i have a 97 f150, 5.4L w/ 174,000 mis. itz time for an oil change and i was wondering if Engine Restore oil additive is good or bad for the engine. thnx.

 

i heard from my father not to use it? not sure why but he blames it for a dead 289

 

Bad.

If you have a rod bearing or main that's a little on the decline, that s^^t will push it right on over the edge.

 

Heres a better additive -

Amsoil, 100% Synthetic motor oil. Add 6 quarts to an empty oil pan.

You just did the best thing you could for a high milage motor.

 

Sweet! I've heard good things about Amsoil. should i use 5W 20? what's best for cold weather?

 

That's up to you , I just stick with what the manual says there - I have 200k and use 5/30 - doesn't burn or leak.

I used castrol 50/50(50%syn), 5/30 most of it's life , just switched to the better oil.

 

sounds good! thnx for the info. i'll give it a shot tomorrow.

 

No prob

 

eh! i thought oils oil unless you play with synthetics lol.
i run penzoil 5-30 in my 97 4.6 with 180k. dont smoke for the majority of the time. although if it hits 5500rpm it burns a lil oil :/

 

Better keep that Penzoil in there. Wouldn't want you burning good oil.

 

Haha , he's gotta 5.4 on the back burner anyway, you need to pay a visit to that other thread to see what's up

 

If you haven't run synthetic before and you switch to it now....plan on having oil leaks. Amsoil is great stuff. I've always heard to only switch to synthetic oil if your engine is under ~75,000 miles. Synthetic has smaller molecules that will leak where regular oil will not.

I have used lucas oil stabilizer in my high mileage motors in the past and I think that stuff works great. I used the engine restore before and the guy at the auto parts store recommmended the Lucas oil stabilizer. I would recommend that over switching to Amsoil. Amsoil will protect fine, but I would bet money that you'll have some leaks with in the next few thousand miles.

 

That stuff is suppose to fill the grooves and stop blowby but I don't think it works that good. I guess it depends on how many quarts of oil you use at each gas stop.

About 8 years ago I was cleaning carbon off my pistons in a 302 and some of that carbon got in between the piston and cylinder and left some pretty deep grooves on the cylinder walls. So I just put the head back on and that cylinder's compression was below 100 psi as to 180 on the others. So a few years later I pulled the heads off again and the grooves in that cylinder were gone. I guess the chrome moly rings took care of that problem after a few years of runnings and compression was back up to 160psi The bore may be out of round by now and the engine ready for a rebuild but she sure does run like a raped ape.

 

I used that Restore stuff in my old Beetle motor and it definetly seemed to help. It burned significantly less oil and ran with a lot more pep, until the motor burned it all off.

People have debated over the usefulness of "mechanic in a can" fixes for as long as they've been around. Some swear by them, others swear at them.

The more recent war over dino vs synthetic oils is also not likely to go away anytime soon. Everyone has their armchair fluid physicist theories about one or the other, but after using using both types and blends, I can safely say that there was absolutely no notable difference. I use plain-jane Valvoline 10-30 in my 300 and with over 90k miles it runs as well as you could ask.

 

between me and the rest of the family we have around 14 ford engines running pennzoil... have not had any problems with it.

my truck was well used before i got it. 144k and it was run down pretty good.