Best oil grade for Ford Econoline Fleet

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Feb 4, 2005
Messages
408
Location
Oregon
My company has a fleet of 95-98 Ford E350's. They all have about 250K-350K miles on them. We have been using 10w-30, any other recommendations?

I've also been thinking about a high mileage oil. Maybe everything is too far gone at these miles, but it might be worth a shot.
 
Most of the engines have been completely replaced once. They typically go out around 150K. A few have the original engines.

I was wondering about 15W-40. I use it for our Diesels, thought it might make a good "older engine" oil as well.
 
I agree that a 15W40 all-fleet oil (Delo, Delvac, Rotella, Super-D III, etc.) is a very good choice. It would also cut your inventory stocking requirements, reduce the chance of incorrect fluid in various vehicles, and possibly allow you to get a better price through higher volume (I don't know how big a fleet you have or how big a purchaser you are).

Out of curiosity (no effect on my thoughts above), what engines are in these vans?
 
Since you'll be buying oil in bulk...might be worthwhile to buy 10W-30 Delo 400...ought to be a little better than the 15W-40 in the winter...

Or, maybe look to see what getting XD whatever that stuff is 0W-30 synthetic and pushing out your drains....but that might be problematic and/or not worthwhile.

Chuck
 
What's their usage? Going out at about 150k would seem to mean pretty severe use. I would have expected them to get more out of an engine. Fuel economy probably isn't an issue of too much consequence (it's bad always).

I'd probably go with the 15w-40 as others have recommended.


But the questions that I have are: What are the usage differences between the 150k engines ..and the 250-300k engines? If it's only drivers ..then I'd surely spend some time in the training room with the 150k crowd ..unless they put out whatever service that these vans provide in such excess that it makes sense to let them flog the things.

What service do you provide with these vans? I see that you're in "medical". Are these used in residential delivery and installation ..or something else??
 
Let's see here. I'm going off the top of my head.

4.9L 6cyl
7.5L 8cyl
5.8L 8cyl
5.8L 8cyl
6.8L 10cyl
2.7L Diesel (BENZ)
7.3L Diesel
7.3L Diesel
6cyl CAT - I don't touch this one! Takes 28qt oil and two filters. It's a BITOG'ers oil change dream.

The diesels are ambulances that drive fast on the interstate, no city driving. The gas engines are transportation vans that drive all day long. Mostly city driving, but often long distance highway driving as well.

Most of the gas vehicles have many miles on them. The engines that were replaced were originally the oldest ones, ie: 94's. The newest one's seem to last a lot longer. In fact the V10 is at 300K with the original engine and transmission. Service for these vehicles is weak at best. I decided to take up most of the minor service to help them last longer. That is in fact why I signed-up here on BITOG. Many different drivers have driven them throughout their service life, so I don't think that driver's have a whole lot ot do with it, I could be wrong. I honestly think that Ford has just done a better job recently at making engines that last longer. May just be my opinion.


Does anyone think that a high mileage oil would do better than a 15w-40 oil? If not, then I really like the idea of 15W-40's. The oil is cheap, and it's what I put in the diesels. That makes it really easy for me.
 
Just curious, does the company change the engines before they break? I was under the impression that these vehicles and police vehicles get sold at a predetermined mileage.

Thanks, Steve
 
Oh no, we're way to small for that. We're just a small medical transportation company that buys vehicles and runs them into the ground. Mainly because it's hard to make money for new rigs when 85% of your customers are on welfare.
 
Since those are the older non modular motors(except the v10, which is a modular afaik. but 15w40 shoudln't really hurt it, imo.) you can put upto 20w50 according to Mobil australia(model year 1982-1985, but the motors didn't really change at all in the years after that), so 15w40 would work fine.

offtopic.gif
Yeah 150k seemed a little low for those to last cause I was thinking they'd be ford modulars, and not the older(but still pretty good) motors. Most modulars usually hit 200k(atleast, as I have seen several people with 4.6's with over 225k not rebuilt and still going fine on f150 online forums) before they die, but with severe use they don't last as long ofcourse.

[ May 21, 2005, 04:18 AM: Message edited by: Schism ]
 
Just find a bulk distibutor (Exxon, Shell,) that services fleets, construction co's, city/state etc etc.

You are buying well over 12 gallons if you change your fleet's oil all at once. Check out a contratual agreement for a discount.

You could put Shell Rotella 5-40 Syn in all of those vehicles.
 
You don't have severe climate ..and the ones that see the most failures are certainly severe duty ..and maintenance is marginal.

I'd swap the entire fleet over to the 15w-40 that you use in the diesels. You may lose something on one ..but probably gain on the vast majority in getting 40 or 50k more out of them. Whatever you're doing now is not working well in units that should be getting 250k of functional service.

offtopic.gif


This can't be a non-profit organization. We have an ambulance company in town that has 20 units ..most never leave the bay and are hooked to ambilicals 24/7 since there are some type of grants to assist such organizations in maintaining the units (I dunno if it's state/federal/??). They even added on to the garage to fit more of them. They get the lion's share of all routine transports ..and squeeze out smaller organizations of the "non-competition" for such sustaining revenue.
dunno.gif
 
I saw your posting about oil for your fleet. I really like Schaeffer oil, and it can give you the lowest cost per mile. Their grease, gear oil and transmission fluids are tops, also. Schaeffer is huge in their synthetic blend products, equal in performance to other companies full synthetics and lower cost. In your case I'd run their conventional oil. It'll be better than any other oil I know of, and will gently clean those engines. After a period of time, maybe several months or a year, you might try the synthetic blends and see if the additional mileage between oil changes lowers the cost per mile even more. You can expect at least 10,000 mile oil drain intervals with good lab reports from this oil. Factor the cost savings of labor, filters, and downtime into your oil cost calculations.


Ken
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top