I'm assuming your talking about back in the 70's and 80's when there was all the talk of wax/sludge in your engine from pennzoil.

Does anyone actually know the story behind this? Pennzoil used Pennsylvanian crude oil which was more "waxy" causing this.

Flash forward to early 2000's

Pennzoil/Quaker state were bought by SOPUS (Shell).

With all the standards and SN oil, theyre all pretty much the same (any oil brand) quality wise and have to meet sludge and deposit specs. Castrol would be last on my list due to their poor cold weather specs for cranking and pumpability.

Pennzoil is actually one of the best lines of motor oil out there. I dont think Ferrari would recommend a bad oil for their engines (pennzoil ultra). Go to BITOG.com you'll learn a lot.

 

I have found that Pennz Ultra/Platinum are good to run every few oil changes even if you don't like them for their detergent package. Really cleans out the gunk.

 

Have used syn. and regular oil in newer and older gassers and diesels and could not document a honest difference other than price. My feeling is if you still are under factory engine warranty use exactly what ford says and at intervals they say cause if you have a engine problem you may very well be on your own if you did not !

 

Hello ALL this is my very first post in the F150 forum and I just read thru all five pages of this thread. I have had E150's since 1991 (raised six kids)and now got a 2013 F150 Eco 3.5 for ME!

Dealer did first change at 5K and used MC Syn Blend 5W30 ....Now I am trying to do the right thing myself. My manual says the motor itself will determine oil change interval No matter if Full Syn or Blend is used as recommended between 7500-10000 for normal conditions.

FWIW I have let our 02 Pontiac Grand Prix GT tell me the oil change time and it trips right at 5 to 6K with dino oil.

I just love this truck ... the ride, handling, economy is solid .... and best of All made in MI 90 miles away

Take care and please educate me. Thank You.

HH

 

WOW! Talk about thread mining. But, it's a good thread and it never hurts to revisit good threads.

I think the important thing here to remember is that the use of motorcraft filters is crucial to keep Ford satisfied.

If an oil has the appropriate SAE ratings on the bottle and is of the correct weight then it's approved for use.

If I were to adjust my dump cycles to the limits of the OLM then I would change my filter at 5K and dump the oil at 10K using full synthetic. I did this for a coupld decades on three different Fords with no issues.

 

how does one know if an oil is better than an other?

 

Better for what?

Or do you mean better brand?

 

Easy, the ones with the most expensive advertising are better. Or the one your favorite race team uses.

Alternatively there are pyramid scheme oils whose disciples have much more enthusiasm than newly converted Jehovah's witnesses. Same with oils with purple food coloring in them that sell for twice the price of other oils.

Seriously, there are oil sites like bobistheoilguy.com and you can read and study to your heart's content, look at UOA (used oil analysis) and NOA results, etc. And in the end, any oil of the proper weight and rating (aka SN) will probably be fine. For Fords, it's hard to beat Motorcraft oil (made by Conoco) based on any word of mouth or oil analysis history.

George

 

I was waiting for someone to point out who bottles the Motorcraft brand and it is Conoco-Phillips. The base product for quite a few oil products comes from S-Oil in South Korea, which provides the base product for several brands of oil.

If you stick with the proper weight and SAE oil recommended by Ford, then you should get good service.

I agreee with a previous poster that turbochargers need clean oil. The lubrication of the shaft between the exhaust and intake gets really hot as do your valves and is critical .

 

I thought Kendall made Motorcraft?

 

Conoco Phillips, per their website today, sells oil under the Conoco, Phillips 66, 76 Lubricants, and Kendall brands. (They don't mention that they make Motorcraft or other OEM brands.)

Phillips 66 Lubricants

So there is definitely a relationship between Kendall and Motorcraft. I am not certain what the formula differences are among the brands although I expect there to be some differences besides the name and color of the bottles

Someone on the BITOG page said they looked at new oil analysis information a few years back and concluded that Motorcraft syn blend oils were the same as the Conoco brand syn blend oils in terms of additives and properties.

Take care,
George

 

I was just kidding with you guys. I didn't know how many of you knew that Conoco- Phillips owned Kendall

 

Unless you put a lot of miles on your truck and or do a fair amount of hauling heavy loads you will not likely benefit from using full synthetic oil. A full synthetic oil will run a little cooler but for normal driving and changing the oil at the factory recommended interval you will be just fine with using the standard Motorcraft Synthetic Blend oil.

 

my 1st Ford truck was a 1989 Ford Ranger 4cyl 5 speed, bought it new, used Mobil 1 5w-30 changed every 15,000 miles, it had 257,000 miles on it when I sold it, and the engine still ran like new

 

While Kendall and Motorcraft are both Phillips 66 products, they are not the same. Kendall and one other (Conoco?) use Titanium as an additive. Motorcraft does not, or did not as of 2011.


If you want to look at used oil analysis over nearly 80,000 miles, go to 2011 F150-5.0 V-8 Kendall GT-1 5W-20-9770 mi. | Used Oil Analysis - Gasoline | Bob Is The Oil Guy
This is semi synthetic oil.


I changed it again yesterday. The truck now has 87,655 mi on it. The oil had 9800 miles on it. I sent in the sample yesterday. As soon as it comes back I will post it at BITOG.


Based on my experience in my truck I see no benefit to a full synthetic. If you are really concerned, start taking samples of your oil at each drain. Ford designed the 5.0 around semi synthetic 5W-20 oil. It works.