FE Power Forums
FE Power Forums => FE Technical Forum => Topic started by: whitea62.7t on August 08, 2015, 11:57:44 AM
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After reading , lanlubberstsea's post about and oil filter causing low oil pressure , and responses about him using 20w50 .
I wanted to know what the amazing engine builders on this forum use and recommend for Oil., brand and weight?
I have an 89 Mustang 5.0 that i run Castrol 5w50 in , due to the fact they were known for having weak oil rings and it seems to use A LOT less oil running it
And an 04 Audi A6 2.7T with k04 turbo and build that i run Mobil 1 euro blend
Sean
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I'm not "expert enginer builder" but I've been in an engine or two :P
I run 5w30 royal purple in both of my engines (390 and 429)
I run Motorcraft FL1A filters in the 390 which is lower performance and FL1A HP in the 429.
390
cold idle: 40psi
hot idle: 18psi
5000rpms: 65psi
429
cold idle: 70psi
hot idle: 60psi
5000rpms: 80psi
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Most of my stuff gets Valvoline VR1 non-synthetic 10W-30. This depends on bearing clearances, the application (street, drag race, etc.) and your climate.
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I drag raced a 1968 cougar with a 390 , we put 352 heads on it that were cut for CJ valves
and i always ran Mobil 1 and Motorcraft filters
Miss that car
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I like to use Valvoline VR-1 straight 30 or 40 weight for oil, and Mobil 1 oil filters.
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I've seen recommendations for 10w30, 10w40, straight 30, and either VR-1 or Rotella, or your favorite brand with zinc additive. Some say 5 quarts, some seem to say 6 qts. No question on the filter, I will use a Motorcraft FLA1.
Couple of questions, I assume 10w30 would be better for a tight motor and 10w40 for an older build? Is straight 30 more for the nostalgic motor head or valid reasoning?
Would one be better off running VR-1 (synth or non -synth) 10w30 by itself, or something like Motorcraft 10w30 synth-blend with a bottle of Lucas Oil zinc? If adding zinc, is it 1 bottle + 5 or 6 qts. or do you pull the oil quantity down equivalent to the amount of zinc to be added?
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Generally you want a heavier weight oil when you have larger bearing clearances, so heavier oil in an older engine makes sense.
I've been using straight weight oil in my higher HP engines because I'm not sure I trust the multi-viscosity oils ability to get to the higher viscosity level that is advertised. After carefully measuring and setting bearing clearances, I want to be sure that the oil is at the viscosity I want. Probably just me, though... ::)
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I second the straight weight in hi hp and hi rpm engines. Even in street Fe's I always liked the straight 40.
A far cry from when I pop the hood on my 2010 mercury that calls for 5w20 .
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I just put a GM crate motor in my chev bucket van & gm recommends 10-30 or 10-40 for their hp motors. I thought 10-40 was antiquated. I guess not. While not a big GM fan, this is a 350 4 bolt, roller cam, all new complete sans water pump & intake for $2050 from jegs. how do they do it? In my old 352 I run 15-40 rotella & a shot of STP with a motorcraft filter.
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OK , this maybe a dumb question to you veteran engine builders,
But why the high zinc content?
especially if you are using new modern blocks and heads
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Zinc helps the lifters and camshaft from wearing each other in tappet configurations. Roller camshafts don't require the high concentrations of zinc. Joe-JDC.
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After reading , lanlubberstsea's post about and oil filter causing low oil pressure , and responses about him using 20w50 .
I wanted to know what the amazing engine builders on this forum use and recommend for Oil., brand and weight?
I have an 89 Mustang 5.0 that i run Castrol 5w50 in , due to the fact they were known for having weak oil rings and it seems to use A LOT less oil running it
And an 04 Audi A6 2.7T with k04 turbo and build that i run Mobil 1 euro blend
Sean
I don't know where you have heard that 5.0s have weak oil rings, for they will sometimes go over 200,000 miles without a re-ring, and don't use oil. I have been building and racing 5.0 engines since '86, and I have never heard of weak oil rings in the 5.0. Joe-JDC
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I just put a GM crate motor in my chev bucket van & gm recommends 10-30 or 10-40 for their hp motors. I thought 10-40 was antiquated. I guess not. While not a big GM fan, this is a 350 4 bolt, roller cam, all new complete sans water pump & intake for $2050 from jegs. how do they do it? In my old 352 I run 15-40 rotella & a shot of STP with a motorcraft filter.
Unless the clearances are huge, I can't see why you would need that combo unless it is just your preference. That must be like molasses, lol. I can't stand STP or Lucas, it's just too thick IMO.
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lotsa miles & the Scientifically Treated Petroleum has lotsa zinc. b4 the 62 I only used stp for engine building & the occasional oil hogs. BTW the late 80's 5.0 used low tension rings that were kinda oil hogs from new. ford would re-ring them for you if they consumed more than a quart in 500 miles. they ran good & they ran forever & by the time you had a 100k on them they usually quit using oil. I had a 90 5.0 lx bought new & it never used oil so they must have been redesigned by then, but 88s & 89s were notorious oil users.
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Mine is an 89 140k ordered it new , always ran castrol syntec 5w50 never had an oil use issue .
Buddy of mine had the same exact car and used a qt every 1k miles
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I have a '86 GT, 89 GT, and 91 LX, and had a 88GT. None used oil. Ported heads and EFIs for hundreds of 5.0s and have never heard of oil consumption being an issue in this area. Haven't read anything in the popular magazines of the era, either. SA TX. Joe-JDC
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My old 88 T- Bird started to use oil around 190K and finally pulled the motor out at right before 250K when I scrapped the body and rest of drive line. I started to use conventional 10W30 and it slowed down oil consumption to maybe about a quart in 3,500 miles. My dad's 85 GT never used oil but has low miles. It was driven hard from the first day. The T-Bird block is going in the Mustang now, the old block was sleeved once, but done incorrectly so it was a good thing I kept my old block. It will live a gain :)
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I got real interested in oils several years ago and read every test on line. Mobil 1 was first in every independent test. In the sponsored test it was 2nd behind whoever sponsored the test. I was especially interested in how heat affected the various brands. I use the appropriate weight Mobil 1 in everything I own including my 390 and 292 Y block
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I've seen more than one independent test that put both Amsoil and Royal Purple above Mobile 1. I'll try to find them.
Here is an independent without Amsoil...
http://www.animegame.com/cars/Oil%20Tests.pdf
Here is one sponsored by Amsoil but take a look at where Mobil 1 ended up and Amsoil wasn't always the top performer in these tests.
https://www.amsoil.com/lit/g3115.pdf
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Iike useing the goldish brown slippery stuff in my bus conversion. LoL.
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The tests I remember put a lot of emphasis on breakdown due to heat and used a test involving either 3 or 5 steel balls. I believe they had the balls in a tube and rolled them for and extended period of time and either measured the oil retention, heat or perhaps the metal
particles in the oil. The first test with new oil had all brands closely grouped, but subsequent test with used oil exposed to high heat (as
in air cooled motorcycle) showed Mobil 1 with a clear advantage. I wished I had saved the articles in favorites but didn't. I think I surfed onto the site from "Nightrider" a Harley semi technical site. After posting this I am going to try to find it. Net result was that I changed oil pump and chain tensioners on an older twin cam Harley to a later style and started using Mobil 1 excluseively. Both the test and the method were interesting
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Hey autoholic a lot of people say that synthetic is not great to use in an FE but that test you would think it would work pretty well considering the FE like to run a little on the warm side
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Autoholic. Went back and read the tests you quoted. Very interesting. I liked the first test better. I used Royal Purple dino oil years ago when I could find it. After going back to Nightrider I see that the do have an interesting oil article, but no link to others anymore.
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Something that the articles don't go into is gasket material comparability. I believe some gasket materials work better with synthetics than others but I need to research this more. If you look online, you can also find oil filter comparisons. I would go with an oil brand that also has high performing oil filters. Everyone has their own brand loyalty but I'll put my loyalty where I see recent results. I personally think Amsoil and Royal Purple are at the top of that list.
http://www.gmtruckcentral.com/articles/oilfilterstudy.html
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Found a consumer reports test that used metropolitan cabs for 2 years and 60,000 miles. They found that no measureable difference in wear based on any major brand of oil exist. This was the only oil test I could find surfing for 20 minutes not sponsored by an oil company.
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I'll throw Schaeffer, Alisyn, and Brad Penn into the mix.
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Found a consumer reports test that used metropolitan cabs for 2 years and 60,000 miles. They found that no measureable difference in wear based on any major brand of oil exist. This was the only oil test I could find surfing for 20 minutes not sponsored by an oil company.
Saw that too. It is a fact that heavy diesels (boat, truck, powerplant, etc.) and gas engines in taxis, limos and police cars hardly ever have wear on critical parts. What's the reason? No cold starts with attendant moisture burn-off, fuel getting past cold rings/pistons and no rich choke cycle that tends to wash cylinder walls before the engine warms fully.
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That's a great point.
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The first link I posted that compared many different types of oils was independent and it showed the various levels of wear. That point about taxi cabs being a rather bad choice for wear is a very good point. 80-90% of the wear on an engine happens before the oil gets up to temp. Which means the far more important aspect of an oil is its cold viscosity, rather than its operating temp viscosity. The issues oils face at cold temps is far more important than what they face at operating temps, unless your engine will be used exclusively for racing and will always be warmed up before firing.