CK-4 Diesel Oil for old 6.0l PowerStroke?

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Mar 6, 2015
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MN
My son is still in college and bought a used truck: 2004 Ford Super Duty F350 with the Navistar "PowerStroke" 6.0 liter V8 engine. Modern diesel oils were developed for the latest diesel engines, of course, so I'm having trouble finding which would be best for this older engine. Would appreciate BITOGer wisdom on this one. Detail below for reference.

I was with Cummins for 22 years, retiring in 2016. I researched the old Navistar 6.0l PowerStroke engine and found it uses Gen II HEUI Fuel Injectors. The HEUI of course is "Hydraulically-Actuated, Electronically-Controlled, Unit Injector", developed with Caterpillar. It was an interim EPA emissions reduction strategy prior to HPCR (High Pressure Common Rail Electronically Control AND Actuation). The problem with the HEUI was using dirty engine oil as a hydraulic fluid often caused sticky injector pintles, requiring injector replacement. Cummins used "HPI" that used fuel as a hydraulic fluid, varying the length of the injection plunger. It still used a mechanical cam to inject. CAT also had this on their bigger engines and called it "MEUI".

Anyway, the boy's truck was a farm truck that was dealer-maintained, so a pretty good deal despite the other problems with the Navistar 6.0l engine. Being a 2004, Navistar had already addressed some of the problems from the 2003 launch. It "only" has 113,00 miles on it and is in good shape. Still, he had it diagnosed and it already had 2 sticky HEUI injectors, so he's having all 8 injectors replaced with rebuilt.

He wants the correct engine oil for the new injectors to keep them as clean as possible for maximum service life. He should be able to get another 100,000 miles from this engine. The other problem with these injectors is oil flow. We live in the far north US, so cold start is problematic with a mineral oil. For this reason, I recommend using only synthetic year around. Synthetic also retards base stock oxidation breakdown - critical for HEUI injectors

Finally, the higher pressure required to use engine oil as the hydraulic actuation for the injectors required a higher pressure oil pump, which made antiwear far more important than would otherwise be with standard engine lubricating oil pressure (40-60 psi @ rating). I don't know what the injector oil pressure is, just that Ford made a big stink about to the point when the oils went to API CK-4, they tested a bunch and found them "insufficient" antiwear because the newer engines took the ZDDP out and lowered the phos so as to not poison the new SCR EPA TIer IV exhaust catalysts.

So Ford created an engine oil spec to demand the antiwear back, via new formulations. The spec is wss-m2c171-f1. I visited their approved oil list. The only 3 available in my region are:
- Motorcraft Full Synthetic Diesel (of course), only available at the dealer (unknown price), Amazon $53 / gallon, and O'Reilly's $40 / gallon.
A pretty ridiculous price for an API Group III engine oil, that Ford insists must be changed every 5,000 miles to prevent injector problems.
- Valvoline Premium Blue Extreme, available from Amazon, Walmart, O'Reilly's for ~ $29 / gallon. That's within the range of acceptable pricing.
- Shell Rotella T6, available all over the place around $22 / gallon.

None of the Mobil Oils are approved except Delvac 1 ESP 0W-40. Mostly only available in Canada - I can't find it anywhere online.

Which of those 3 above have the better recipe for the older HEUI engine? And please, no Amsoil diatribes about Signature Series API Group IV PAO being the best. Need to change every 5,000 miles to dump the soot from sticking the injectors.

Ready, set, GO!!!
 
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MC 10w30 and be done with it. Use OEM filters only. I've worked on the 6.0 since 2007.

Is it an early or late 04? ICP sensor on pass oil rail or under turbo?

The injection system uses up to 4000 psi oil pressure.

If you have tech questions feel free to PM me
 
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Your son can use any Diesel rated motor oil for his Ford PS Diesel.
Check the Owner's manual for viscosity requirement but I suspect, it needs xW-40 where x can be 15 (mostly Dino) or 5 (Synthetic) depending on the usage and climate.
 
Thanks mattd. Don't know what build sequence the truck was made in - just that it is model year 2004.
MC 10W-30 nonsyn? Recall I'm in mid-Minnesota, and MC is difficult to source + very expensive?
 
Ford is still hard-a$$ on meeting their oil spec. I understand this truck is out of warranty, but still don't want to mess around guessing if everybody's oil meets it when only 3 are on Ford's approval list per my OP.
 
Thanks mattwithcats, but I said I can get T6 5W-40 here, less $ than 0W-40. I'm looking for compare between T6, Premium Blue Extreme, and Motocraft, thx.
 
Motorcraft 10w30 is 18$ for 5 quart jug at local WM. It should be still CJ4
 
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T6 5w40 is easy to come by these days and Valvoline premium blue extreme is available at NAPA on sale for $21 a gallon a few times a year. You can also get either on Amazon for around $60 for a 3 pack of gallon jugs.

I use either when found on sale for my Cummins.
 
Thanks, but as per my OP, Delvac 1 ESP 5W-40 does not meet the required Ford Spec wss-m2c171-f1 for antiwear, ostensibly. It's not listed on the jug, and it is not on Ford's Approved Engine OIl list. Per my OP, only the 0W-40 grade is approved and listed. Not available anywhere I looked.

My question is which of the 3 approved oils is optimal, if any.
 
Not sure what "bulletproofed" means. There is a laundry list of things on "EngineBuilder" website that were design flaws, and Navistar's various & sundry attempts to fix them.

As I said in the OP, they fixed some after the 1st model year 2003, my son got the 2004 for this reason. It still has an insufficient head bolting design, so users the push it blow head gaskets. The bandaid fix from Federal-Mogul was a thicker, reinforced gasket to attempt to make up for the poor head bolt design. It helped, but still not enough.

This was Navistar's 1st experience with cooled EGR. Most manufacturers struggled with reliability, and Cummins did also. There were issues with clogged tubing and coated turbocharger compressor vanes.

I mentioned the sticky HEUI pintles in my OP, and son is getting all 8 replaced now. I want the right oil to meet them right away.

I can't remember the rest, it's easy to look up.
 
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