what type of oil should i use for my 300 and how much does it hold? i had 5w-30 but should i use something differnet?

 

5w30 is too light, unless you are in Alaska. PA is long way from there, right!

I would suggest 15-40 in Summer, change it out after weather is unlikely to be colder than 30. In the Winter months, I'd run 10w-30.

Assuming you have catalytic, then you should stick with good modern oil and change it frequently, like every 3k. If changed frequently, just about all of the "rated" oils will do except Penzoil, which is full of wax and causes buildup. Personally, the best deal out there is Supertech from Wally World. But I don't like doing business there too much.

If you are not running a cat, then get diesel engine oil, like Rotella for diesels. The diesel engine oil has more pretectant additives (that would clog the cats) and more detergent to cut sludge out. Diesel engine oil is better -- newer formula gasoline engine oils have actually removed some of the antiwear additives (nickel for instance) to make the cats last longer to comply with federal rules that require the manufacturer to warranty the cats to like 100k, instead of 70k. So they made the oil "better". Better for the cats, but not as good for the rest of you engine. In this case, newer rating is NOT BETTER.

Finally, 5 quarts fills her up, WITH filter. Do change the filter each time, and DON'T use a FRAM filter. They are cheap junk inside and will occ. just disentigrate. Do they fall apart often? No. But is it worth the couple of dollars you saved? I doubt it.

 

i was goin to use that Quaker State 4x4 and Offroadin engine oil and i got a Fram Tough Gaurd oil filter... If I shouldn't use Fram want should i use?? and Is usin diesel oil in a gas engine good? never heard of doin that..

 

Does anybody use synthetic?


I usually run 10W-40 in the summer time, and 10W-30 in the winter. I was thinking of switching to synthetic cause it lasts longer, tends to not lose it's viscosity in cold / hot weather, lasts longer, and it lasts longer.

Anybody done it in a 300?

 

I like the Motorcraft Oil filter. I think it is Motorcraft FL-1A or or something like that. It seems to be a good quality filter.

 

First off, Penzoil will not wax up your engine, they used to way back when, but not today. Second, Fram filters are just as good as any other filter, in the 50+ years of my dad driving and the 9+ of me driving/racing, I have never had a FRAM crumble EVER. According to my owners manual 5w-30 is reccomended, however I use 10w-30. As stated change the filter when you change the oil and do it around 3k, i would reccommend getting a UOA done to see if you can go longer or not.

 

the problem with the fram filter isn't that it crumbles, the motorcraft filter has a check valve in it that helps the 300 get oil pressure faster at startup since it doesn't have an integral one in the pump.

 

Howdy all,

I will have to second that. The old "wives tail" on oils came from way back...when oils were Non-detergent. The oils of today are basically the same.

go here: http://www.quakerstate.com/pages/carcare/whattoknow.asp for more info on modern oils



Oil additives are made by relatively few companies (Lubrizol, Shell, Castrol and some other over seas companies). Most of the name brand oils are using the additive package from one or more of these companies.

The base stocks are traded around like gasoline is traded. Oil may come from anywhere and have the Lubrizol additive package in it....

Some years ago Consumer Reports did an excellent test on oils and use a cab company in NY or somewhere and a lab for the oil analysis and I believe a trade school to do teardowns on the engines tested.

They found that about 6,000 miles was the upper limit for an average car. You could go further with CABs since they were driven daily...and the heat/cool cycles were minimal.

They also found that the oils used were pretty much the same although they found on testing the new oils that were NOT mane brand (like Chevron, Shell, Texaco etc), Some of the off brand oils were mis-marked......I.E 10w-30 was not 10w-30 but something else.

They also recommended NOT using 10w-40 in ANYTHING. I don't remember specifically why except something about too much viscosity improver was required to make the big spread in cold/hot rating and the oil did not stay in grade during the test period.

They also said that Synthetic didn't seem to be an advantage unless the ambient temp required it since it was going to get changed frequently.


Filters....There's not very many filter manufacturers. Motorcraft is a not made by FORD. They're made by someone else....and that has changed many times in the last 30 years....It might have been Fram at one time and might be now or in the future.
Fram is owned by Honeywell right now.

I use Baldwin for all my filter needs. I get them in bulk from a local supplier. Baldwin makes filters for every thing out there including OEM's (Motorcraft might be using Baldwin also).

There's very few rules when it comes to oil and filters. Use the grade the OEM recomends. Change it (oil and filter) either 4 times a year or 3-4000 miles and DO NOT use additives.

Lubrizol has very a VERY informative site if you want to do a little reading.
http://www.lubrizol.com/index.asp

Click on Lubricant additives and Knowledge Center



Cheers,

Rick

 

My dad sold a 300 off the farm with a little over 450k no rebuild, only using fram filters, no problems with ticking or anything.

 

ok since we have all this infomation now. Still didn't get a clear answer on what weight oil i should use??? 15w-40? 10w-40? What is the OEM for the engine???

 

Oops. I said I use 10W40 in the summer time. I was sucking exhaust when I said that! I think I was distracted by the other post that said 10W40. I use 20W50 in the summer time. As hot as it gets down here in Alabama, 10W30 turns into water in August!

I think my copy of the original shop manual says 5W30 for the '77 300. I'll double check it when I get home.

 

my owner's manual for the 84 says 6 quarts for a full change...why is this?


also, I'm running rotella, and I have a question...


when it's cold, the oil pressure is about 50 PSI no matter what gear I'm in or what I'm doing, but once it warms up, the oil pressure gets down to 15 psi at idle in gear. I don't know how to raise that number, without raising the cold pressure as well, and I'm afraid that if I go much higher than that, I'll blow out the tired seals and rings...should I just ignore it and run it till it falls over?


as for quaker state, my oldsmobile had quaker state in it its entire life. I swapped to rotella, and all the crap fell off the valve covers and into the rockers. a new set of rockers later, it's squeaky clean. I had to take a chisel to get that garbage out of the lifter valley and valve covers. I don't care how good QS is now, I'm not oging to use it ever. And I've seen Fram filters implode on race cars enough not to use it. I'm never using that stuff again either.

 

I'm running Rotella 15W40 and cold my pressure is 45-50 warm idle at 550 RPM is around 12-15. The engine has 108,000 on it.

 

I've never run anything but Trop Artic 10w40 in my truck. It holds 6 quarts, not 5. I finally figured that out after thinking my truck burnt a quart every oil change for 2 years. Doh!

 

Would it hurt the engine if you ran straight 30 year round? Here in texas,the summertimes are killer and the winters are mild. Now Im using 10W-30 havoline. Oil pressure according to the guage is jumpy sometimes.