red07gt

Ready for my first oil change on my 07 GT. I definitely plan to go synthetic and have seen from other threads that Royal Purple and Mobil 1 seem to be the best. However, Pep Boys in my area is having a sale on Quaker State and Pennzoil syntheic for $1.99 a quart after rebate. Anyone have any info/experience with either of these? I don't want to put bad oil in so if I hear this stufff is crap I'll go for the good stuff. However, if I can save some $$ and the stuff is good then why not! Any information woukld be appreciated!

vsop

Make sure you go online and print out the Pep Boys coupon for $5 off a $30 purchase. Also buy a GOOD oil filter. Stay away from the cheap stuff.

I have not tried the Quaker State Synth or the Pennzoil synth in a car. I did run the Pennzoil Marine in my 2 stroke and it did good.
I do not like rebates so I just purchased the Royal Purple. I made 2 purchases. As the K&N filter was a little over $10. I made sure that my I spent over $60.
First time I purchased the filter and 3 bottles of Royal Purple using the coupon so it was $5 off. Then went and picked up another 4 bottles of oil and a few other small items I needed.
So I could use the coupon again. (Just print out a couple of them)

So this way I saved $10 total of just over $60. which is not bad

Oh and I always make sure I buy 1 extra quart of oil to keep in the trunk.. Just incase..

P Zero

Royal purple, amsoil, redline, castorl syntec are the only oils I run. I had a bad experience with pennzoil, I dumped a valve ona high speed run. Ive had the best luck with castorl syntec 5w50, it stays nice and clean, and I swear the motor revvs up faster.
-P.
PS: Mobil 1 is overrated IMO.

Stooge

Many labelled "synthetic" oils were never really synthetic, and many "real synthetic" oils are now being blended with a "non-synthetic" base stocks (Mobil 1). So you don't know what you're really getting, and maybe you shouldn't care.

I use Amsoil XL 5W20. It is labelled as a synthetic, but its base stock is a refined and processed Group 3 oil (not synthetic) provided by our northern neighbors of PetroCanada. However, this base stock is probably as good as or better than true synthtic base stocks (PAOs and esters).

shaners90lxhatch

Seeing all the oiling issues that the 5.4 3v has (virtually identical design to the 4.6 3v), I strongly believe that clean oil is more important than the oil's chemical makeup. I have used Motocraft oil in all my engines for years and it really is good stuff. Likewise with their filters. I have cut open nearly every filter you can buy at a parts store and there are several that I wouldn't install if they paid me. Motocraft is a synthetic blend ......its not completely organic. It looks cheap but it really is better than may people realize.
I don't care who you are - if you go more than 5000 miles on ANY oil with ANY filter - you are asking for problems. To be brutally honest here guys, the oil circuitry of this engine leaves a bit to be desired. The VCT system totally changed oil flow through this engine and it breaks the oil down a bit faster than the old 2 valve did. Use a reputable oil and filter and change it often. Using some fancy full synthetic oil and a $10 oil filter does nothing but make you feel safer. If thats all you want, by all means go ahead and do it. You want to give this engine the best chance at a long life? Use good oil and change it every 3000 miles in my opinion. Although the recommended interval is 5000, I stick to 3. Especially considering that engines are getting smaller and smaller tolerances every year - the more often you change it the better. You have no idea how many problems the 5.4 3v has when the oil gets filthy even just once.
There are screen filters in the VCT valve body that plug up and cause the engine to knock and the cams to retard, the valve lash adjusters plug up and start tapping away and the timing chain tensioner gets plugged up or destroyed all together and makes the engine rap and rattle - especially on startup. The only difference is that the 4.6 has a shorter stroke and an alluminum block. I don't see as many issues with it, but again - it is nearly identical to the 5.4 3v....... Just FYI

MACDRIVE

Maxlife 5W-30 and a WIX filter is all you need for that 4.6L

BKTO69

If you are using ROYAL PURPLE Synthetic Oil....DRAIN IT ASAP and replace with Stock Motorcraft Synthetic Blend 5W-20W. I had same problem on cold starts with smoke. I mentioned it the Jim Sr. at teamjdm.com (probably the most reputable S197 Mustang shop on the East cost) who said RP is NO GOOD for the 3V 4.6 motors. It is TOO THIN and gets past the valve seals into combustion chamber, resulting in smoking condition on cold starts and decelleration. He said after 1000 miles to drain again to make sure all ROYAL PURPLE has been flushed and continue to use Motorcraft syn blend. He has a barrel of RP in shop that's collecting dust. He had same problem in his 05 GT race car and he tells all his customers not to use RP. Followed his instructions and NO MORE SMOKING. I was so happy to have discussed this with him and not the dealer, which probably would have caused some serious headaches. Anyone using RP should look for smoke on cold starts. I bet many people can benefit from this info. Just go to teamjdm and contact Jim Sr.and ask for yourself.

BTJustice

I hate ExxonMobil. They are the largest company in the world. I currently use Valvoline MaxLife Full Synthetic 5W-30 with a Motorcraft FL-820S oil filter. I was running Mobil1 EP 5W-30, but after 8,000 miles, this oil (which is suppose to be good for 15,000 miles) had the gankiest black color to it. I dumped it immediately. Don't get me wrong. Black oil lets you know the oil is cleaning, but the Mobil1 color was an bad looking black color IMO. I am gonna make a few 5,000 mile runs on the MaxLife synthetic then go for 10,000 oil changes with 5,000 mile oil filter changes. I will send oil samples to Black Stone Labs to be sure the oil is doing OK to go that long. I plan on sending a used oil sample after 5,000 miles, change oil, then another at 7,500 miles, change oil, and finally another at 10,000 miles.

I also got better gas mileage with the MaxLife synthetic as opposed to the Mobil1. I was able to go 380 miles on a tank of gas using Mobil1. With the MaxLife synthetic, I was able to go 414.5 miles before running out of gas ! Both of these runs were 95% highway/interstate.

fosman77

I ran Pennzoil syntheic in my 1992 t-bird 5.0 and went over 200000 miles with no engine problems.

CrazyAl

I'm not going to get into a flamewar regaring what brand of oil is better than another, but as for long-term oil durability,understand that oil getting dirty and oil "being good for X many miles" are two totally seperate issues, and should not be confused.

Any oil will suffer from viscoscity breakdown. Over time, the heat and mechanical stresses in the engine will break the molecules in the oil down into smaller molecules. This decreases the oil's viscoscity and consequently it's lubricating properties. When people (and oil companies) talk about oil being good for X many miles, this is what they are talking about.Modern synthetic oils resist this kind of breakdown much better than conventional (dino juice) oils. There is no doubt in my mind that a good synthetic oil can last 10 or even 15 thousand miles without suffering breakdown.

However, that's only part of the story. The other important factor is the oil getting dirty.

Motor oil contains additives (detergents) which are chemicals that are designed to hold the dirt in your oil in suspension, and make the dirt clump together. This makes it easier for your filter to remove the dirt. Detergents are sacrificial. Just like soap when you wash your clothes, thedetergent gets "used up" as the dirt goes away.

Now let's pretend for a second that oil never suffers from viscoscity breakdown. What happens if we try to run the oil for a long time? As your engine runs, the oil gets dirty. It picks up fine particles that are missed by your air filter. It picks up tiny bits of metal from mechanical wear in the engine. It also picks up dirt from blowby gases (even an engine with good rings has a tiny bit of blowby). All these contaminants get into the oil. The added detergents make them clump up and most of them get removed by your oil filter. As the engine continues to run, the detergents in the oil start getting used up, reducing filtration effectiveness. Also, the filter starts to get clogged with the dirt that has already been filtered out. As this happens the filter starts to bypass. There is a relief valve built into every filter that lets dirty oil bypass the filter element as the element gets clogged. So after a while the grime in the oil isn't being properly removed, and it is circulated around the engine instead. This causes more wear, becasue thedirt interferes with the lubricating capacity of the oil.

Oil filter bypassing isn't rare. It happens frequently, and it's not an on-or-off type of situation. Once the filter starts to get loaded up with dirt and the pressure drop across the element gets high enough (which doesn't take long), it starts to bypass some oil. It might not be bypassing 100%, but SOME dirty oil will be escaping the filter.

So what does all this mean? Even if you have a modern synthetic oil that has extremely good resistance to viscoscity breakdown, you still have to worry about the oil getting dirty. You cannot fight this with synthetic oil. The only way to fight your oil getting dirty is to change your filter frequently and also change the oil.

In BT's case the 8,000 mile oil that was all black might have been OK from a viscoscity point of view, but it could simply have been ruined thanks to dirt becasue of poor filtration.

In my opinion, from a simple reliablity point of view, it is better for your engineif youuse cheap oil and change it and the filterevery 3,000 miles than it is to use premium oil and change it every 5,000. Why? Becasue the dirt-fighting components of the oiling system(detergent additivesand the filter) are the weak link, not the durability of the lubricating molecules (which is the advantage of synthetic vs. conventional oil).