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Best Oil for SOCH 4.0V6?

I have ordered a new 2011 Ranger with the 4.0V6. I want to run the best oil for keeping the timing chain tennsioners from going bad as many of these engines have problems with.
I think the Motorcraft oil is very good but hard to find where I live in the 5W30 grade that the 4.0 specs. I also plan to run full synthetic and would like to stick with a oil that id ready available and not $10 a quart.
Thanks

Pennzoil Platinum fits your criteria, however IMO any major brand oil will do the job.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkf (Post 10744984)

Pennzoil Platinum fits your criteria, however IMO any major brand oil will do the job.

have you seen lab reports on this oil in this engine? i did some reading at bob oil guy and only found one person with that engine back to 2009. he ran M1 and complained about high iron. I know this engine has a history of timing chain tensioneer failures and I want to avoid that as I plan to run upwards of 300k miles on this truck.
Thanks Dan

You may hay to try different oils and do UOA's to find one that works for you!

Quote:

Originally Posted by 99F150 (Post 10745424)

Havn't seen a UOA with PP in a 4.0l SOHC. Have been putting mostly PP 5w-30 in a 4.0l SOHC for 110k miles now. Have been using it in several modulars also. In my experience the auto trans behind the engine will fail before anything in the engine does.(on the 4.0l vehicles) Honestly I don't think you could go wrong using Motorcraft 5w-30 oil either. You probably want to get a UOA on your vehicle under your driving conditions at one point.

As for M1 UOAs, higher iron levels are common with that oil even though many do not exactly know why.

Here are couple threads I found over at Bobs.
http://205.243.146.146/forums/ubbthr...&Number=152489
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums...&Number=907061

fyi...

To many people rely on the uoa as gospel and never take into consideration other factors that affect results.

Quote:

The Factors That Affect Results

Oil analysis results are shown in Parts Per Million (PPM) for each element, or how many particles of the specific element metal are found per each million parts of oil. This absolute value is obviously affected by the amount of specific metal generated by engine wear per hour, and the number of hours the engine has been run for this oil sample. Newly built or overhauled engines are expected to have a high amount of wear initially, and this will normally decrease over time after break-in. Of course a six cylinder engine has more moving parts than a four cylinder engine, and thus can be expected to generate more wear metal per hour of operation. Engine size is also a factor for the same reason. Other factors include how many hours has it been since the engine oil was changed, and how much residual wear metal remained suspended within the engine when the old oil was removed.

One can easily understand this last interaction by visualizing the simplified model of a leaky milk jug suspended over a glass of water. The milk jug represents the engine creating wear metal (milk) droplets at a generally constant rate per hour. The glass of water represents the engine oil which gets contaminated over time by the milk droplets and turns cloudy. It is quickly obvious that the amount of dripping time and the amount of time passed since last dumping the glass and refilling with fresh water will determine the cloudiness at any instant. The amount of cloudiness at any instant can be measured in PPM of milk. When you dump the glass of water, you will remove most of the milk, but a residue will always remain, depending on the smoothness of the glass. This residue will determine a starting point PPM. If the glass also held some marbles, thereby increasing the interior surface area, then even more milk residue would remain. Once you consider the numerous oil passages, bearing surfaces, and crannies in your engine, you will quickly realize that a substantial amount of wear metals will remain after the old oil is drained. This affects future PPM measurement, however the effect diminishes with time. But just how much and when?

The bottom line is that for proper evaluation of oil sample analysis results, one can not simply look at the measured PPM value and make any valid judgment at all. The engine model, cylinder type, time since overhaul (or new), and oil hours must be factored in. Nor can "average" values be used as purported by other oil analysis companies. Your specific factors must be used and compared to a sufficiently large sample size, historical population of same engine model, same cylinder type, similar time since overhaul, and similar oil hours. These selected historical samples will uniquely determine the data points for each engine oil sample that will properly determine if your engine oil sample analysis values are abnormal or any cause for concern.

Does Ford put a special break in oil? The oil in the fill cap and on the dip stick has a yellow color to it.

No, no oem use a break in oil. It may appear yellow from a dye that the may use to identify the oil but I never heard of them doing that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 99F150 (Post 10781316)

Does Ford put a special break in oil? The oil in the fill cap and on the dip stick has a yellow color to it.

Not according to the fellow that worked in the ohio engine plant that was on here some time ago. He said they used the synthetic blend oil. The 4.0l SOHC doesn't have a flat tappet cam or anything that would require special oil or care during break-in.

Thanks for the replys. The oil has a bright yellow color to it, shows up on stick and the fill cover. I am also curious about the spec. My ownersmanual is the second printing July 2011 and it shows the old spec WSS-M2C929-A instead of the current 946.
Also the book recomends 5000 mile changes for severe and 7500 for normal.

If it is just the Motorcraft blend 5W30 with a yellow dye I will probley change at 2500 miles. If it is a special oil I will leave in for 5000 miles.

Coming up on 2k miles, going to drain and refill with Motorcraft syn blend 5w30 for this first change. Will run that 3000 miles then go with 5000 mile changes, although still undecided on what oil to use for long haul.

Also curious as to why they switched from the FL1A filter to the 820S?

The Ford oil spec# change is from API SM/GF-4, to SN/GF-5. The 4.0L engines are to still use 5W-30. Oil filter change was for space/clearance reasons as I understand it.

Quote:

Also curious as to why they switched from the FL1A filter to the 820S?

Probably to reduce dealer inventory. I highly doubt the switch was for any clearence issues. The Ranger has basically been unchanged for over a decade. The 820s will work fine, it may be smaller but has a higher pleat count than the FL1A. I've verified this by cutting apart both filters. If your concerned about the smaller filter don't be. If the 820S is fine for my 415ci V10 it is more than fine for your 4.0l.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkf (Post 10904710)

Thanks. It is not for clearence issues as the filter is still verticle with lots of room between it and pavement. My concern is not so much with filter ability but oil capacity, I would like to get as much oil in as possible and the 820 is half a quart and 1a is full quart.

From what I've heard, the timing chain tensioner issues were addressed in this engine around 2003 or so. You will not have the same issues as the first few years, especially if you keep up your oil change schedule.