Morning,

I live in very close to Washington DC and for those that do not know we don't have many auto parts stores, wal-marts, etc. I have been doing some searching and reading and it seems that many people in this forum tend to buy their oil at such places. There is a Autozone near me but they do not carry any larger containers of diesel oil. My truck is a 2001 F250 Crew obviously with the PSD and it is completely stock.
So as the race season approaches and I am only a few weeks away from the start of many towing miles, I figured it was time to try and get everything in order.
First, I am thinking of making the switch to synthetic for the summer for two reasons, don't want to change the oil as often and hoping that it will help with efficiency, ie mileage. I don't want to start a war over oil, but is there a general concensus on this issue and what type of synthetic to use? Secondly, any recommendations for cheap places to purchase the oil, hopefully in larger than quart containers, single or multi-gallon would be prefered.

Thank you all for your help.

Jon

 

You'd be hard pressed to find any gains in mpg from just a synthetic oil.

I buy my oil at Sam's Club, $36 gets me a 6 gallon case of Chevron Delo 400 which can with stand 5000 mile with out breaking a sweat.

 

Ditto: I use the Chevron Delo, and change oil/filter every 5K. It's good oil for the price.

 

I agree on the Delo, its half the cost of Rotella Synthetic at my local Wally world, $6.36 a gallon versus the $13.80 for the synthetic, and I like the idea of having nice fresh oil every 5,000 miles. To me unless you go 10k or more between oil changes then the syn is really not worth it. Although I have heard that the synthetic doesnt coke up on the turbo bearings as bad as the dino does. But thats just another reason to keep up regular oil changes.
It depends on how long you want to go between changes, if you want to go 10k or more on one change then go synthetic, Mobil1, Rotella Synthetic, or Royal Purple. But if you think 5k is were you want to change it then just go with a good dino, like the Delo or Rotella. Thats just my .02

 

I would like to be able to go 10k, no more, as long as I am not being a complete fool for doing so.

 

One type of synthetic oil that not many people know about is AMSoil. They were the “First to develop and API-rated 100 percent synthetic motor oil.” You can even buy the oil online directly from the company. The only thing with AMSoil is that they would prefer if you used their oil filters (as part of the warranty coverage). If you are interested in more info, just to their company website: www.amsoil.com

 

I've run walmart supertech 15-w40, delo 400 15-w40, delvac 1300 15-w40, mystic 10-w30, and rotella syn 5-w40 in my pickup at various times and after 4500 miles on the rotella I think I can definitely claim about 0.6mpg better than the best of the other oils in the winter. Oil can absolutely make a difference in fuel economy.

 

So look in the phone book for oil jobbers or distributors. I buy mine straight from the local distributor in gallon cases and save a few bucks at the same time.

 

Sorry, I have heard that song and dance way too many times.

It's been debunked so many times on BITOG, that I dare you to search it out.

Just filling up at a different pump handle can create the illusion of better mpg.

 

Sorry, but quite a good number of thier oils are not API certified, and they are definately not the first with a 100% API Synthetic. Mobil was.

Amsoil is often quite expensive, has boat loads of ZDDP (great for motor, bad for catalytic converter on gassers), and is generally not a good idea to use in your warrantied Ford Motor (read API certification) depending on your motor.

You should see the amount of garbage that is constantly spewed and cleaned up by Amsoil retailers on FTE's Oil and Lubrication fourm.

Truth of the matter is that there are much better oils on the shelf of your local part house or Walmart.

FWIW, these type of threads really should be in the Oil and Lubrication Forum.

 

I don't know what kind of engine you are running, but mine doesn't quite make it 4500 miles on one fillup. In interest of full disclosure, I can think of at least 6 different handles that I've filled at since I dumped the synthetic in.
I am reimbused for my mileage at $0.36 per mile, so I keep pretty close tabs on these things.
I'm happy to find out it is not the oil though, it must just be some strange coinsidence that occurred when I started running the rotella. Might be that my engine is finally broke in, it had just passed 107,000 miles before the last oil change. Now that I know that oil really doesn't make any difference, it's back to Supertech oil for me.

 

jonmac, Do a search of walmarts in the D.C. area. I located 10 stores in N. Virginia and Maryland area. they carry Rotella Synthetic 5w40. Carroll

 

thanks, I will give that a try.

 

Might check out large repair shops, and get a clean 5-gallon bucket. If you can buy it from bulk (like a buddy) it will save your several bucks. I am running John Deer 15w-40 and from the stealership it is over 8.50 a gal. in gallon jugs, but I have a friend that gets it in bulk and is around the 4.50 a gallon range. I just go and he pumps my bucket full, works great, and is cheap.

 

I still would follow the manufactures oil change reccommendations on interval of oil change. This is the only way to discard the impurities and chemicals that form in the engine just because it is a diesel engine.