Hi fellas,
Been a while since i've been on this thread. Anyhow, well i have a curious question was flipping through my ford manual just reading, and came across a confusing page. Well maybe not too confusing but possibly yall can help me out. Well, everybody nows the oil gauge on our trucks and the manual explains in which a normal gauge should be at right in the middle. Well i am really good on changing my oil every 3,000 miles instead of the every 5,000 miles my manual explains. Well getting to the point in the manual it states that a normal oil gauge should read with the needle right in the middle?? Well mine reads a lil above the middle. About above the middle hash mark and the next hash mark!! Now can anyone tell me if this is normal! I mean heck my truck runs fine never see any lights go on with check engine or the oil light come on?? Any advice can help..
Thank yall
ed.

 

Anywhere in that range is safe. I wouldn't worry about it.

What engine and what type of oil are you using in it?

 

Its not really a gauge, its an idiot light with a needle. As long as its not at the low side, its fine.

 

My 05 with the 5.4 always indicates just over the middle mark as well. The 2 2006's with the 4.6 I drive at work both sit at the exact same location as my 05 with the 5.4. Yours is normal.

 

Yep, that gauge is either "on" (normal) or "off" (low). If you've ever driven a vehicle with a true oil pressure gauge, it is all over the scale depending on engine RPM's and to some extent oil temperature/viscosity. The ford just sets happily in one place as long as there is some oil pressure.

 

i have a ?

i hav a 01 5.4 with 147,000miles and do yall think it would hurt to run straight 30 oil in it?

 

Would it hurt? YES!!!!

Our trucks are designed to use multiweight oils, so the oil is freer flowing in low temperatures, but will not thin out too much at higher temperatures. Sticking in regular SAE 30 weight oil could seriously damage your engine over time!

here's a good excerpt from www.howstuffworks.com

Multi-weight oils (such as 10W-30) are a new invention made possible by adding polymers to oil. The polymers allow the oil to have different weights at different temperatures. The first number indicates the viscosity of the oil at a cold temperature, while the second number indicates the viscosity at operating temperature. This page from the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ offers the following very interesting description of how the polymers work:

At cold temperatures, the polymers are coiled up and allow the oil to flow as their low numbers indicate. As the oil warms up, the polymers begin to unwind into long chains that prevent the oil from thinning as much as it normally would. The result is that at 100 degrees C, the oil has thinned only as much as the higher viscosity number indicates. Another way of looking at multi-vis oils is to think of a 20W-50 as a 20 weight oil that will not thin more than a 50 weight would when hot.
Here are some interesting links:

 

ya thats exactly what i was thinkin lol!!!!
i geuss i just have a dumb friend but then again hes only owned trucks from 86 and older so he wouldnt know anybetter!!

 

Were you pokin' fun at that guy now? I mean he seemed like a nice fellow!

Git 'er done!

 

thanks for the info fellas bye the way its a 4.2 l stx v6!!