Oil changes are low...

[MPGmustang]

the original owner ran gtx 20w 50, a car manual say's "warning, if the engine is running thicker oil then it might be because it's louder on normal oil" or somthing like that.

I live in Phx AZ, where we get our 110 summers, should i be running this? or something less dramatic?

the main problem;
i have noticed every oil change, i put in 5 quarts to say full on dipstick, but i only pulled out 2.5~3 an some change every time and it said full on the dipstick before i drained it... any idea's?

oh yeah, it doesn't smoked or anything, it does run smoother after an oil change though.

Funny you mention the 10-30W & slick 50...

Am i supposed to run slick 50 every oil change, does it make a difference... or is it something i should be religious about when i change my oil?


Thanks
Richard

 

[fordconvert]

I assume thats a synthetic? Seems a little thick but if the engine is good and worn it should be ok in your climate. I have run oil that thick but usually in engines that are on their last legs. I would lean more to a 15-40 for a well used engine and 10-30 or 40 for a new tight engine after break in.

As for the level issue, are you checking it hot? Or checking it cold then running the engine for say 10 minutes before the change? Perhaps with oil that thick and cold a lot stays up top and just takes a long time to drain down?

 

[JackFish]

Did you include the oil left in the filter in your observations?
With regard to Slick50, lots of cars do very well without any additives.

 

[MPGmustang]

Ford Convert,
I don't think it's a synthetic it would've mentioned that on the label... Yes i'm checking it after i drive to or from work, or anywhere else i might go.. it's roughly a 20 min drive.

JackFish,
Yes i drain the filter too, then use a new one..

I usually take off the plug and then the filter, let it drain/drip for 1hr or so so that it drains completely (or as close as completely as i can get)

How many quarts is normal for a 200 I6 on an oil change?
it's a 3.3 liter so "3.5 qt(US Liq) = 3.31223 L" what happens to the other 1.5 quarts and the last .5 quart?

I think i have noticed one thing tho, when i add the new oil i go by what the dip stick reads, oil is cold and none in the parts but it's still 5 quarts vs the 2.5~3 i took out.

Thanks,
Richard

 

[Frankenstang]

Funny you mention the 10-30W & slick 50...

Am i supposed to run slick 50 every oil change, does it make a difference... or is it something i should be religious about when i change my oil?

I don't want to be on record as even indirectly touting the benefits of Slick 50. IIRC it's anti-wear additive is teflon, as to benefits I've not run it enough to say one way or another, it just comes in the 'High Mileage' Quaker State multi weight I am trying...it was neither a deal maker or breaker in terms of me buying the oil. I just wanted to give a multi-viscocity a shot, but I'm likely switching back to straight 30 or have considered giving the Rotella 15-40w Diesel a try.

How many quarts is normal for a 200 I6 on an oil change?
it's a 3.3 liter so "3.5 qt(US Liq) = 3.31223 L

3.3l is total displacement (EDIT: total volume of all 6 cylinders, 200 cubic inch standard measure...not oil capacity)...ford shop manual says 4.5 quart capacity for oil
hmmm...you've got to be losing some somehow
pvc?
combustion/burning?
leaks?

 

[MPGmustang]

Frankenstang: I didn't mean to put you on the spot or on record, just perusing posts on here...

Could the engine just be old and tired? to my knowledge it was reSEALED 15k before i bought it and i've put on 13k since... I don't know when/if it was rebuilt... plug gaps are .037 should i increase this as i have the 40k volt coil..

I'm not leaking to my knowledge, i've started to park over a pan to see if i am... nothing clean every morning. (been doing since last change on wednesday so almost a week)

okay any other tips or tricks i might beable to do would be helpful, i'm still searching the forum for some of my answers but thought i should post some anyways...

Thanks
Richard

EDIT: sorry didn't mean to derail my own thread

 

[GrantD]

Mpgmustang: In the interest of not derailing the thread either pm or start another one.

 

[Vin Man]

How many quarts is normal for a 200 I6 on an oil change?
it's a 3.3 liter so "3.5 qt(US Liq) = 3.31223 L" what happens to the other 1.5 quarts and the last .5 quart?

Richard - 3.3Litres is the displacement of your engine - not the volume of oil your engine uses.

3.3L=200cubic inches of displacement

200 in^3 x (2.54^3cm^3/1in^cm) x (1L/1000ml) x (1ml/1cm^3) = 3.3L
^3=raised to the third power

Displacement is a function of bore and stroke and measures as volume of air in terms of cubic inches or liters. Oil capacity is typically measured in volume of fluid in terms of quarts. I put 5 quarts in. I've honestly never measured how much I take out when I do an oil change - but I bet its real close to 5 quarts! 8)

Am I stating the obvious?

 

[Frankenstang]

200 in^3 x (2.54^3cm^3/1in^cm) x (1L/1000ml) x (1ml/1cm^3) = 3.3L
^3=raised to the third power

"Check out the big brain on Vinny"...sorry couldn't avoid the vague movie reference Vin Man, no offense.

Edit: sincerely...I'm impressed

I didn't think the author of a thread could be guilty of derailing it...wait a minute, let me look in the mirror

 

[Vin Man]

200 in^3 x (2.54^3cm^3/1in^cm) x (1L/1000ml) x (1ml/1cm^3) = 3.3L
^3=raised to the third power

"Check out the big brain on Vinny"...sorry couldn't avoid the vague movie reference Vin Man, no offense.

Edit: sincerely...I'm impressed

I didn't think the author of a thread could be guilty of derailing it...wait a minute, let me look in the mirror

LMAO! Every once in a while, I need to do a calculation to remind myself that I paid a lot of money for a college education in engineering. And I rarely get to use that part of my brain anymore.

 

[MPGmustang]

well i regapped the sparkplugs from 37 to 45 (i bet i can go farther), on plugs 5 and 4 i had black/tan spotted build up, not thick but build up..

if i recall correctly it's burning oil, right? but i'm not smoking, should i be concerned that it's not smoking and burning oil? (or maybe it's just not a huge amount of oil) last time i checked plugs were 1500 miles ago (month or two ish)

what would you do? (directed at anyone/everyone)


Thanks,
Richard

 

[Harte3]

In the olde days when gas formulations were different, plug reading was somewhat of an art. Contemporary gas formulations have not made it any easier today.

 

[MPGmustang]

HELP!!!

so about 500 miles ago i change the oil to full synthetic 10w 30 oil to see if it likes it... WRONG

Crap well i watched the DVD that came with my pony carb and they said that the Har. Bal. is ruber mounted (why didn't i think of this my dad had this problem) so they said to set the timing to where it idled the fastest.. okay sound's simple enough... while waiting for the warm up i play with timing just to see, bump the gas every so often.. with full open choke i start setting carb, bumping the gas to see where it will settle, then i noticed it's not coming down in idle???? i look in car at my tach 800 rpm, i go in engine bay and bump gas again little higher this time when i noticed the BIG WHITE CLOUD behind my car.... now i'm burning oil....

What did i do wrong? what do i do now? i did check the oil after i shut the car off, little higher than 'full' could it just be burning the extra oil? why didn't it do this earlier? or was my spark plugs just a warning?

Thanks
Richard

Edit: My uncle came over and pointed out that it's a water leak as it doesn't smoke when cold and slowly smokes more and more when it warms up (when there is more water presure we tooke the cap off to confirm this), and all the water that is misting out the tail pipe, my head gasket is leaking and we hope that the oil stay's the greenish (fresh clean oil) color it is... other wise i'll be looking into a new engine... but i should be able to drive it normally for a while and short drives...

 

[Vin Man]

HELP!!!

so about 500 miles ago i change the oil to full synthetic 10w 30 oil to see if it likes it... WRONG

Crap well i watched the DVD that came with my pony carb and they said that the Har. Bal. is ruber mounted (why didn't i think of this my dad had this problem) so they said to set the timing to where it idled the fastest.. okay sound's simple enough... while waiting for the warm up i play with timing just to see, bump the gas every so often.. with full open choke i start setting carb, bumping the gas to see where it will settle, then i noticed it's not coming down in idle???? i look in car at my tach 800 rpm, i go in engine bay and bump gas again little higher this time when i noticed the BIG WHITE CLOUD behind my car.... now i'm burning oil....

What did i do wrong? what do i do now? i did check the oil after i shut the car off, little higher than 'full' could it just be burning the extra oil? why didn't it do this earlier? or was my spark plugs just a warning?

Thanks
Richard

Hey Richard. I don't know that the synthetic is causing your problem. However, I would only use synthetic if the engine is fresh. If it has lots of miles on it already, I would just keep running regular oil. With my new engine, I plan on running regular for first 5000 miles, then switching to synthetic.

Regarding the smoke, have you made any adjustments to the idle mixture? This is what leans/richens the mix. I would utilize the procedure Pony recommended - turn distributor to get max idle, then readjust idle mix. If you need some help, come on by and I'll help you do it. You should not need to make any adjustments to the choke - Pony sets that at their factory.