Martian

Slow down there, professor. Making me pull my emergency bottle of eye bleach while at work is not funny.

hahanson

That gave me a good laugh!

Steve08XLT

Currently using Mobil 1 Synth. 5w-20. 183K on the odometer. Aim to change it every 3K-5K miles due to highway commute (150+miles/day)

This might be a dumb question, but how many quarts are most people using in their 5.4L? I've always used 6qts and that puts the dummy gauge just past half. Should I be using 7qts?

Thanks

BadFish523

My 5.4 (2007) takes 7 qts. That's what the owners manual calls for too. I don't think that any other year models are different.

650NutKase

Uhhhhh....I hope you're kidding. The 5.4 3v takes 7 quarts...says so in the manual and is the only way you will read 'full' on the dipstick. 6qts will have you on the bottom hash marks on the dipstick, if even that....

Eric Kleven

Maybe you're missing a big freaking point of the whole story:
Passenger side tensioner had blown it's seal, phasers were shot, some of the bearing caps on that side had developed large clearances, and there wasn't enough oil pressure with 5w-20 to keep the VCT system operating as it should have been. (Also, the engine was varnished and sludged enough that running MMO for a 2k oil change with the Delo diesel oil had the oil so black I couldn't see the crosshatches on the dipstick. Chemtool flush at the next oil change had gelatinous globs coming out.)

Changing to thicker oil 'fixed' the problem (made it go away) long enough for me to go about my daily life until sufficient parts and time were available to 'repair' (set right) the problem. I also attempted to go back to 5w-20 after the first run on Delo, that lasted about 36 hours 'cuz the bucking mess was back. In went 5w-40; and that oil stayed CLEAN for 6,500 miles after the Chemtool flush.

When you 'Assume' you make an *** out of U and Me.

And now I use 5w-30.

hahanson

It should take 7 quarts.

Synthetic oil is superior to conventional oil by almost any measurement, but honestly if your commute is mostly highway and you're changing every 3-5k you're wasting money. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but a quality synth blend or conventional would work just fine.

Martian

This thread better not just turn into a big argument about oil again because it is meant for fact-based, cited discussion. Don't turn this thread into an argument. That is not what it's for. I'll scrub the absolute **** out of it and start barring people if that's what it comes to.

Be ladies / gentlemen and have polite discussion, free of passive or active / overt aggression, or go elsewhere.
And EVERYONE - again - cite your sources.

BadFish523

Ahaha here comes Scruffy Scruffington. I think its was going pretty well until right here at the end.

Martian

Gotta catch it early. Cleanup is difficult when there are too many pages.