Oil for a 2001 Ford Excursion 7.3 diesel

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I have a 2001 Ford excursion 7.3 diesel. What is the best oil to use? I use the arch oil additive. I live in Michigan and the truck doesn’t get used in the winter. It has 80,000 on it.
 
Travellers 15W-40 in 5 gallon pail, good oil and cheap.

The 7.3 loves any 15W-40.
 
15w-40 will be the best if you don't drive in the winter A 5w-40 would work all year.
 
Delvac 1300 Super 15-40 is fine and today it is crazy cheap see the thread here. 80,000 miles is just taking off the factory wrapping paper on that engine.

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4842199/Mobil_Delvac_1300.__$1.76_a_ga#Post4842199
 
What was said about Travellers from TSC or Supertech 15w-40. Both are excellent oils and cheap and made the same place. Lose the Archoil. The 7.3 does NOT need it. Just go with conventional oil and 5k oil changes. You'll be good to go.
 
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Originally Posted By: 2fast4you
...... What is the best oil to use? ....

There is no "best" oil; not one that anyone here is going to be able to prove with definitive success. The rest will just be posturing, mythology and rhetoric.

Any decent inexpensive HDEO will do, especially since you're not running in winter.
 
Check the major oil manufacturers websites for rebates and the large chain auto parts stores for sales on HDEOs. When HDEO rebates and sales coincide, combine the sales and rebates together, and you will end up paying a low price for a major brand of HDEO. Any major brand of conventional HDEO will work just fine in the 7.3L Powerstroke.

If you are concerned about the phosphorus level in the CK4 HDEOs, stick with brands that have >1,000 PPM of phosphorus. These are the HDEOs that typically meet Ford's WSS-M2C171-F1 specification. The WSS-M2C171-F1 specification is really applicable to the 6.7L Powerstroke even though Ford blankets the specification for all Powerstroke diesels.
 
As dnewton said, any off the shelf oil will work.

A better question might be: what grade oil to use? It gets pretty cold in Michigan so you might benefit from a 5w40 or 10w30. My Ex seems to start better in cold with 5w40 when unplugged but I could be dreaming.
 
I’ll probably get chewed up for this very non-scientific answer but...
I prefer to really not mess around with the way the things were done back in 2001. The 7.3 was engineered, tested and specified to run a CH-4/CI-4 oil. There was a ton of hubbub over the new CJ-4 standard and whether or not it contained enough of or the right combination of detergents and additives. The Pro-CJ-4 camp argued that the increased quality of the base oils used would compensate for the drop in additive quantity, even so much as to say that better quality base oil made the overall CJ oil quality better than CI oils. Pro-CI-4 people basically shouted back with the “don’t mess with it if it ain”t broken” argument. That would be me I suppose. Now things are even more complicated with the new CK-4 standard which presents an even greater reduction in additive packages. Again the pro CK-4 folks standard people are saying that the base oil quality has increased even further and the CK-4 packages are the best yet. I just don’t see how an oil with 40% less phosphorus than what a good CI-4 has can be better. I’ll stick with what works. Go ahead and slaughter this up. I sure someone thinks I have no idea what I’m talking about. That said...,

I have a 2001 F250 with 196,000 miles on the ticker. I religiously run CAT Deo 15w40. It can be purchased at any CATerpillar parts store for around $15 a gallon. 1gal, 5gal and 55gal is available. It is a very high-quality conventional CI-4+ oil with an extremely stout additive package and a TBN of 12 I believe. It is the current factory fill in all Caterpillar off-highway Diesel engines. My 7.3 runs like a top. This is the quietest oil I’ve found for the 7.3. I tried Rotella T5 CK-4 oil one time and the engine ran like crap. Those of you who own a 7.3 know that she will run differently with different oils. Mine is flawless with the CAT oil. My CCT test shows all 0.00 except on 3 (2.3) and 8 (4.8), original injectors. I have a DPTuner chip and regularly run 20.2 average mpg. Try the CAT oil. You won’t regret it. Thanks for listening!
 
None of that matters with the now ubiquitous ULSD. The only reason to stay with something "older" would be when lacking ULSD, and even then, one could just shorten OCIs. If I recall correctly, the OCIs on those 7.3s were extremely short anyhow, so all of this is moot. Should guys with early 5.9 L 12 valve Cummins engines be seeking CF oil, too?

It's all backwards compatible. Ford likes a panic every couple decades. I remember their panic in the first year or two of the 7.3 L Powerstroke over foaming.
 
With Michigan winters, I'd use a synthetic 5W-40, Rotella T6 or Mobil 1 TDT are excellent choices. The synthetic made a world of difference with cold starts on my 7.3 so I am a believer. It gets stupid cold in Montana too, even with a block heater she used to groan under 15W-40, with the 5W I don't even use the block heater anymore, cranks right up like nothing with little romp.
 
Originally Posted By: jongies3
With Michigan winters, I'd use a synthetic 5W-40, Rotella T6 or Mobil 1 TDT are excellent choices. The synthetic made a world of difference with cold starts on my 7.3 so I am a believer. It gets stupid cold in Montana too, even with a block heater she used to groan under 15W-40, with the 5W I don't even use the block heater anymore, cranks right up like nothing with little romp.


Perhaps reread the OPs post; underline my emphasis ...

Originally Posted By: 2fast4you
I have a 2001 Ford excursion 7.3 diesel. What is the best oil to use? I use the arch oil additive. I live in Michigan and the truck doesn’t get used in the winter. It has 80,000 on it.

No use in winter and summer in MI.
Just about any 10w-30 or 15w-40 conventional lube will do.
 
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Inexpensive Chevron DELO® 400 LE, 15W-40 will work beautifully in your PowerStroke 7.3L. Find it at Costco.
 
Originally Posted by RyanH1
I�ll probably get chewed up for this very non-scientific answer but...
I prefer to really not mess around with the way the things were done back in 2001. The 7.3 was engineered, tested and specified to run a CH-4/CI-4 oil. There was a ton of hubbub over the new CJ-4 standard and whether or not it contained enough of or the right combination of detergents and additives. The Pro-CJ-4 camp argued that the increased quality of the base oils used would compensate for the drop in additive quantity, even so much as to say that better quality base oil made the overall CJ oil quality better than CI oils. Pro-CI-4 people basically shouted back with the �don�t mess with it if it ain�t broken� argument. That would be me I suppose. Now things are even more complicated with the new CK-4 standard which presents an even greater reduction in additive packages. Again the pro CK-4 folks standard people are saying that the base oil quality has increased even further and the CK-4 packages are the best yet. I just don�t see how an oil with 40% less phosphorus than what a good CI-4 has can be better. I�ll stick with what works. Go ahead and slaughter this up. I sure someone thinks I have no idea what I�m talking about. That said...,

I have a 2001 F250 with 196,000 miles on the ticker. I religiously run CAT Deo 15w40. It can be purchased at any CATerpillar parts store for around $15 a gallon. 1gal, 5gal and 55gal is available. It is a very high-quality conventional CI-4+ oil with an extremely stout additive package and a TBN of 12 I believe. It is the current factory fill in all Caterpillar off-highway Diesel engines. My 7.3 runs like a top. This is the quietest oil I�ve found for the 7.3. I tried Rotella T5 CK-4 oil one time and the engine ran like crap. Those of you who own a 7.3 know that she will run differently with different oils. Mine is flawless with the CAT oil. My CCT test shows all 0.00 except on 3 (2.3) and 8 (4.8), original injectors. I have a DPTuner chip and regularly run 20.2 average mpg. Try the CAT oil. You won�t regret it. Thanks for listening!


Do you have a part number for the CAT Deo 15w40 CI-4 oil ?
 
Originally Posted by Garak
None of that matters with the now ubiquitous ULSD. The only reason to stay with something "older" would be when lacking ULSD, and even then, one could just shorten OCIs. If I recall correctly, the OCIs on those 7.3s were extremely short anyhow, so all of this is moot. Should guys with early 5.9 L 12 valve Cummins engines be seeking CF oil, too?

It's all backwards compatible. Ford likes a panic every couple decades. I remember their panic in the first year or two of the 7.3 L Powerstroke over foaming.


How does the contamination of the engine oil from injector lubricants compare to the contamination from Low Sulfur Diesel (1993) and can the current formulation of Diesel engine oils resist the oil contamination from injector lubricants?
When I write injector lubricants, I refer to Stanadyne injector lubricants, for example. What about contamination from 2-cycle oil being used as an injector lubricant?
 
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