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What viscosity oils are you using?

Hello again!
It's been a few months since I changed the oil in my T-bird and I drove it a few thousand miles lately, so maybe it's not a bad idea to change oil before winter. Remember my strange engine noise problem? I forgot to mention, but it went away after a week or so, I guess and hope it was simply a lifter.
I was just wondering what viscosity oils are you using in your 3.8 T-birds? 5W30, 5W40, 10W30, 10W40 or maybe a 10W60?
What's the factory recommended viscosity? What do you recommend?
Take care and drive safe!

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #1
i run 10W30

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #2
I always ran 10W-30 in my '86 3.8.
I also run 10W-30 in my turbo 2.3, but it's full synthetic.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #3
I run 10-40
It's Gumby's fault.

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #4
I have always run
0W30 in winter
5W30 in summer

except for my truck which is
15W40 summer
10W30 winter
but because of that thick winter oil it will not start when it cold out, but its the thinnest oil recomended in that case.
All dino (non synthetic) oil. 


I don't know what the climate is like in your region of poland, but unless you get below -20* C I would think that 10W30 or 10W40 would be fine.

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #5
10W30 year round in everything cept my '88TC which gets 10W40 Royal Purple.

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #6
a few diffrent types :D
Quote
there's only about a half a dozen man made objects that are herd by the human ear below 40Hz,a pipe organ,thunder,the space shuttle lifting off,a jet airplane taking off or landing,a large canon,an atomic bomb ignited in your back yard and the heat wave afterward oh wait you would be dead so you would'nt hear it scratch that!,and maybe beating your hear against a wall less then 40 times a second..rap music is'nt one of them!thats 40-60Hz@100+db the moving air is under 40Hz

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #7
:grinno:  just kidding 10w-40.. if it gets real cold there you might want to go 10w-30 in the winter in a 3.8L
Quote
there's only about a half a dozen man made objects that are herd by the human ear below 40Hz,a pipe organ,thunder,the space shuttle lifting off,a jet airplane taking off or landing,a large canon,an atomic bomb ignited in your back yard and the heat wave afterward oh wait you would be dead so you would'nt hear it scratch that!,and maybe beating your hear against a wall less then 40 times a second..rap music is'nt one of them!thats 40-60Hz@100+db the moving air is under 40Hz

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #8
Dunno bout you 3.8 guys but i'm running a 5w40 full synthetic in winter no problems so far.  I normally use 20w50 in the summer.
Quote from: Krazy_Kling;210178
Honda owners are like rabbits......they hide under your shed during the winter and then 30 of them come popping out around spring.
ASE certified parts specialist.
1988 Mercury Cougar Blue Max edition. SOLD
2004 Impala
My Cardomain http://www.cardomain.com/ride/799588

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #9
On My fresh rebuilted 3.8 carbed, I'll run on a 10w30 full synthetic, I don't drive this car in the winter...

Before rebuilt the engine, in the summer 2005 was a 20w50 castrol XLR/GTX...

My winter truck 300ci/4.9liter 10w30 Castrol 10w30, and for summer 20w50.

Dom.  :birdsmily:
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]1985 Thunderbird 3.8 carbed 57k original, summer car.
1980 Econoline inline 6 300ci 300k, winter/working.
1988 Base Bird finally crushed... RIP.

Dominique,  The Ridiculous, Fordus, crazyous!!!  :birdsmily:

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #10
10W30 summer and regularily 5W30 for winter though i'm going to try 0W30 this winter.

Always synthetic

Scott
1980 birds X 3, 1982 bird, 1984 XR7, 1988 TC

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #11
I ran 15w40 in the summer and 10w30 in the winter, synthetic as well.

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #12
Quote from: Tbirdmaniac;115445
On My fresh rebuilted 3.8 carbed, I'll run on a 10w30 full synthetic


I wouldn't break in any engine with synthetic oil. :dunce:

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #13
Normally I rum Castrol GTX 10W30 but I just put in some 10W40 to see if that quiets my valvetrain a little. I'm not really worried about extracting every fraction of a HP.

I'd like to add that Castrol GTX is excellent oil though. After 6 years  and about 70,000 miles when I took apart my 87 there was no sludge and the lifter valley actually looked relatively clean. I was shocked because I only changed my oil about every 8 to 12K miles.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
86 5.0 Turbocoupe (Katrina), 87 5.0 Sport (Rita)

What viscosity oils are you using?

Reply #14
These cars call for 30 or 40 weight oil that’s what the manufacture calls for if you run thinker like a 50 weight you could be starving certain engine parts and in time you will have problems the only reason you should run 50 weight oil is if your engine was rebuilt and the engine builder stated he build it for it. As for the 1st # 0W, 5W, 10W you can do what you want I recommend a low # in colder climates for easy start ups on your valve-train.