Whats the best oil & weight for a Ford 6.0
Oil Reconmendation
- Thread starter GaTrucker05
- Start date
What does the Owner's Manual say?
danthewolf00
Veteran Expediter
Go for a synthetic oil cost more but better properties than standard oil.
What ambient temps will it be running in?
Not sure I'm in Southeast mostly, a few trips of north.
The HPOP system on these can be sensitive to long term low ambient temps. Had I read your location earlier, I probably wouldn't have asked. If you were driving around Canada constantly, you would need to consider using a 10w-30 (or whatever Ford recommends), but in Georgia you don't. A 15w-40 oil is fine.
The HPOP system does put the oil under more shear stress than engines with other fuel systems. One can expect the base oil to shear and the oil to lose viscosity over time.
Another thing to consider is that sludge and debris tends to build up in a few places in the HPOP system. I've seen blobs of this stuff collect in corners near the stand pipes. Ideally, you'd want this crud to remain in circulation and get collected by the oil filter instead of breaking off like a chunk of cholesterol and giving an injector a heart attack.
Yet another thing to consider is that the HPOP system does not like oil aeration. Granted, most modern diesel engine oils have additives to combat aeration, along with dispersants to keep junk in circulation and viscosity index improvers to combat viscosity loss caused by shear stresses.
I realized I haven't answered your question yet. All modern diesel engine oils have additives to combat these exact things. Which one works the best is going to have to be determined using oil analysis, especially if an extended drain interval is part of your goal.
The oil psychos over at bobistheoilguy.com have probably already answered this question using oil analysis reports as proof. They probably all disagree, even with one guy using Amsoil and someone else using Supertech from Wal-Mart (which is actually quite a bit better than some oils with a much higher price tag).
Anyway, I'd check it out. In the meantime, I'd use whatever name brand 15w-40 oil is on sale that meets the specifications called out by Ford for that engine, and change it at the interval that best describes your driving habits.
Thanks for the replies.
Running 5w30 229.5 approved synthetic for the winter in 2006 Sprinter.