OP, if you're up for doing a good bit of reading, there's a lot of information you can take in from the links posted here.

Personally, I have a hard time using something when I know something better is available. I guess it's the peace of mind knowing that I'm using some of the best stuff possible. For my last oil change, I used Amsoil full-synthetic with a Ford Racing oil filter.

 

The way I see it is there are many of these cars rolling around that are not owned by enthusiasts. Those are probably serviced either by Ford, or by Jiffy Lube or similar. I just never hear of massive problems related to oil. I guess in the end, run whatever makes you sleep better at night. I suspect that using even cheap oil with a Fram filter replaced at a reasonable interval, that you'd never notice a difference...

 

Thanks for the mad feedback. I think for now I'll stick with the regular, but after I have more money (ie. pay off the car, haha) and after some performance tweaks such as cai I might try synthetic.

 

Having worked in the automotive field for several years, I've been inside of engines that were only run on full synthetic as well as engines that were run on regular (not to mention those that just plain weren't cared for). Trust me, there IS a difference between regular and syntheyic. I've seen motors with over 100K miles where even the piston rings still looked brand new. I only run mobil 1 full synthetic and K&N or mobil 1 filters, depending on what I can find.

 

Nineinchnail1024, I'm sure you've seen all kinds of states of inside of engines. How do you know what type of oil was in each one?

 

4850 miles on a 3 year old car? holy crap man do you get a chance to enjoy it? I'm not bagging on you, just amazed at the low mileage. I have an 06' and just turned over 100K.

Full synthetic every 5k miles w/ a new filter each oil change, and she still runs like a raped ape.

 

The only benefit of the blends and full syn's is the extended drain time. You'll get equal protection from dino changed at 3,000 miles vs blends changed at 5,000-7,000 miles vs full syns changed at 10,000 or more miles.

The average filter is questionable beyond about 7,000 miles. I use Amsoil's high efficiency filter which can easily handle 15,000 miles. That with Amsoil ASM oil and I change both at about 10,000 miles on the Stang; M1 oil and M1 filter in the SUV (my tow vehicle and DD) at about 8,000 miles.

 

IMHO I think that the blend or full syn is much better for protecting the engine when starting in cold weather. The blends and full syns flow to all parts of the engine much quicker than dino.

 

Years ago when I first got into cars I was rebuilding an engine. At the time, I was hell bent on not using synthetic. The engine builder that I was dealing with then was and still is a great guy. We were talking about oils and he said he only uses sythetics and suggests the same to everyone. Upon me disagreeing he showed me two engines, both from his cars. They were both GM 350's one had synthetic it's whole life (over 100,000 miles) from his Camaro, the other had regular it's whole life (still over 100,000 miles) from his dad's work truck. The truck's engine was sludgy, filthy dirty and literally smelled like crap. The one from his Camaro was clean, no sludge and didn't smell anywhere near as offensive. As he continued to disassemble both engines he showed me various parts. Anyone would have been able to tell which engine which part came from.

From that point on I've used strictly synthetic.

But, as others have said it's your car use what you want.

 

JZ, that's good to know. I wonder how the Motorcraft synthetic blend holds up since it's a blend?