Synthetic Oil Question

7

77SSII

Member
Hey all,
have a generic oil question for you guys.

I have an '07 f-150 w/a 5.4 3valve. I've been running synthetic mobil1 (5w-20) since almost new, maybe since 10k. Any thoughts on just buying the cheapest synthetic name brand or should I stick to the mobil1? I've been buying 5 quart jugs at walmart for $30 bucks.

Also, for my boat, I just used synthetic and the parts guy said I now must stick w/synthetic oil from now on.
Any reason for this?

For my Scout I'm running rotella t 15w-40 for the zinc with a wix 51452.

Thanks,
 
Keep in mind this is my opinion not scientific fact!

If you're asking if all syn. Oils are the same, they are not. Mobil 1 is good, royal purple is better, redline or amsoil probably better still. That being said, I use mobil 1. I have a friend who does what you're talking about. When he needs an oil change he buys 6qts of whatever syn. Is on special. I think he has penzoil in there now. I personally don't see anything wrong with that. He changes it every 5k. I think that's the important part.

As for your boat; the old theory was once you use syn. Oil you can’t go back to conventional oil. It was suppose to make the engine leak or something. If the syn. Oil didn’t leak I don’t see reason that any other oil should leak.

My apologies to the swepco people for not including them. I have no personal experience with them.
 
For the most part the comments from Scout-it-out are correct. The commonly seen oils on the market were made for "competition" purposes. No, I don't mean "high performance competition," moreso the competition in price with each other. Mobil, royal purple, redline and amsoil have seperated themselves from the rest of the bunch and probably have some of the better results than others do due to their chemistry, however out of all of them, redline is probably the only true synthetic oil and the others are either blends, or made basically from petro stocks.

Before the market was blitzed by castrol back several years ago advertising synthetic oils, it was common that the oils then could actually cause seals to dry up and shrink, causing oil leaks. This was because synthetics have a naturally high detergency factor. If I recall correctly, amsoil had a full synthetic at the time and suffered the same results...they eventually re-formulated and came out with a "semi-synthetic" oil. Most of the semi-synthetic oils (pao's) on the market do not hold additives in suspension well and therefore depend a lot upon the strength of the base stock to provide the better part of taking care of the lack of zddp. However with the newer class which use a petro-stock to start with and different refining, that has now changed. They are legally (according to the ftc) able to be called "full synthetic" because they have synthetic-like properties. They accept additives more readily than the semi-synthetic (polyalphaolephins - paos) do.

Since 2007 when the api introduced the classification of "sm" and now "sn" for gasoline service, the zddp in these automotive specifications was lowered to around 850ppm which is well below what was normally available in the previous "sl" rated oils. In my estimation, this is the first time an api recommendation went backwards in quality, and it was just to save the possibility of poisoning catalytic converters.

Swepco's 306 engine oils in the 10w30, 15w40 and 20w50 are rated "sl" and have a high concentration of zddp which can be used in all gasoline engines prior to 2007. It also meets ci-4diesel specifications and has a much higher zddp content than the rotella-t oil mentioned. The cj-4 diesel specification limits the zddp to around 1,100 ppm whereas swepco 306 comes in at around 1,600 ppm.

The above examples reflect the addage that "you get what you pay for," or another way of putting it: "you get your monies worth."

additional information on swepco engine oil will be that they do not just make an oil for "older (pre-2007) vehicles," they also manufacture the sm-sn specification for gasoline engines with their "303" engine oil, which is a semi-synthetic, and for diesel engines calling for cj-4, it would be the "308" engine oil with a 5w40 semi-synthetic or a 15w40 straight petro stock. All of these oils conform to the applicable specifications to qualify for those designations.

A lot of this information has already been covered in past oil tech threads, those threads should be reviewed before posting, however since it has been awhile, I elected to respond after the reply was made.

Hope this helps clarify things for everyone.

Dick
 
Thanks dick almost a year later!

So the swepco's 306 family offers the highest levels of zddp?
What would you run in your Scout?
 
First of all, many thanks to swepco, I snagged the case of 20-50 at the rallye raffle. Now a question that May have been answered before, but I didn't see. Usually we change oil after so many miles, say 2-3k. How does crawling around in the dirt, or on a trail in low range for a day translate here? Rpms are typically up, but miles are typically low,with the engine pulling pretty hard at times.
 
You could add a 12v hour meter. That would give you a good idea of how long the engine has been running regardless of mileage. I change my oil at least once a year. A lot of the time I haven't got 3000 miles on it yet. Yeah, I drive that much:d if I do some really hard trails or hit 3k before the year is up, I'll change it sooner. I guess it's kind of up to you!
 
Sorry for the late response, we were on vacation last week, and that's also the reason we were not at the rallye.

Hondo, glad to hear that you won the case of oil at the rallye, I'm sure you will be pleased with it and continue to use it for years to come.

An hour meter as suggested might help you to realize how much time you have on an oil change. Usually you can convert the hours into miles on the average of every 100 hours would be pretty equivalent to 5,000 miles of road driving (give or take). Obviously the driving conditions May adversely affect the life of an oil if it is being contaminated with dirt or gasoline. So it is very important to keep your air filter clean and if you are "making" oil on the dipstick, or if it smells like gas in the oil, you should change it as soon as possible. Of course those are very rudimentary ways, and the most accurate way would be to use oil analysis through a lab which specializes in such.

Going back to the other posts about synthetic oil, most vehicle oems do not recommend going longer on synthetic oil than they do with mineral oil, regardless of the brand..

Hope that helps,

dick
 
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