Oil Type

1996 V6 Explorer with over 213,000 miles on. What oil should I use?

5w30 or 10w30
If you want you can try synthetic but its expensive.

never never 10w 30

increasing the weight of the oil can be asking for trouble unless you have oil burning issues or something

another thread on here suggests 0w30 synthetic, but I'm still skeptical about that

when in doubt use the factory recommendation

I just changed to full synthetic at 213K and have had no issues, but make sure to inspect your engine first to make sure there's no leaks or issues

Electrohacker said:

never never 10w 30

increasing the weight of the oil can be asking for trouble unless you have oil burning issues or something

another thread on here suggests 0w30 synthetic, but I'm still skeptical about that

when in doubt use the factory recommendation

I just changed to full synthetic at 213K and have had no issues, but make sure to inspect your engine first to make sure there's no leaks or issues

Click to expand...

really? i never heard of that, i guess you learn something everyday.
when i got my truck there was a bunch of oil change stickers in it and they all said 10w30. ford recommends 5w30 so thats what im running, but synthetic.

Electrohacker said:

never never 10w 30

increasing the weight of the oil can be asking for trouble unless you have oil burning issues or something

another thread on here suggests 0w30 synthetic, but I'm still skeptical about that...

Click to expand...

What's to be skeptical about? Understand how to read oil ratings.

To refresh your memory:

0w30
5w30
10w30

are ALL 30 weight oils, i.e. they flow the same at operating temps (i.e. when engine is warmed up). The 0/5/10 portion of the rating measures how well the oil flows during startup only and at COLD temperatures. In other words, 0>5>10 on the flow front. Therefore if you live somewhere with cold winter temps, a 0w30 oil is always going to be a better choice for cold starts. 5w30 is a good choice in many cold climates that see subzero temps and 10w30 is a worse choice as it doesn't flow well when it gets cold. Hence, 10w30 is the better choice in southern climates. That being said, using 0w30 in a warm place will not hurt anything as all three oils flow pretty much the same at startup.

0w30 is NOT a "thin" oil unless you're comparing it to a 40 weight oil. 5w20 is "thinner" oil than 0w30.

Oil weights explained.

Current weather in Mishawaka,IN....

today 28
tonite 19

run no more that 5w30 in the winter for sure. Change your filter every oil change too.

SmoothJimmy said:

run no more that 5w30 in the winter for sure. Change your filter every oil change too.

Click to expand...

Agreed. If you want to switch it up, 5w30 is a great choice in winter and 10w30 is fine in summer (although 5w30 is too in summer). I only use 0w30 because Amsoil's flagship synthetic is only available in that weight (for 30 weight oils). I can tell you that it does it's job in the odd time here in Calgary when it gets down to the -35C range in winter. I use it year round.

What kind of oil?

Well, motor oil of course!

Heck, I'm convinced that if you had to, you could probably run these engines on gear oil, canola oil, olive oil, or baby oil. Any oil is better than no oil!

I am running 0w30 Amsoil in mine and love it.

10W-30 Castrol GTX year round.