Hey guy's quick question on motor oil .I have a 02 7.3 Ex I want to run the syn 5-40 for the winter but the owners manual states the lowest recommended weight is 10-30 . Has anyone run the 5-40 and been fine or should I just suck it up and find the 10-30 around somewhere .
Joe

 

5W-40 will be fine year 'round. You don't say where you are located, but if there are Menard's stores in your area they carry Rotella 10W-30 conventional oil.

 

A synthetic 15w-40 is going to flow better than a conventional oil. There are guys up in Alaska on this forum that run 15w-40 syn year round.
AMSOIL 15w-40 has a pour point of -44F (I'm sure the other syn are close to that). Their 5w-40 beats that by only 3 degrees...

 

The idea of split weight oil is that it acts like the lighter weight when it is cold and the heavier weight when it is warm. 5w40 will actually give better protection than 10w30.

 

I have looked at Menards around here and they don't carry it ,I'm just outside Chicago. I was more worried about the whole oil for the injecton is it gonna mess with it being a to thin of oil ?

 

Menards carries the Rotella standard DINO oil NOT the synthetic. I think I seen it on sle yesterday for $8.98 a gallon. I get the Rotella synthetic from AutoZone for $20.00 a gallon and run it year round truck sounds better and starts better in the winter. Wal Mart has the Rotella Synthetic also but they want $22.00 a gallon.

 

Menards is where I bought the Rotella 10W-30 my ol' Benz calls for in the winter. It's in the white jug just like the 15W-40.

5W-40 is only thinner than 15W-40 at cold temps. At operating temp it is just as thick as the conventional oil. It will work just fine in the HEUI system and will not harm the engine.

Consider 10W-30 as the "low-buck" alternative to the 5W-40 synthetic. Either one will work fine and make cold starting easier, but you need to make sure you get the 10W-30 out of there before the weather warms up. You can just leave the 5W-40 in there until it's time for your next regularly scheduled oil change.

 

Yeah that's where I have been buying my 15-40 rotella they just don't for some reason have the 10-30 .I just wondered if the 5-40 caused any problems with the heui on the 7.3 .I run the syn 5-40 on my Dodge and just hate having a bunch of different grade oils around .
Joe

 

Everything in your sig will be perfectly happy on the 5W-40 Rotella Synth. Even the ol' F-Body.

 

No problems running that weight from all the old Ford boys I knew up in Alaska. Actually perferred for cold starts in the -20 mornings up there in Anchorage, AK. If you are going to seriously mod that X, the PMR's on that truck will only hold about 400HP-450HP. You'll need to swap up for forged or billet rods, expensive and getting very tough to find (billets that is). I just went through this whole deal with my 02 stroker. Expensive to get some good HP out of the old strokers (injectors, HPOP, transmission, turbo, rods, chip, exhaust, intake, intercooler, etc, etc, etc).

 

I'm probably just gonna get a downloader ,and a exhaust for the Excursion and be done . That should keep the wife from complaining that it's a dog compared to the truck .

 

Ya, after I wrote it I thought, wow, little overboard for most saying they are modding. May I suggest Diablo or SCT Livewire as 2 very capable tuners for the Ford.

 

I was looking at the sct downloader with tunes by jody,seems to be the way to go .

 

Jody Tipton has some very good tunes. Well known by the Ford guys. You will be very happy.