Synthetic blend oil, Motorcraft batt'ry

Oct 03, 2006 12 Replies

'owdy,


94 Tbird LX V8, 63k mi.

Ye trusty Ford dealer runs a "sale".



I've always used conventional oil. Currently has 3k mi. on it and is a tad dirty looking.



"Motorcraft Oil/Filter change, premium synthetic blend - $22"



This is maybe $3 more than reg. oil. Recommend?



Battery is 6-7 years old. I figger it's 50/50 it'll fail a load test and/or fail to make it thru the winter.



"Motorcraft Tough Plus Battery 84 month - $67"



Is a good buy? Anybody know who makes these things nowadays??



Thanks, Puddin'



Pease pudding hot, Pease pudding cold, Pease pudding in the pot Nine days old.


Premium synthetic blend oil upside reduces wear on engine parts. Downside some engine parts wear unevenly causing premature failure. I have always had a problem with hydraulic lifter prematurely failing after years of use with premium synthetic blend oils. I guess a small price to pay for reduced wear esle where in the engine. Batteries are one thing people never think about until they go bad. The age of a battery dose not matter as long as the acid in it is good it will keep going. Buy a battery hydrometer. This is a device for measuring the specific gravity, aka. the strength of the battery acid. The specific gravity of a new battery should be 1.300+. Two years old battery, the specific gravity may be around 1.150 - 1.200. One in poor condition that is about to fail may be as low as 1.100. Measure the battery voltage. It should measure approximately 12.7 volts. You should check your battery every 30 days.

I hope this is helpful

That's a new one.

I dont know about Motorcraft Oil.. but I've had many over 100KMile beaters that I run Mobil 1 in, and NEVER have lifter/adjustor tick. Even if it started out with one.

Son was taking his car into a 'Quick Lube' Featuring that famous oil, for his oil changes and had severe tick, more like clacking... he changed to Mobil 1 and 3000 miles later it's quiet.

As far as the battery goes, Ive had a few last less than 3 years, but none lasted more than 6.

It's just common sense. If you have the money, now, might be better than later when you might not. But I've always had great luck with batteries from WalMart or KMart. NOT so, with the 'Famous Brand'

Motorcraft's current regular motor oil is marketed as a synthetic blend. The latest SM/GF-4 oil standard are often met by using some synthetic oil as a portion of the base oil package. The Conoco-Phillips manufactured oils use this approach and they figured they might as well market it as such. You can buy them with Motorcraft, 76, Phillips-66, Conoco or Kendall on the label ... all pretty much the same oil. Here is their news release from 2004 when the change was made:

formatting link
They don't mention Motorcraft oils because Ford markets those itself and keeps it semi-secret where they get the stuff from.

So your dealer is just advertising an oil change with the current Ford supplied motor oil. It is good stuff, but nothing extraordinary.

John

At least one website lists Johnson Controls as the supplier of Motorcraft batteries:

formatting link
Johnson Controls Inc. [Sears' DieHard, Auto Zone's Duralast, Wal-Mart's EverStart, Motorcraft, Optima, etc.], (US)
formatting link

So they sling maybe .5% synthetic in with the reg. oil and it becomes "Synthetic Blend". Hah!! I shoulda figgered.

Thanks, P

Pease pudding hot, Pease pudding cold, Pease pudding in the pot Nine days old.

Better'n Exide, from what I've heard.

Thanks, P

Pease pudding hot, Pease pudding cold, Pease pudding in the pot Nine days old.

A synthetic blend means that the oil is a blend of conventional oil and synthetic oil (as opposed to pure synthetic oil, like Mobil 1).

I would recommend Mobil 1 over this, but this should be fine.

Sounds like a reasonable price.

The prices are reasonable. I would do them (except, the part about going all synthetic, but the blend should be fine).

Jeff

The plates can break and other things can go wrong than just the electrolyte level.

Jeff

Oil... I run WalMart's Tech 2000 full synthetic. Cheap as potatos and on the label it's got the API stamp and says that it meets all the requirements for the new Vette. Seems to work very well in my 5.0 GT. Did I mention it was cheap? :)

Brad

Walmart is not known for selling quality Walmart-brand products. Their oil filters were great for my dad: He rebuilt engines.

In the future, please don't top-post. It makes it hard to follow the thread.

Jeff

I've been using the WalMart synthetic with Motorcraft filters. Been doing great for me.

You managed to follow it, so thanks, but no thanks.

Walmart syn is API approved for the new Vette. Period. Do you know something the engineers missed?

Brad

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required