The reason I ask is because I had read a post wherein someone has a problem with their 'Tour making alot of ticking noise when the car is cold. I stated I have the same problem. Someone suggested switching to synthetic. I seriously wanted to do that but, I Think my Mystique might have had synthetic oil in it when I bought it, but no longer. The reaon for this thought is that when I got my car in July it ran quiet. I changed the oil about 1000 miles after I had it and ever since it has had a ticking noise when first started. Of course being colder than it was in August the ticking is much noisier. So, the dilema I have is that IF the car had synthetic in it and I changed to regular oil then, changed back? to synthetic, according to a worker at Advanced Auto, I could blow a seal or 2 since synthetic oil increases oil pressure. And I have put about 11000 miles on it since then. He suggested I buy 5 quarts of regular oil and 1 quart of Lucas oil stabilizer. I was thinking that if synth does increase oil pressure and that it could blow some seals would it be OK to get synthetic blended oil? I'm just trying to quiet the beast, if possible. Car has 103000 miles on it.
Later. Pepse.
I run blend in my car and it runs great. I still do get the slight ticking noise when it is cold and when it nears the time for an oil change but have never had a problem with performance or gaskets...
You can switch back and forth from synthetic to non synthetic with no ill effects at any time.
Your engine was designed with 5W30 in mind. Don't run anything heavier, even in summer.
There is no oil available that is too thin at start up. You can move to 0W30 or even 0W20 with no problems. Even 5W20 will be OK.
Literally any oil on the market today that meets GF-4 and SM specifications and of the right viscosity will work wonderfully and certainly go at least 5000 miles between oil changes. Today's conventional oil (dino, or non synthetic) are very nearly synthetic anyway. They have to be to meet the specs. The performance between dino and synthetic has been narrowed greatly. The biggest advantage to synthetic at this point is in temperature extreemes and if you are trying to go for extended drain intervals of 10,000 miles or more.
If you are really interested in learning all you can about oil, hang out here:
www.bobistheoilguy.com
So we should be using 5W-30 instead of 10W-30?
Jim-
Out of curiousity what oil do you use?
Originally posted by skrilla187:
So we should be using 5W-30 instead of 10W-30?
Yes.
I usually use Havoline 5W30. And I always use Motorcraft filters. I never have been real picky about what brand of regular oil I use; to me "motor oil is motor oil". Altho if I go synth I am not sure what I'll get. I know, most people will say Mobil 1, but that's obvious, since its been around the longest and so on. But I gotta justify in my budget that spending $30+ dollars every 3000 miles is cost effective. It also appears that since regular oil is not that far away, specs-wise, then blended would be a waste of money. And as for using 1 qt of Lucas and 5 qts of regular oil that doesn't sound like it'll cure anything. And with these opinions it sounds like it would be OK to go to synth even tho it is POSSIBLE that my car had synth before I bought it. I gotta head for work but I'll check back in about 12 hours and see what transpires. This way I should have a good opinion of what to get Wednesday when I go to the city; I live in a rather small town.
As for the link to bobtheoilguy, I looked at that awhile ago and decided that I don't want to join a website for many many opinions on what oil to get. I would rather settle for a few good opinions here
.
Later, Pepse.
Extend your oil change intervals to about 4500 miles (with an oil analysis to be safe). That's where you are wasting money!
could the ticking be the injectors?
Originally posted by skrilla187:
So we should be using 5W-30 instead of 10W-30?
Holy crap. 10W oil in Michigan??????
Originally posted by Kokosmellian:
Originally posted by skrilla187:
So we should be using 5W-30 instead of 10W-30?
Holy crap. 10W oil in Michigan??????
He's in the UP too... 
Originally posted by ancientsanskrit:
Jim-
Out of curiousity what oil do you use?
Most of the life of my SVT was on Mobil Drive Clean (dino) that was changed every 3,000 miles. At about 185,000, I switched to synthetic and 5,000 mile changes. I buy synthetic on sale. Mobil 1 was $4.00 a quart. I found Valvoline Max Life synthetic for $2.00 a quart and bought all they had (enough for two changes). Today I bought 6 quarts of Penzoil Platnum for $1.99 a quart, but I already have 6 quarts of Mobil 1 on the shelf to use first.
I feel that neither Valvo Max synthetic or Pennzoil Platinum are quite up to Mobil 1, but both are still excellent, and for $2.00 a quart it is way beyond good enough for a 5,000 mile change interval. Any of the three could probably go 10,000 miles with no trouble.
If I can't find such exceptional prices, I will probably go for Mobil 7500. It is a synthetic blend and can be found frequently for about $2.00 a quart.
OK Jim, you say Valvo and Pennz are not as good as Mobil 1. Could you elaborate as to why you think that? Altho there ain't nothing on sale around here that I am aware of the cheapest price I seen for synthetic is $4.48 a qt for "Q" (AKA Quaker State) and $4.52 for Pennzoil. Mobil 1 is $4.99.
One thing I don't quite unnerstand is it was stated that with synthetic I could use 0W40. HMMMM, that makes me wonder about what is synthetic really. I mean with regular oil I should (and do) use 5W30, but with sythetic I can use 0W40; meaning that since sythetic is artificial it is OK to go higher (40W), than to stay at 30W. Interesting.
Elraido states it could be my injectors; so that adds another log on the fire as to what might be wrong. For now I am going to NOT make any rash judgments until I change the oil and see if anything else makes noise.
I decided to wait until Friday or Saturday to get oil. In this way I think I will have a good answer as to what to purchase.
Later Pepse.
Originally posted by Pepse:
according to a worker at Advanced Auto, I could blow a seal or 2 since synthetic oil increases oil pressure.
Wow. Complete BS. At least you knew to get a second opinion.
If anything, synthetic would have better flow properties at startup and when cold, which would reduce your oil pressure with no ill effects whatsoever.
Originally posted by Pepse:
I never have been real picky about what brand of regular oil I use; to me "motor oil is motor oil". Altho if I go synth I am not sure what I'll get. I know, most people will say Mobil 1, but that's obvious, since its been around the longest and so on. But I gotta justify in my budget that spending $30+ dollars every 3000 miles is cost effective.
I've always used a 5k interval, and technically I suppose I should be on the "severe" 3k schedule based on my short commute to work.
I switched to synth at around 50k, and had my oil analyzed at 60 or 65k. My numbers were not as good as some people on here, but well within the range where I'm confident that my engine was still being protected.
Unfortunately, I don't have an analysis of dino to compare.
I don't know what kind of driving you typically do. Is it the type of stuff that's hard on an engine?
Also, just reading your post above, it sounds like budget is of significant concern. While synthetic oil is technically "better" than dino, I'm not sure it's really worth it to you if your main problem is a bit of harmless ticking from your engine's top end. Dino can and will protect you nearly as well as synth in normal driving conditions.
Oil analysis is a good idea, too, but to get the data you need will cost you $30 a pop. Might want to do one or two early on to get an idea of what your change interval should be, and then check it every couple of years.
Hope I'm not just rambling, here.
I use 5W-30 in the winter and 10W-30 in the summer time. I change every 3000 miles. My friend changes his oil every 2000. That seems a bit of a waste.
Originally posted by Pepse:
OK Jim, you say Valvo and Pennz are not as good as Mobil 1. Could you elaborate as to why you think that? Altho there ain't nothing on sale around here that I am aware of the cheapest price I seen for synthetic is $4.48 a qt for "Q" (AKA Quaker State) and $4.52 for Pennzoil. Mobil 1 is $4.99.
One thing I don't quite unnerstand is it was stated that with synthetic I could use 0W40. HMMMM, that makes me wonder about what is synthetic really. I mean with regular oil I should (and do) use 5W30, but with sythetic I can use 0W40; meaning that since sythetic is artificial it is OK to go higher (40W), than to stay at 30W. Interesting.
Elraido states it could be my injectors; so that adds another log on the fire as to what might be wrong. For now I am going to NOT make any rash judgments until I change the oil and see if anything else makes noise.
I decided to wait until Friday or Saturday to get oil. In this way I think I will have a good answer as to what to purchase.
Later Pepse.
It's in the base stocks, or the base oil used for blending. The oil industry breaks down base stocks into 5 different catagories. Groups I and II are slightly different grades of dino oil that have been refined (seperated, cleaned) from ordinary crude oil. Up until a few years ago, all conventional oils were group I or II.
Group III goes through a different cleaning process, using water. Sometimes called "hydro-cracked". Some sort of molicular structure alteration takes place. Actually this is sometimes referred to group II+ as well as group III, depending on who is doing the processing. This was pioneered by Chevron, and is used by them and their other brand, Texaco. Chevron calls it "iso-syn", but sells it as conventional oil. Conoco has licensed the process from Chevron and uses it on Conoco and it's other brands, Union 76, Phillips, and Kendall. Conoco also supplies it for Motorcraft. Conoco calls it "clear base". Conoco refers to it as "synthetic blend", so it probablly is a group II and group II+ or group III blend. Penzoil is also licensed for the process. Pennzoil calls it "pure base". I don't know which of their other brands also use it (Quaker State and Wolf's Head) Pennzoil is currently owned by Shell. I don't know wht process or blending stocks Shell uses. Mobil (and it's partner Exxon) also use a similar if not the same process. Mobil is the biggest single supplier of group III blending stocks for other oil companies. Mobil does not consider group III to be a synthetic.
Group IV is also known as PAO (or POA, I get it mixed up). It is most definitely a synthetic process. At one time, most every oil company that had a synthetic oil use this. Castrol determined that group III could be called synthetic and reformulated their synthetic to use group III base stocks. As an aside, you cannot judge an oil purely on the base stock used. The additive package is also critical so that how the oil actually performs overall is really the most important thing of all. Mobil sued Castrol over what they thought was misleading to the consumer, and Mobil lost. Castrol Syntec is usually of this blending. An exception is so called "German Castrol", made in Germany and labeld in small print on the bottle. In the US it comes in 0W30 only and other than the made in Germany small print looks the same as made in USA 0W30.
Group V base stocks are ester oils and also a catch all for all other base stocks that don't fit into another catagory. Red Line is an example of an oil company that uses mostly ester based oils. Amzoil also uses a lot of ester on most blends.
Since Castrol won the lawsuit, other oil companies sometimes also use group III blending stocks for the "synthetic" oil. Valvoline is one of them.
The new Penzoil Platinum is sort of a unique case. It is a new base stock. As such it fits into the group V catagory as the catch all "everything else". It's actual performance is somewhere between group III and group IV.
So among the best oils by virtue of starting with the best blending stocks are Mobil 1, German Castrol, and Red Line. Torco fits in there too, but they really don't intend their product to be used for anything but racing and it does not carry API or ILSAC industry ratings.
Among the oils that are almost there, by virtue of using a base stock that performs nearly as well and using a killer additive package would be Castrol, Valvoline, and Pennzoil. The biggest difference being better pumpability when extremely cold and better able to handle extreme heat for longer periods of time.
The funniest part of this whole thing is that conventional oils have had to improve dramatically every time the API has a new standard about every 4 or 5 years. Conventional oils are carefully blended to meet these increasingly higher standards. To do so, they are using more and more group II+ and group III to blend their base stocks. As a result, today's conventional oils have greatly closed the gap toward the performance levels of synthetic. If you were to compare conventional oil of 20 years ago with todays conventional oil, you would see that today's conventional darn near is synthetic oil.
Also sort of funny, Mobil Clean 5000, their lowest priced "conventional" oil is group III. If it had a Castrol label on it, it would be call "synthetic".
Finally to directly answer your question, Mobil 1 is group IV, and both Valvoline and Pennzoil are made of something slightly less, but usually are priced as though they are the same.
Sorry about the "brain dump".
Big Jim, both of your replys are great. My driving habits mainly consist of M-F, to work and back; 15 miles one way at freeway speed, in my case about 68 to 70 mph. Sat. or Sun., casino run; casino 1 is 75 miles one way most of drive is freeway. Casino 2 is 95 miles one way, 90 miles freeway and interstate. So, if anything the car does warm up abit. Now due to your talk I can justify synthetic and probaly go about 4K to 5K before changes. And I would probably get an oil analisys around 3K to 4K. I am thinking that due to your analisys on oil I would be better off with Mobil 1 or German Castrol, when you consider the grouping of the other oils. Like you say in most cases I would be paying synth price for a lesser grade.
It was stated that why change because of a few ticks? They are da*&^d annoying. And since there would be various improvements by switching to synth it will be worth the shot. Besides if I want a ticking in my motor I'll try to get another Ford Capri with the 2.6L V-6; solid lifters
.
Oh, like I said, I needed to justify switching to a synthetic oil and I feel I have the justification with your ramblings Big Jim.
Thanx. Later. Pepse.
Originally posted by Pepse:
Big Jim, both of your replys are great. My driving habits mainly consist of M-F, to work and back; 15 miles one way at freeway speed, in my case about 68 to 70 mph. Sat. or Sun., casino run; casino 1 is 75 miles one way most of drive is freeway. Casino 2 is 95 miles one way, 90 miles freeway and interstate. So, if anything the car does warm up abit. Now due to your talk I can justify synthetic and probaly go about 4K to 5K before changes. And I would probably get an oil analisys around 3K to 4K. I am thinking that due to your analisys on oil I would be better off with Mobil 1 or German Castrol, when you consider the grouping of the other oils. Like you say in most cases I would be paying synth price for a lesser grade.
It was stated that why change because of a few ticks? They are da*&^d annoying. And since there would be various improvements by switching to synth it will be worth the shot. Besides if I want a ticking in my motor I'll try to get another Ford Capri with the 2.6L V-6; solid lifters .
Oh, like I said, I needed to justify switching to a synthetic oil and I feel I have the justification with your ramblings Big Jim.
Thanx. Later. Pepse.
I have two comments:
1. With those driving habits, I'll bet you could get quite a bit more than 5k out of a fill.
2. 2.6L Ford Capri 
Thanx RogerB, I would feel good about getting at least 5K to 7K out of an oil change. I think being from Wisc., I'll get the 0W40 and by the time it gets warm out I'll be able to go to 5W30. I have put about 11K on the Mystique in almost exactly 6 months
. And like I said in the previous post, I would have an oil sample taken at around 4K just to see how things are. I gotta admit it will be very hard to go beyond 3K without a guilty conscious
.
As for a Ford Capri, yea, I still occasionally kick my arse for selling my small collection back on '00
. Damn foolish mistake.
Later. Pepse.
!!!WARNING!!!
Off Topic
!!!WARNING!!!
Collection?
My first car was a brown '74 with the 2L. Heavy bumpers and all, it was still a hoot, but it was near death when I got it and didn't last too long after that. Steering wheel shimmy from the trashed front suspension, and rust everywhere. But I could do donuts on gravel! When the U-joint went bad, we were told the only way to fix it was with a new driveshaft "from Germany." Mercy killing followed.
A classmate of mine had a silver-on-black chrome-bumpered V-6. This would have been around 1982-83. Sweet car.
Didn't know jack about them at that time, but based on history and nostalgia, it's on my short list of future toys. Darn few of them left, though, it seems.
!!!!! WARNING !!!!!
Still off topic.
!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!
RogerB, I'll PM you tonite when I get home from work. Sounds like a typical Capri from the times. I know some webs where you can buy Capris. Mostly Cal., and WA.
Later. Pepse.
WARNING: still off topic.
My first car was a '76 Mercury Capri II with the 2.8L auto. It was a fun car. When it had about 75,000 miles a 16 year old girl pulled out in front of me and totalled it.
It was not going to last much longer though after all the abuse I gave it.
Anyone use amsoil or royal purple? I know for a fact that amsoil is really really good oil and I have seen its use in many different platforms. Its only about a 1.25 more a quart than mobil 1 and it can be used for a lot longer. They say under normal conditions once a year or 25K(filter@15K) and severe conditions at once a year or 15K. Now at the price you can see the economic benefits and they have done extensive research comparing against other oils with charts on their website.
I have no experience with royal purple but have heard good reviews. So to stop rambling...anyone use either of these two?
I see this post is just winding down, but I thought I'd throw in my .02
Jim's commentary is spot on. On more thing, you have to realize that even though the "base" stock is group III or IV it may have some lower oils as part of the add pack(sort of like filler in laundry detergent). Mobil 1 does use almost pure PAO however.
Here is my "hierarchy of oils.
Best oils you can possibly buy:
1) Motul 300V power 5w40- This oil is a di-ester(group V) with a metric @zz load of moly in it, if you have a turbo or very tight machining tolerance on a race engine, this is the oil for you.
2) anything from ELF's Excellium line, great oil with a very robust add pack.
Best oils you could buy at Local auto store or Wally world:
1) Mobil 1 5w40- (says truck and SUV on it) the marketing from XOM is horrible for this extremely good oil, easily a 10K mi service interval with this bad boy.
2) Shell Rotella T 5w40- This is a great bang for the buck, its a grp III/IV in-betweener that is billed as full syn. It's 13 bucks for 5qts and it is extremely good oil for say a 5K mi OCI.
OK I'm done for now...
Well it looks like Amsoil will be off my list, too expensive. It is talked about alot here in northwestern Wisc.. I didn't know it was alot more than Mobil1. Shell Rotella T in 5W40? Seriously I have never seen it in anything less that 15W40. Around here it is mainly sold for heavy trucks and Semis. Then, too, maybe I only notice it at the wrong time of year.
Car 2.8L V-6 wasn't as strong as the 2.6L; smog regs weakend it. Truck 2.8L is very good tho.
And lastly, this site is very helpful to me, as always. I have a good idea of what I will need to do to keep the Mystique going.
Later. Pepse.
Originally posted by Pepse:
Well it looks like Amsoil will be off my list, too expensive. It is talked about alot here in northwestern Wisc.. I didn't know it was alot more than Mobil1. Shell Rotella T in 5W40? Seriously I have never seen it in anything less that 15W40. Around here it is mainly sold for heavy trucks and Semis. Then, too, maybe I only notice it at the wrong time of year.
Car 2.8L V-6 wasn't as strong as the 2.6L; smog regs weakend it. Truck 2.8L is very good tho.
And lastly, this site is very helpful to me, as always. I have a good idea of what I will need to do to keep the Mystique going.
Later. Pepse.
A lot more then Mobil One??!?! Where are you looking at? I can get the stuff in quart bottles for $5.50(ish) and Mobil 1 for a little less then $5. Only a MAX difference of $5 per change, and the Amsoil goes 25K miles where as Mobil 1 is 10-15K. I use Mobil 1 (and the car has almost always had it in it) and it still runs great at 170K. Amsoil is made in Superior if you didn't know and that is why it is cheaper here then most places...and it should be the same for you.
This has been discussed many times. Mobil 1 5W30 is always available and cheaper than Amsoil, Royal Purple, etc.
i use Valvoline synthetic blend, DuraMax i think its called.
been good to me
i even use a full synthetic trans fluid
elraido, I was sure it is made in Wisc., but I figured with my luck I'd be wrong if I ever said it. There is a place in Rice Lake that has a big sign stating "We Sell Amsoil". If I can remember the name I'll call them and see what the price is. Otherwise Farm & Fleet is having a sale on Castrol Syntec for $4.00 a QT. I know that it ain't real syth but it is close.
Pepse.
Big Jim was nice enough to PM this to me:
"I really like Mobil 7500 (synthetic blend), but if uncovering oil leaks is one of your primay concerns, a high mileage oil would serve you better, such as Valvoline MaxLife (dino). If the engine is sound and you are overly concerned about potential leaks, Mobil 7500 would be a better choice."
Up in my area, oil is expensive, and there are never sales.
Mobil 7500 = $3.50/qt.
Valvoline MaxLife = $3.50/qt.
Mobil 1 = $6/qt.