I have a 3.8l 2001 stang. looking at switching to synthetic oil, but not sure what kind is best for my car. I have looked at Mobil 1, Royal Purple, Valvoline, and Motorcraft. All of them have a form of synthetic oil, but im not sure what is better. Should i stay w/ motorcraft, since it is made by ford, or what. Also, is royal purple the only one that adds horsepower, and if so is it worth the extra $$$ than the others?

 

alot of people use mobile 1 and amsoil idk much about either but they seem to be the most popular

 

i can never find royal purpl, i guess u have to order it

but i use mobil 1 synthetic on mine....i think it gives u 2000 more miles till u hafta chance it, so u can run 5000 miles on it before changin ur oil

 

Mobile 1 [sm=smiley20.gif]

 

use motorcraft. it's the cheapest and works just fine. the place i go for oil changes told me to just save myself like $20 and go with motorcraft instead of mobile1. so i just use motorcraft 5w20.

 

thanks! The royal purple is available pretty much everywhere here (pepboys, mustangs unlimited, etc.) I guess i will have to narrow it down to royal purple, mobil 1, or motorcraft ... not sure yet, but i know im goin w/ synthetic!

 

i hope your car doesn't have that many miles on it. i heard it's bad to just switch when your car has been running regular for a long time. you should switch at like your first oil change.

 

As long as your car has less then 50k miles it should be ok to switch over. The reason they say not to switch over is synthetic can get through incredibly small gaps and spaces in gaskets and other seals that regular oil couldn't get through. Once synthetic gets in there it causes the gap to widen and leads to oil leaks. If you don't really push your car to hard all the time and change your oil every 3k miles you shouldn't have a problem switching over. With synthetic you don't realy have to change your oil as often. I change mine every 5k miles. You could probably go 10k miles no problem though.

 

i didn't know the approx mileage when not to switch, but he has a 2001 and those are usually pretty up there in mileage. my friend's 2002 v6 has 45k on it.

 

my 2001 only has 27k on it ... trying to keep it low to turn into a show car (supercharger, true duals, ghost flames, 2003 cobra rims, mach II hood, etc.)