Oil filter and syntetic blends???

I use Mobil 1 and the K&N filter (simply because it has the nut on the bottom). Stay away from Fram - I repeat, stay away from Fram. The Motorcraft filter is a quality filter. Continue to use these.
You can switch to a synthetic blend or full synthetic unless your motor is tired, worn and is burning oil now, because a sythetic will just aggravate this. It is is healthy and been well cared for, it's never too late to switch.
Welcome to StangNet!!!

I use Mobile 1 5W30 and a motorcraft FL-820S at every oil change. Have since 5000 miles. Fram filters are the lowest rated in filtration and quality. I read that on a website but can't remember the specific site. Maybe someone else on here can chime in.

http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilterstudy.html
fram are total crap. the motorcraft filters are fairly good considering they only cost $3 retail. also for oil, DO NOT USE PENNZOIL OR QUAKER STATE. any oil from pennslyvania is crap, nothing against the state, but teh oils themselves are crap. use mobil 1 if you want a good fairly inexpensive synthetic. amsoil and redline are very good oils as well. stay away from royal purple because they tend to degrade after about 1000 miles. as for blends, they are all fairly good, castrol, valvoline mobil make good blends.

93octane said:

I have always used regular penzoil oil in my car and motorcraft oil filters. Would I benifit any in using an aftermarket oil filter (pulator,Fram,K&N) vs. using the motorcraft stuff. And can I switch over to syntetic blend oil??? Again motorcraft has a syntetic blend or use Penzoil,Mobile one..etc...

99 GT 43K miles.

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There has been many threads and discussions over the whole "oil and filter" issue and "synthetic, synthetic blend, and regular oil" thing.

I'll break it down simple. Most synthetic oils you buy on the market are nothing more than hydro-cracked petroleum with a few additives for slightly better wear protection. Most synthetic blend oils are a rip-off. They use the words "synthetic blend" to make it sound as if their oil is actually a 50/50 mix of regular petroleum oil and synthetic oil when in most cases, this just isn't so. In most cases, the so called "synthetic blend" motor oils is actually only 10 percent synthetic and the rest is regular petroleum oil and nothing more. Sometimes its as little as 2 percent synthetic and the rest regular petroleum.

As stated above, Mobil 1 is about the best you can buy on most shelfs at places like Wal-mart and most auto parts stores. It's definately better than Penzoil and Quaker state. However, Mobil 1 is not the best as Amsoil has Mobil 1 beat hands down. Where Mobil 1 is hydro-cracked petroleum, Amsoil is pure man made and no petroleum involved and its all made in the USA. You don't have to believe me either. Go to www.amsoil.com and read up on their reviews and independant lab results and see for yourself.

As for oil filters, as bccardinal said above, the Frams are about the worst and the Penzoils & Quaker states are no better. The motorcrafts are a wix filter so they are better than most but still not as good as a synthetic media filter. K&N makes a pretty nice one from what I hear and I've used a Mobil 1 filter and although its pricey, it does its job. Naturally since I'm an Amsoil user I'm going to recommend Amsoil oil filters as they do a great job of filtration over regular filters and even other synthetic media filters.

If I were you, I'de switch to using Amsoil motor oil with Amsoil oil filter and change the filter ever 12k miles and change the oil just once a year or every 25-35k miles. Depending on which kind of Amsoil oil you use. Again, you don't have to believe me or Amsoil that their stuff is good for this pro-longed usage. You can try it for yourself just once and see what you think. You can even get an analysis kit, take an oil sample after a years use, send it in, and await the results and see if the oil is still good.

Hey Dark Knight, I went to the Amsoil website, but I'm kinda confused by all the 'flavors' of the oil they sell (2000 series, 7500 series, synthetic motor oil, high performance oil, racing oil, etc - what do you run/recommend?

twogts4us said:

Hey Dark Knight, I went to the Amsoil website, but I'm kinda confused by all the 'flavors' of the oil they sell (2000 series, 7500 series, synthetic motor oil, high performance oil, racing oil, etc - what do you run/recommend?

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The series 2000 is there top of the line that Amsoil offers. It comes with a 1yr/35,000 mile change interval, which ever comes first with a filter change recommended at every 6mo./12k miles, which ever comes first.

The ASL series(High performance series) has a 1yr./25,000 mile change interval on the oil, which ever comes first with the same filter change for the oil filter.

The 7500 series is a 7,500 mile oil change oil for those who are worried about extended oil drain intervals and its recommended to be changed every 6mo./7,500 miles, which ever comes first. Oil filter is to be changed when the oil is changed.

Personally, if you can afford it, I'de go with the Amsoil 0w-30 Series 2000 oil and change it just once a year or every 35k miles, which ever comes first. If you can't dig quite that steep, then I'de go with the ASL(High performance) 5w-30 with a 1yr./25k mile oil change interval and just change the filter every 6mo. or 12k miles, which ever comes first. I'm using the 5w-30 that I just mentioned now and I have zero problems with it and the car runs like a dream. I'll might upgrade to the 0w-30 in the future though.

As for oil weight, it depends. You should always try to use what the manufacture recommends though I personally think that 5w-20 is a bit thin for our applications. For years, Ford recommended 5w-30 and then in 2001 decided to recommend a 5w-20 oil for some reason. Probably to try to improve fuel mileage and lower their emissions even though I doubt it did any good. If you drive your car every day, then I wouldn't go over a "5" on the first number as thats the pour point weight and you want the oil to be no thicker than a 5 on start up, especially during the colder seasons.

Yeah, you could probably get away with 10w30 though I don't see where it would really be needed over the 5w-30 or 0w-30. Remember, although these are normal weight oils, they perform better than the other oils at the same weight. A LOT BETTER!