileage Red Line oiled Honda and said he would have expected no less of a car with the right brand of oil. (lol)


I have 180,000 miles on my Expedition on a myriad of different oils, heck the first part of its life it was on dealer bulk 5w-20. It uses zero between changes on AFE 0w30 at 10-12,000km OCI's. It has done plenty of towing and dirt roads too.

The Modular engines will run basically forever on anything.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
The 20w-60 might be fine for Arizona and SoCal...what about Maine and Montana?


I looked it up. This 20w-60 oil has a pour point of -49F. That might cover some of the winter up north. The pour point for Red Line 0w-20 is -76 and Amsoil 0w-20 is -63F which are both much better but any of these temperatures are a bit too cold for me. Besides horses don't do to well at those temps, either.


If it is a 20w-xx, then its CCS and MRV numbers aren't good enough to net it the 15w-xx rating, which means that regardless of its pour point, there's the risk of it not pumping AND it WILL affect cranking speed when used below the temperatures appropriate for the 20w-xx designation.

 

[OneEyeJack]

I just thought is was interesting that a 60 weight oil was working in an engine spec'd for 20 weight. At least the engine has not had an outright failure and it does not burn oil.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
I just thought is was interesting that a 60 weight oil was working in an engine spec'd for 20 weight. At least the engine has not had an outright failure and it does not burn oil.


Not really surprising. Remember Ford spec's 5w-50 for a number of Modular variants. BMW also spec'd 5w30 and 10w-60 for the same engine.

 

[hattaresguy]

Tell him congratulations he wasted $5k on fancy oil over the last decade.