What oil to use in my Cobra???

[About2bite]

Originally Posted By: MGregoir
It's not so much Castrol products as a whole, but particular oils that get well regarded.

For conventional oils Pennzoil seems to be in the best regard, with Mobil Clean 5000 as a good value oil. For everyday type use and 3,000 to 5,000 mile oil changes a lot of people even swear by Wal-Mart SuperTech.

Lots of people like Valvoline MaxLife products.

Pennzoil Platinum gets a lot of good word here because as far as most of us are concerned it is the best value for money in oil. Good wear, seems to be fairly long lasting, and relatively cheap.

German Castrol (the 0W-30 European Formula) and Belgian Castrol (5W-40 European Formula) are well regarded as solid performing oils, moreso the German than the Belgian.

There is not really a bad word to be said about Amsoil products, but very few are manufacturer approved or standard tested, and their Amway-ish sales model bothers some people. It all depends on application and knowing what you are using it in and why.

People like to pick on Mobil 1 here but it is a good oil. The 0W-40 is popular for many European vehicles.

Mobil 1, Pennzoil Platinum, Amsoil, German Castrol and Redline oil are all great choices but you have to pick and choose for your application and uses.

RLi BioSyn 5W-40 is a unique oil derived from plant esters that has shown really good performance in certain applications that destroy other oils.

Motorcraft 5W-20 synthetic blend is as far as 5W-20s go, and for the cost, a steal of a deal. When it comes to 5W-20 oils in normal applications, all are compared against it.

Schaeffer oils are made in St. Louis and very good products, more commonly referred to by the diesel guys than the gasoline side though. On that side Mobil Delvac, Chevron Delo, Shell Rotella and Schaeffer's products are all held in high regard.


Thanks for all the great info, this has helped me very much. I will definatly look into these motor oils you have mentioned.
I use a Motorcraft oil filter and it seems to be the best. The actual Oil filter I would think whould have just as much of an effect on the oil quality after 3K as the oil itself, or is this incorrect? Can I have the filter tested as well as the oil? What oil filter companies are the best. I have heard nothing buy negative about Fram and things good about others.

Thanks for the recommendation Az, i'll look into the RL oil, what does UOA stand for? Sorry but I don't know any of these acronyms. Is there a thread with all of the acronym definitions?

Another thing that could effect my choice in oil Weight is the fact that the clearances on the 03/04 Cobra motors are TIGHT. The cylinder walls are very thin, would this come into play on what weight oil to go with?

Josh

 

[MGregoir]

Wix/NAPA Gold (same thing, the NAPA is rebranded Wix) are really good filters. The Motorcraft filter is made by Purolator and is very good as well. Purolator PureONEs are good filters but the new ones in the gold colored, grip coated can have issues with the coating coming off.

UOA is used oil analysis. If your motor is really tightly built I would be more inclined to go no thicker than a heavy 30. Looking at the specs for the Red Line 5W-30 I would be inclined to give it a try. Very high HT/HS viscosity rating, higher than that of some 40 weights, and it is an ester based oil which is supposed to cling to parts better and offer a better film strength.

http://www.redlineoil.com/pdf/4.pdf

I would try the Syntec 0W-30 or the Red Line 5W-30.

 

[About2bite]

Thanks for the link, i'll look into it and see what I can find. What is HT/HS?

I'm not to keen to these abberviations, what is cST, CSS, HTHS, ASTM? Are these important factors in the motor oil.

Thanks

Josh

 

[mitote]

I like this forum because it contains copious amounts of pure logic and pure obsession....


I've had my '03 Cobra for 6 years and am very familiar with their strengths and weaknesses, at all boost levels.

The factory oil-to-water oil cooler usually keeps temps within 10*F of coolant but this can be a problem with stock cooling system, as it is marginal and oil temps can pretty easily go above 210*F during "spirited' street driving. Being a high heat application, synthetics are well-suited but extended drain intervals are not, partly due to contamination from blowby (stock PCV system gets overwhelmed under boost).

I only drive it 7 months out of the year (
The Motorcraft FL820-S is an excellent filter and is all that I have used on this engine.

As you probably know, running anything over 17#'s really increases the odds of your shortblock going boom, but if it happens I highly doubt it will be the oil's fault. The "thin cylinders walls" you refer to are, in actuality, tight piston-to-cylinder bore clearances (-0.010/+0.026 mm). We do have high combustion chamber temps but proper tuning and cooling mods will alleviate most problems. I recommend having a coolant return path added to your drivers' side cylinder head to eliminate hot spots in #7 & 8. (go back to the Cobra forums and SEARCH & READ, as all this stuff is well-documented).

Newer 3-valve Ford modular engines with variable valve timing (VVT) are reported to be design-engineered to work optimally with 20 weight, but Ford spec'd our 4V for CAFE reasons only and not because of tight tolerances...

Main & rod bearing clearances are actually larger than my GM LS1 which calls for 5W-30/10W-30 and block, valvetrain, etc were unchanged from earlier years that spec'd 5W-30, so I have no qualms about going above *this* factory recommendation.

I do, however, have the following personal rationale for not going too far up in viscosity:

1. These engines are already known to hold a lot of oil in the cylinder head while running, especially at higher RPM, so why slow drainback further with a thicker oil?

2. Thinner oil provides more splash lubrication of cylinder walls, which is essential to help keep our tight pistons from expanding in their bore and scuffing/melting-down


Originally Posted By: About2bite
Thanks for the link, i'll look into it and see what I can find. What is HT/HS?

I'm not to keen to these abberviations, what is cST, CSS, HTHS, ASTM? Are these important factors in the motor oil



Google may turn out to be Satan incarnate, but at this point in time it's still our friend, so when someone gives you good keywords that should be all that is needed to begin your self-education with.

 

[About2bite]

Mitote Thanks for the info. I have the LDC head cooling mod and a Ron Davis Heat Exchanger as well as all the other necessary upgrades. Sounds like you have a nice 03 there, I don't take mine to the track and just want to use the best option for my application, your reasoning behind using a thinner oil makes perfect sence. Seems like a good 10W30 would be my best choice. I guess my first step is having my oil checked and going from there.

Thanks for the reply

Josh

 

[MGregoir]

5W-30 Red Line Oil doesn't seem to shear down out of grade from the UOAs I looked at, I would be very tempted to try that. This seems to be an application tailor made for it. A little bit better cold flow, oil that's designed to see [censored] and back for high temperature performance, but is thin enough to have good flow.

Another interesting one would be Amsoil ACD, a straight 30 in the sense that it has no viscosity index improvers added, but passes the tests to be a 10W-30 for a cold flow. It is another very tough oil.