Additives
Technical Article Contributor
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 2,804
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From: Wisconsin
None at all. I have treated three of my four vehicles with Auto-RX. As I understand, there are already enough additives in oil to give superior performance.
I did add Prolong to one vehicle when my first son turned 16. I believe it saved the engine because he told me one day that the oil light was on while he drove it and wanted to know what to do.
There was no oil on the stick, and I forget how many quarts it took, but it was enough to give me that big eye look.
I did add Prolong to one vehicle when my first son turned 16. I believe it saved the engine because he told me one day that the oil light was on while he drove it and wanted to know what to do.
There was no oil on the stick, and I forget how many quarts it took, but it was enough to give me that big eye look.
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 1,247
Likes: 0
From: El Cajon, CA
From those I have talked to in the lubricant industry plus many mechanics, don't waste your money on oil additives. As a matter of fact thier are few additives out thier (besides oil) that are actually worth spending money on.
So if you want to spend some extra money on oil, get some syntetic, and thats almost a waste of money as it really won't last that much longer unless your in a really cold or hot enviroment, or you race your truck.
Good oils to use are:
Kendall
Mobile 1
Castrol
AMSOIL
For gods sake don't use Pensoil! It has a very high parifin content and will build up gunk in your engine. And while i'm on it fram oil filters are crap too. Stick with a Ford or a Wix oil filter, not that expensive and work quite well.
Also as Rebel said, a good gasoline is importiant as well. Like Cheveron, Texeco, Shell, ECT. I have been told again by many mechanics that Arco is to be avoided, but thats on the west coast, gas is a bit diffrent thoughout the country.
I don't know how old your truck is but in the first 8000 - 10000 miles it is best to do 3000-4000 mile intervals on your oil change, after it breaks in you can go to around 5000-6000 miles with no problem (with a good oil) Some manufactures of oil say that you can go to well above 10,000 miles but I'm not quite sure about that, oil dosen't cost that much and I would rather spend a little bit more money than go that far beyone what Ford says.
Oh yea and my dad has sold motor oil now for over 13 years, so I am somewhat informed on this. He sells Kendall and castrol if you were going to ask.
So if you want to spend some extra money on oil, get some syntetic, and thats almost a waste of money as it really won't last that much longer unless your in a really cold or hot enviroment, or you race your truck.
Good oils to use are:
Kendall
Mobile 1
Castrol
AMSOIL
For gods sake don't use Pensoil! It has a very high parifin content and will build up gunk in your engine. And while i'm on it fram oil filters are crap too. Stick with a Ford or a Wix oil filter, not that expensive and work quite well.
Also as Rebel said, a good gasoline is importiant as well. Like Cheveron, Texeco, Shell, ECT. I have been told again by many mechanics that Arco is to be avoided, but thats on the west coast, gas is a bit diffrent thoughout the country.
I don't know how old your truck is but in the first 8000 - 10000 miles it is best to do 3000-4000 mile intervals on your oil change, after it breaks in you can go to around 5000-6000 miles with no problem (with a good oil) Some manufactures of oil say that you can go to well above 10,000 miles but I'm not quite sure about that, oil dosen't cost that much and I would rather spend a little bit more money than go that far beyone what Ford says.
Oh yea and my dad has sold motor oil now for over 13 years, so I am somewhat informed on this. He sells Kendall and castrol if you were going to ask.
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 682
Likes: 0
From: Anderson. South Carolina, CSA
Originally posted by gschein
RebelYell,
Are you using a SuperChip? Just curious why Premium gas.
RebelYell,
Are you using a SuperChip? Just curious why Premium gas.
) I highly recommend it , too , by the way.If you do not have a chip or modified PCM programming that advances the engine timing, there is no need to use premium. Our trucks are tuned from the factory to run on regular gasoline. Buying premium is a waste of money, nothing is gained by it. But.... if you have advanced the engine timing with a chip, high octane is a must.
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 133
Likes: 0
From: Mississippi
question
Ive always used "plus" (the 89 octane as opposed to 87) in my Honda Accord...I was planning to do the same when my Screw comes in but is that any better for the engine for a Screw without a chip or is it just a waste of money?
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Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 682
Likes: 0
From: Anderson. South Carolina, CSA
Unless they have changed something in the '03, it is a waste of money. My owners manual recommends 87 octane and that is all that you need.
The engine is factory tuned to run on 87 octane. BRIEFLY...without going into a bunch of detail, here is an explanation.
A higher octane rating in itself does not mean cleaner burning fuel or more power. The higher the octane rating, the less volatile the fuel is and the more heat that is required to ignite it...In engines that have timing advanced over stock settings, higher octane is required to keep the engine from knocking.
What does result in cleaner burning fuel and more power is a good quality fuel of the octane rating recomended by the vehicle manufacturer if stock, or by the aftermarket product manufacturer if you have modded the engine. It is hard to figure out who sells the best quality fuel, though. It also varies from region to region from all that I have read. In my area. Amoco and Texaco are supposed to be the best fuels (higher BTU when the fuel is burned which equals more power and better mileage). But, Amoco has been bought by BP and Texaco has been bought by Shell.....so....who knows right now.
The engine is factory tuned to run on 87 octane. BRIEFLY...without going into a bunch of detail, here is an explanation.
A higher octane rating in itself does not mean cleaner burning fuel or more power. The higher the octane rating, the less volatile the fuel is and the more heat that is required to ignite it...In engines that have timing advanced over stock settings, higher octane is required to keep the engine from knocking.
What does result in cleaner burning fuel and more power is a good quality fuel of the octane rating recomended by the vehicle manufacturer if stock, or by the aftermarket product manufacturer if you have modded the engine. It is hard to figure out who sells the best quality fuel, though. It also varies from region to region from all that I have read. In my area. Amoco and Texaco are supposed to be the best fuels (higher BTU when the fuel is burned which equals more power and better mileage). But, Amoco has been bought by BP and Texaco has been bought by Shell.....so....who knows right now.
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 1,247
Likes: 0
From: El Cajon, CA
Bottom line is if your engine pings or your gas mileage has gone down (for no apparent reason) then try a higher octance or a diffrent brand of gas.
A SuperChip of something similar will advance the timing as RebelYell mentioned above, thus if you ran the lower octane your engine would ping and basically run really poorly. High performance cars and trucks including those with superchargers and in some cases turbos will require the higher octane.
As engines get older (like over 100K) they may start to ping, but this normally shows up in carborated engines and not fuel injection systems.
On the west coast most I have talked to recomend the Cheveron brand for the most power content. Cheveron also puts more of thier "cleaner" chemicals in the 91 octance than the lower octanes but that sounds more like a advertising thing to me.
If you run a higher octane the computer will simply retard the timing a bit or nothing at all so the extra energy of the gas is wasted. You may at best see a slight improvment of mileage but nothing worth the extra cost unless you can get the 91 for the same price as 87.
A SuperChip of something similar will advance the timing as RebelYell mentioned above, thus if you ran the lower octane your engine would ping and basically run really poorly. High performance cars and trucks including those with superchargers and in some cases turbos will require the higher octane.
As engines get older (like over 100K) they may start to ping, but this normally shows up in carborated engines and not fuel injection systems.
On the west coast most I have talked to recomend the Cheveron brand for the most power content. Cheveron also puts more of thier "cleaner" chemicals in the 91 octance than the lower octanes but that sounds more like a advertising thing to me.
If you run a higher octane the computer will simply retard the timing a bit or nothing at all so the extra energy of the gas is wasted. You may at best see a slight improvment of mileage but nothing worth the extra cost unless you can get the 91 for the same price as 87.