Best Oil for 2v ford 5.4 in a pickup, short tripped some.

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I live less than 2 miles from a parts store, my workplace, a dollar general, gas station, stihl dealer, my in laws, a veterinarian, a tire shop, UPS, a Post office and a grocery store. Pretty good for a town of 1200 people.

1998 F-150 with a 5.4 (2v) gets short tripped horribly, a couple times a week i'll take a run to the river or something and try to burn out the water but especially in the winter i see goo build up under my oil cap.

I've been running quaker state conventional 10w-30 and napa gold oil fiIters. don't appear to burn any oil, had the truck over 20,000 miles generally change every 3-5 and i'm never low. Been searching these forums and I hear all kinds of different ideas, manual reccomends 5w-20 but then people say on something with 160k you should go thicker, but some people don't think so do what ford says.

Midwest, i'm willing to run a different oil in the summer and the winter, I don't baby this truck it's a tool. Pulls a boat, camper, pontoon, another truck on a trailer, i'm not hesitant to floor it but do want to maintain it the best i can. Also my Daily Driver to get me to work and back.

So i guess I'm asking what oil would be best for the above situation, if any would work well for short trips or if i should suck it up and get up thirty minutes earlier to drive out of town then back to work.

Also any recommendations on diff fluid? Had this thing submerged in the backwater and need to address that.

I want to be one of those guys with a 300k motor and the way it's ran so far and the fact that it burns no oil at all, i think it's a good candidate.
 
I'm using Mobil 1 10w30 high mileage in my 90s era trucks and Supertech differential fluid. Nothing wrong with your current oil choice though and no need to get up 30 minutes earlier to drive around. You should be fine with your current habits.
 
Just keep using what you have been doing. From experience if you reach your mileage goal it won't because of motor oil you decided to use.
 
so oil doesn't get up to temp very often, which means it's too thick most of the time it's driven.
 
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i'm not sure I'd run a 10w-30 in a 5.4 that's short tripped. They really don't like to be short tripped, especially since a good portion of them have oil coolers.

With that said, I run 5w-30 high mileage in my 1997 F150 5.4 engine. The oil cap that came with the engine reads 5w-30 so that's what I'll run.
 
If reaching a mileage goal isn't due to good oil selection what is it from then? Blind luck? Not disagreeing just curious.
 
Maintenance habits and a willingness to fix big ticket items on an older, higher mileage vehicle, usually.
 
I owned a 1997 F-150 / 5.4L
Probably one of the best trucks I've owned in the 45 years I've been driving
I used only QS green bottle 5W-30 changed it every 5K Miles and I logged 240,000 trouble free miles
Sold it and the guy I sold it to 8 years ago still driving it today
 
kstanf150 it's honestly been a great truck, I have an egr valve that keeps getting gummed up (probably from my short tripping) if the egr valve gets stuck open it idles rough. but other than that everything i've done has been preventative maintenance. For what I paid it's insane I got a 4wd, v8, with leather captains seats, air and heat. What more can a guy ask for.

My 24' pontoon has an odd trailer with the tires all the way at the back so i'm thinking over 1000 pounds of tongue weight on the ball, truck don't care hardly squats, I kick off overdrive myself and it'll drag that heavy sail along as fast as I want to go.



anyway I'm doing the green bottle as well I'll switch to 5w30 at least this next one cause it'll be winter.
 
Originally Posted by el_cheapo
I live less than 2 miles from a parts store, my workplace, a dollar general, gas station, stihl dealer, my in laws, a veterinarian, a tire shop, UPS, a Post office and a grocery store. Pretty good for a town of 1200 people.

1998 F-150 with a 5.4 (2v) gets short tripped horribly, a couple times a week i'll take a run to the river or something and try to burn out the water but especially in the winter i see goo build up under my oil cap.

I've been running quaker state conventional 10w-30 and napa gold oil fiIters. don't appear to burn any oil, had the truck over 20,000 miles generally change every 3-5 and i'm never low. Been searching these forums and I hear all kinds of different ideas, manual reccomends 5w-20 but then people say on something with 160k you should go thicker, but some people don't think so do what ford says.

Midwest, i'm willing to run a different oil in the summer and the winter, I don't baby this truck it's a tool. Pulls a boat, camper, pontoon, another truck on a trailer, i'm not hesitant to floor it but do want to maintain it the best i can. Also my Daily Driver to get me to work and back.

So i guess I'm asking what oil would be best for the above situation, if any would work well for short trips or if i should suck it up and get up thirty minutes earlier to drive out of town then back to work.

Also any recommendations on diff fluid? Had this thing submerged in the backwater and need to address that.

I want to be one of those guys with a 300k motor and the way it's ran so far and the fact that it burns no oil at all, i think it's a good candidate.

PYB 5W30 every 5K miles.
 
Use what you want and what works.

I have no problems running a xw-20 in my 5.4, mostly short trips (I am 3 miles from work and pretty much anywhere else I go in it). I may not drive it for 1 week sometimes when the weather is nice since I ride my motorcycle most of the time.

The timing chain tensioners tend to do better long term with thinner oil (pressure builds up and flows faster to the tensioner), but you got to where you are at using what you use, so maintanance is usually more important that choosing between a 20 wt and 30 wt oil.
 
I would go with Shell RGT either 5w20 or 5w30 whichever Ford recommended back then for your truck and 0w20 in the winter, the thinner oil will allow it to warm up quicker and flow easier at startup too.
 
Originally Posted by el_cheapo
kstanf150 it's honestly been a great truck, I have an egr valve that keeps getting gummed up (probably from my short tripping) if the egr valve gets stuck open it idles rough. but other than that everything i've done has been preventative maintenance. For what I paid it's insane I got a 4wd, v8, with leather captains seats, air and heat. What more can a guy ask for.

My 24' pontoon has an odd trailer with the tires all the way at the back so i'm thinking over 1000 pounds of tongue weight on the ball, truck don't care hardly squats, I kick off overdrive myself and it'll drag that heavy sail along as fast as I want to go.



anyway I'm doing the green bottle as well I'll switch to 5w30 at least this next one cause it'll be winter.



I wish now I'd never sold it and kept it to see just how many miles it would go till something broke

Just FYI
With a Ford and doing short trips
Take a long drive a couple of times a week and put your foot thru the firewall a few times
Fords like to run !!!ðŸ‘
 
Originally Posted by el_cheapo
If reaching a mileage goal isn't due to good oil selection what is it from then? Blind luck? Not disagreeing just curious.



The motor oil quality today is so good if you follow the factory recommended OCI and recommended oil grade and certification you will not have a oil related failure.
 
I've got a '98 F250 with the 5.4 engine. My truck has done it all, both short-tripped and heavy towing.
My oil of choice is now Shield Choice oil, formerly TropArtic. Watch the Orscheln farm store sales and get it for under $2/quart.
Filters are now Hastings, also under $2/filter which were RockAuto closeouts.
My truck has over 250K miles with the original engine and transmission.
However, I have put in 8 Timesert inserts so I no longer have to worry about the spark plugs.
 
Originally Posted by GumbyJarvis
5w30 PYB/QSGB
Motorcraft filter

3-5K OCI



Can't go wrong with that recipe !ðŸ‘
 
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