another dumb question

Dark04GT said:

doesn't matter what the temp is outside.... your motor still runs at the same temp thanks to your cooling system.

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I must completley (yet respectfully) disagree. While your internal temp is controlled, ambient air temp going into your engine absolutely has a direct affect on your performance. If you think your engine is going to perform exactly the same in 50 deg with low humidity or 110 deg with high humidity or an elevation of 100' (thinner air) vs 1000', well, again, I'll disagree.

20001 mustang said:

that reminds me, ive heard tons of good stuff about fram but i think i remember stumbling across a thread on here about how the crumple up when you try to remove them. whats your opinion on them cause ive heard good and bad.

i think ill use a motocraft filter as ive only heard good things about them.

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I use Fram on all four of my cars and have never had a single issue with them.

When its 100 degrees outside with no wind and you park your car with the
hood down, the engine temp will get much hotter once the water stops moving. (heat soak) I know my car feels alot slower in summer.
Your cooling system just cant be as effiecient as it would be in say 50 degree
dry air with a breeze.

check out brad penn oil its made with pa crude oil. available in reg,semi synthetic and full synthetic. I use fram racing filters

3ponyshow said:

I must completley (yet respectfully) disagree. While your internal temp is controlled, ambient air temp going into your engine absolutely has a direct affect on your performance. If you think your engine is going to perform exactly the same in 50 deg with low humidity or 110 deg with high humidity or an elevation of 100' (thinner air) vs 1000', well, again, I'll disagree.

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We are speaking of two different compartments, the combustion chamber versus where oil likes to hang out. The oil is in direct contact with the metal components of the engine and once the engine reaches operating temperature (which is relatively the same no matter where you live) is minimally affected by ambient temperature. Starting temperature is a totally different story, a low winter viscosity oil is needed for cold temps, etc. For high temps a 20 weight oil has been determined by ford to offer ample protection against friction.

Performance is indeed affected by density of the air as you are describing. Without a doubt everything you wrote makes sense and I agree.

When its 100 degrees outside with no wind and you park your car with the hood down, the engine temp will get much hotter once the water stops moving. (heat soak) I know my car feels alot slower in summer.
Your cooling system just cant be as effiecient as it would be in say 50 degree
dry air with a breeze.

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The engine will never warm beyond the designed operating temperature unless there is a malfunction in the engine. Especially when your engine is no longer running despite what feels to be a warm engine compartment and "heat soak", actually your engine is cooling and spreading thermal energy via conduction from warmer areas internally to the external areas that you can touch. Eventually your engine will be in equilibrium with the environment. Your cooling system does not disperse heat from the radiator as well in warmer weather. Thus it makes up for that fact by having the thermostat valve wide open resulting in nice steady flowing cooling fluid. And that is why the radiator fan kicks on more in the summer. All mechanisms to keep your engine operating temperature in a fairly tight 5-10 degree range. One of the big reasons your car feels slower in the summer is because the density of air decreases with increased temperature resulting in less air in the combustion chamber. Less air = less boom, which = .

Midnight2V said:

The Service Notice I saw never said why.

It occurrs to me though, Ford did a change from 5 to 6 quarts of oil, then later Ford issues the oil weight change. At the time I just thought that a lighter weight oil was a natural step when the 3V came out and both the tolerances got tighter than they already were on the 2v's and 4v's, and the oil driven cam phasing was incorporated. I just assumed that they issued the bulletin to prevent confusion over oil weights at service stations, DIY customers, and dealerships.

But then I got to thinking.... as well engineered as it is, if there is one glaring problem with the 4.6 block, it is that the oil drainback rate is less than stellar for the lubrication needs of the overhead cam architecture it supports. It's one of the major design elements they went out of their way to improve on the Coyote platform (probabily mostly due to the TIVCT architecture).

My first guess is that Ford did some special testing on the hush back in the day and concluded that a faster flowing oil coupled with the previous increase in oil capacity would keep the pickup tube from sucking air under the worst possible conditions (angle or slosh level).

Or maybe they were just doing too much warrantee work for cylinder rings and decided that a lighter weight oil was a better idea...

Again, it's all speculation on my part....just my best guess or two. There could be any number of reasons.

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OK. I've been using 6 quarts of Mobil 1 5w30 for years now with no problems at all. Should I switch to 5w20 for the faster drainback rates and added safety at higher rpms and g loads or should I stick with the 5w30 due to the blower?

Rickyll7 said:

OK. I've been using 6 quarts of Mobil 1 5w30 for years now with no problems at all. Should I switch to 5w20 for the faster drainback rates and added safety at higher rpms and g loads or should I stick with the 5w30 due to the blower?

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I don't think you should, your sig shows you have a built 5.0 stroker. You have a handbuilt and checked shortblock, not a "factory tolerance" robot built stock motor. Your motor is very likely built to tolerances that are 10 ten times more precise than a factory unit. If the shop that built your motor told you to use 5W-30, then that's exactly what I would use. Until my last rebuild, I was instructed to use 5w-30 on my built shortblock as well. I went with Total Seal rings this time and we are doing compression checks and leak down to see which oil weight, 5W-20 or 5W-30, will work best.

If they didn't tell you any specific oil or you don't remember since it's been a while, you might give them a call and get their input. You might even call your supercharger manufacture to see if they have a preference (although I have never heard a manufacturer having one on a street blower). It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask. One thing you could do is add a higher capacity oil pan with a built in sump/windage tray/oil scraper such as a Canton (7qt) or a Milodon (8qt...ish). I have the Canton myself and have never had any oiling issues.

20001 mustang said:

that reminds me, ive heard tons of good stuff about fram but i think i remember stumbling across a thread on here about how the crumple up when you try to remove them. whats your opinion on them cause ive heard good and bad.

i think ill use a motocraft filter as ive only heard good things about them.

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I could be wrong, but last time I check:

Racor owns a lot of patents on oil filters and a bunch of companies use their design including Motorcraft and Fram...
Meaning Motorcraft = Fram

Racor does own a lot patents and has a lot of designs but by no means does fram=motorcraft. Just cut them open and check out the different types of filter media used in each of them. There is a very real reason why I would never put anything other than a motocraft or a WIX filter on my car.