High miles but new seals - HM or straight syn?

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Hello all. Recently, I pulled the engine from my 1991 Ford Explorer (4.0L OHV, 227,400 miles) and replaced a bunch of seals due to severe leaking. I had originally posted here about that and while the leak was manageable, it quickly gave way and started going at a rate of 1.5 quarts in 400 miles. The front & rear crankshaft seals got done, oil pan, timing cover and more. I tossed in some 5W-30 SuperTech conventional and at 100 miles in, I don't see any issues.

Long story short, I'll probably dump out the SuperTech in the near future and go full synthetic 5W-30. I'm just not sure which one. My issue lies in the difference between the 'high mileage' variety and the regular 'full synthetic' variety. Typically, my go-to is Valvoline MaxLife but that's a synthetic blend and with the seals replaced, I don't really need the conditioners. Or do I? Maybe there's other benefits of a high mileage oil that I'm overlooking?

As far as brands, I'm mostly looking at what my local Walmart offers. Mobil 1, Valvoline, Castrol. I was also looking at the Pennzoil Platinum but haven't seen much said about it. For those that don't know, in the 4.0L OHV, the upper valve train is usually starved for oil and while I have excessive tapping noise when cold, it's almost disappeared since switching to 5W-30 (I was using 10W-30 to help with the leaks and already bought some parts to overhaul the top). While I don't need some fancy racing oil, I'm not above stepping up and spending a little extra for some quality oil that will make my engine last. With the miles I put on it, the oil will probably get changed once a year, twice at most, with less than 5,000 miles between changes.

Any ideas what direction I should go? Thanks.
 
PCV valve is a must.
5000, nothing wrong with Valvoline MaxLife.
Many Oils will work, depends on the engine dilution and if you add fuel injector cleaners and such.
Cheers.

Edit
Viscosity @ 100ºC, cSt, (ASTM D445) for the MaxLife is a little lower so it will flow a little easier to help the top end at temp.
 
Originally Posted By: Koz1
PCV valve is a must.
5000, nothing wrong with Valvoline MaxLife.
Many Oils will work, depends on the engine dilution and if you add fuel injector cleaners and such.
Cheers.

Edit
Viscosity @ 100ºC, cSt, (ASTM D445) for the MaxLife is a little lower so it will flow a little easier to help the top end at temp.

One of the first things I did was replace the PCV valve a year ago when I did tune-up stuff. The hose is a little questionable but it isn't restricted, just hardened and at a sharp 90 degree. What gets me is why there's a PCV valve on the driver's side but a hose right below the oil fill cap on the driver's side that goes into the air intake AFTER the MAF sensor. Seems to me that even if you blocked the PCV, that hose below the oil fill cap would still vent crankcase pressure, even create a vacuum in there.

Anyway, I'm done with additives and cleaners. The injectors will get replaced, if nothing else for peace of mind. I also don't think I have any sludge or crud restricting flow, just a thin layer of baked-on carbon. I'm just looking for some nice synthetic oil to treat the engine right. I'll go MaxLife if nothing else is suggested, haven't had anything to complain about with it before.



Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Seals can be changed with the engine in the vehicle... did you change the push rods and rocker arms?

But then you have to drop the trans, transfer case, drive shafts, cross members and more. Then you get to fight it on your back and hope that the pan comes off with clearance enough to not hit the monstrosity that is the TTB 4x4 axle beams. The factory service manual pretty much tells you to take the engine out. You have to disconnect everything and lift it a couple inches. At that point, it's not much work to lift fully and put it on a stand for much easier work.

Anyway, I didn't do the pushrods & rockers. That's something I'll do later with the engine installed. Reason is, I need to do the lower intake gasket since it's leaking coolant very slowly. Then I'll do the thermostat, belt pulleys, fan clutch and put in some reman improved injectors if funds allow. I only have the rocker arms right now and need to buy the rest of the supplies. I'm lacking the funds currently to do that whole job 'right' and being winter is among us and I had to borrow a shop/garage to yank the engine, the valve train project will probably get delayed a fair amount. This car needs work all over but I'm slowly chipping away at it.




Originally Posted By: CT8
How much play in the crank from bearing wear?

I honestly don't know. I wished I would have looked at those critical specs more. I did pull a connecting rod bearing and there was no scoring and minor wear. I meant to plastigauge but didn't. All the cylinders still had crosshatch very visible. One or two of them had very slight vertical marks. It looked like it was from the skirt since it extended down past where the rings travel. Compression on all cylinders is well above spec and consistent. Oil pressure is great (20PSI when warm, idling in-gear, 30-45 when driving, 55-60 when cold) and it doesn't seem to consume any noticeable amount of oil. As I said before, I was doing it at a friend's place. If that project was on my time, I would have taken longer, gathered more supplies and dug around more. But, there was a decent break in the weather and I went as quick as was comfortable to get the job done so I wasn't over-staying my welcome.

While I'm not a trained mechanic or familiar with any of the work that was done, I had help and was walked through the process with 2 people that are familiar with working on vehicles. Nothing looked/felt bad or out of the ordinary to them. To me, that's 'good enough'. I want to do what's right for this vehicle but it is a beater. I have more money into it than it's worth, the only reason for that is enjoyment and knowledge.


Hopefully I'm not coming across as an arrogant know-it-all [censored], I'm not intending that. Just giving reason to my choices.
 
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Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: natenkiki2004
Not to get off topic any further but if you're curious, here's the pics I have:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f7zxl41v0lah8bn/AAC9nPt9rBKFjC5mFZubhIxea?dl=0


What was the OCI up until that point?

Hard to say. I've only had it for a year and changed the oil several times with additives to help clean it out. Before that, it sat quite a while, being used infrequently, since it needed a lot of work. Previous owner is very automotive savvy and probably did proper oil changes with quality filters. Before that, the previous owner's kid drove it, probably not changing the oil or doing maintenance stuff on it. Before that, it was stolen twice and auctioned off. It's had a hard life
smile.gif
 
Did you clean as much of the engine's internals as possible? From the pics you posted, it was pretty nasty in there.

High Mileage blends advertise that the oil contains more cleaning agents, so even though you won't benefit from the seal conditioners, the extra cleaning additives in HM blends will help clean up whatever build up remains and will help keep it clean.

Of course many will say that a synthetic oil will do the same, so it's a personal choice at the end of the day.

I vote HM oil for a HM engine though. (75k miles is not considered high mileage, in my book. That's an engine just finishing breaking in)
 
Originally Posted By: Artem
Did you clean as much of the engine's internals as possible? From the pics you posted, it was pretty nasty in there.

I didn't do much on the internals but the oil pan came off and I ran it through a parts washer to clean it inside and out. Of course all the gasket surfaces were thoroughly cleaned several times. The engine was upside-down most of the time and I didn't want to get anything up into the cylinders. I did take the oil pump pickup tube off and clean it out. A lot of [censored] came out, including a phenolic cone from one of the hydraulic lifters.

Originally Posted By: Artem
High Mileage blends advertise that the oil contains more cleaning agents, so even though you won't benefit from the seal conditioners, the extra cleaning additives in HM blends will help clean up whatever build up remains and will help keep it clean.

Of course many will say that a synthetic oil will do the same, so it's a personal choice at the end of the day.

I vote HM oil for a HM engine though. (75k miles is not considered high mileage, in my book. That's an engine just finishing breaking in)

Your logic sounds good to me. While the inside isn't sludged, there's a thin layer hard-baked stuff (like a varnish) in there that would be nice to loosen up.
 
Those 4.0 ford engines are hit and miss i know some that have well over 200,000 but we see many of them needing rebuilts at under 60,000 miles
 
It depends on what you mean by rebuilt. The bottom end on these engines is very stout. However, there's issues with the lower intake gasket leaking oil & coolant, heads cracking and leaks with age. Much like a Dodge with a Cummins, everything surrounding the engine starts to fall apart before the engine does
smile.gif


*EDIT*
Had a chat with a Valvoline rep. They had this to say:
Quote:
While you certainly have the option to run whichever oil you choose, in a higher mileage engine such as your 1991 Ford Explorer, the increased level of detergents and seal conditioner in our Valvoline MaxLife product will help keep the engine clean. Even though you have changed or will be changing the seals in the engine, its never too early to begin utilizing the seal conditioner within MaxLife's additive package.
 
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I'd stay with a synthetic blend, but not necessarily a high mileage. If you get leak issues down the road, go back to a HM oil - MaxLife red bottle is still the best of those IMO. With 5000 mile OCIs, synblend is more than enough.
 
Originally Posted By: bigt61
I'd stay with a synthetic blend, but not necessarily a high mileage. If you get leak issues down the road, go back to a HM oil - MaxLife red bottle is still the best of those IMO. With 5000 mile OCIs, synblend is more than enough.

I only happened to see MaxLife blend in the red bottle, MaxLife full syn in the silver bottle with red label and the SynPower in the single silver quart bottles. At least that's Valvolines offering locally.
 
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