WHAT OIL WEIGHT????

[DIXONBOY]

Well I put the 10w40 in it and the lifter noise is gone. Thanks guys!!

[72Highboy]

Can we run 20w50 in our Fe's?

[dbarker]

im sure you can, but why? thats a pretty heavy oil...

I'm gonna go pick up some 10-40 Rotella. Should do my old girl some good. Ive got a little lifter noise developing. Im guessing the 13 year old oil just isnt doing its job anymore....

[cdeal28078]

im sure you can, but why? thats a pretty heavy oil...

I'm gonna go pick up some 10-40 Rotella. Should do my old girl some good. Ive got a little lifter noise developing. Im guessing the 13 year old oil just isnt doing its job anymore....

I can't find 10-40 Rotella in my local stores. I am running 15-40 in my 460 and it seems to do fine though lately I have gotten about a second of lifter rattle when I crank her after sitting a couple of days. I need to change the oil so I'll look a little harder fro the 10-40 before I do
clint

[dbarker]

I'm going 15w40 Rotella... i don't know why i said 10-40. Got it at Walmart.

[Alvin in AZ]

...but why?

"50 weight oil is exempt from the reduced zinc and phosphorous
content, so, it's still got the right amount for non-rollers. :)" -Butthead in AZ

Like pay attention or something? ;) LOL :)

The 50 weight stuff is supposed to be bad for catalytic converters because of the "high" zinc content.

Alvin in AZ

[Dragon]

PS about 50 weight. I was driving across Oklahoma in a blizzard many years ago in a 67 Pontyknock GTO with 2V 4000 that pulled 410 hp. Well it was about 10 degrees that night and somewhere in Oklahoma I saw the lights at an exit finally because my engine was noisy as all get out. I pulled in the Service station and the night guy pulled me into a bay to check the dipstick. We could not pull it out of the tube. The engine was hot but the oil pan was ice cold. We pulled the drain plug and I about died. The engine was noisy and had been for about 20 miles because the oil was thicker than Molasses, STP and Lucas all combined. We had to heat the oil pan with an Oxy-acetylene torch for almost an hour to get the oil out of the pan. We then filled it with 10-40 and I continued on my way. A month later racing across the parking lot at a Navy school I heard a bang and a month later than that I took the car back to Denver because the motor was under warranty.

The crank broke at a diagonal across #3 main journal. Every bearing in the engine was messed up from that 50 weight being to cold and thick to pump. That is the last time I used 50 Weight on the street.

[Alvin in AZ]

I got a car story for you that my father-in-law told me. :)

There was this old lady in Tucson back in '55 and seemed like every time she drove up or down
Grant Road something fell off her car! :( "Grant Road is jinxed!" she swore it was true and my
father-in-law couldn't convincer her otherwise. You see? Grant Road was dirt back then and a
straight-through high-speed dirt road at that. So what was the cause and what was the effect?

It sure as heck wasn't the STP or Lucas, it -had- the be 50 weight oil she was using, throwing
parts off her car, when she drove on Grant Road lickity-split. See? :)

How you like "car" my story? ;)

I've got a 360FE with 235,000 miles that's ran 50wt about half the time.
If the oil don't match your weather, then don't use. LOL :)

Alvin in AZ

[Dragon]

i put my 50 weight in, in 40 degree weather that was my point it is too thick for most engines to need. I have 228,921 on the odometer and 50 does no more for me than it does for the pontyknock to this day. 15-40 Rotella works as good and flows better at lower temps.

[GreyStep]

PS about 50 weight. I was driving across Oklahoma in a blizzard ...it was about 10 degrees that night...was thicker than Molasses, STP and Lucas all combined"nued on my way.

Straight 50 weight oil is not an issue if you are using it within it's proper temp range. As you noted it was a blizzard and low temp. Not to mention wind chill at speed. And I am sure the addition of Lucas didn't help. That stuff is thick as molasses at room temp. That is one of it's benefits as it collects debris in your engine it keeps it in suspension in at bottom of the oil pan. I run lucas in my race car and when I see build up on the drain plug we drop the pan and scrape the excess off.

I think you have to be mindful of if you have a old stocker or a new build engine. The original FE was built for straight 30 to 50 weight oils of the day. So you have to consider the clearences used and how internal oiling is done. Not to mention that older gasket material
is far to pourous for some of the moderen highly synthetic oils.

Since I have used my truck as a daily driver (170 miles round trip) for summer months and I take highway trips (up to 700miles one way) I only use Lucas before long trips and when the engine is fully warmed and I won't add more then a half quart at a time. I never use it in the winter. (you ever tried to pore that stuff when it's cold out side)

all this said ... to answer your question

Winter - 10/40
Summer 15/50 or 20/50
with a best filter I can find.

Jun- Grey Step

[Dragon]

I wasn't using lucas It was thicker than Molasses, STP and Lucas combined. Wind chill only effects things that have water on them.

[FreakysFords]

15-40 Agco (Massey) tractor oil

Super high zinc for solid flat tappet Perkins lifters, but mainly cause it's CHEAP from work.

Most everything else get's Rotella.

I run M1 synthetic EXCLUSIVELY in the Volvos. Oddly enough I solved oil leaks with it as did most others running my engine on "another" forum. The speculation is that it cleans (thin and pushes out) the crusty deposits on lip seals that force the seal away from it's mating surface. blah blah blah. On first run, they always leaked worse, but by the second oil change, leaks gone.

Frank

[Dragon]

Maybe i will try it again then. The mobile ! I mean.

[1982 flareside]

WHAT OIL WEIGHT YOU CHOOSE DON'T USE VALVEOLINE I took a 351 windsor that owner bought it when it was new and always used valveoline and took of the valve cover and there was a lot of gunk and oil pan was awful to.

[Dragon]

In the old days we used Pennzoil because it came from Dino oil not plant oil. i.e. animal fat breakdown versus fatty plant material. So back then most other oils came from plant oil. Pennzoil did not gum up but the others did because of waxy plant material. Since the mid 80s all our oil comes from the Middle East until recently now the stuff partially comes from South America.

The point I am making is all non synthetic oil comes from the same places and all of it gets cooked at the same refineries. I wired a refinery in Houston years ago and even then they were talking about how you got ripped if you bought mid grade oil. Every bottle of oil no matter what name in the 2 to 3.89 range at the time was identical. It came out of the refinery in Valvoline, Pennzoil and Quaker trucks but they were filled from the same tanks. Now specialty oils like high mileage have friction modifiers and seal swelling chemicals added at the bottling plant. Did you ever wonder why they make 4*4 oil and was it any good. It has an additive to stop water from breaking down into acids with the oil.