I hope you’ll find this interesting! Sorry for such a long, drawn out story.
I have a 2001 5.4L F150 that has the infamous head gasket weep. I’ve used synthetic it’s whole life. Mostly M1, Amsoil XL or signature series, always 0 or 5W-20.
The weep has always been there. From the start, it was just a quarter size wet spot at the visible high-pressure port. Recently, the weep became much worse. I was using M1 steadily for thousands of miles prior and then wham-o, the weep got worse. This was a year or so ago at around 60,000 miles. It became stinky outside the cab after highway runs and on hotter days around town.
We just spent a big chunk of $ fixing our Subaru’s head gasket (another story) and I was not interested in spending more $$$ on our automobiles. So I thought, I’ll again give Amsoil signature series a try. After all, why not? The engine seemed to like it in the past and the only reason I wasn’t using it was cost, convenience and concern over CAT's.
Well, I SWEAR, THE WEEP HAS NEARLY DISSAPEARED!!! It does not smell like burning oil anymore and the no more oil at the lower head/block seam. There’s still a little dampness at the high-pressure port (top of head) like before.
So now, I’m thinking, SUPER problem solved! My only concern is the non-starburst/CAT issue with signature series. I did like the piece of mind with M1 not having to fret about my CAT’s.
So help me speculate as to what happened? Initially I thought it was PAO but PAO does not cause seal swell, right? Maybe Amsoil OE or XL will have similar results?
Thanks!
I have a 2001 5.4L F150 that has the infamous head gasket weep. I’ve used synthetic it’s whole life. Mostly M1, Amsoil XL or signature series, always 0 or 5W-20.
The weep has always been there. From the start, it was just a quarter size wet spot at the visible high-pressure port. Recently, the weep became much worse. I was using M1 steadily for thousands of miles prior and then wham-o, the weep got worse. This was a year or so ago at around 60,000 miles. It became stinky outside the cab after highway runs and on hotter days around town.
We just spent a big chunk of $ fixing our Subaru’s head gasket (another story) and I was not interested in spending more $$$ on our automobiles. So I thought, I’ll again give Amsoil signature series a try. After all, why not? The engine seemed to like it in the past and the only reason I wasn’t using it was cost, convenience and concern over CAT's.
Well, I SWEAR, THE WEEP HAS NEARLY DISSAPEARED!!! It does not smell like burning oil anymore and the no more oil at the lower head/block seam. There’s still a little dampness at the high-pressure port (top of head) like before.
So now, I’m thinking, SUPER problem solved! My only concern is the non-starburst/CAT issue with signature series. I did like the piece of mind with M1 not having to fret about my CAT’s.
So help me speculate as to what happened? Initially I thought it was PAO but PAO does not cause seal swell, right? Maybe Amsoil OE or XL will have similar results?
Thanks!
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