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Ford Explorer Community - Maintenance - Modifications - Performance Upgrades - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street
Explorer Forum Covers the Explorer ST, Explorer Sport, Explorer Sport Trac, Lincoln Aviator, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Ford Aerostar
For lifter noise I would use Lucas oil extender, I use it in my truck along with 10w30 synthetic as I have a wicked chain rattle at cold start up, Works great.
I tried Lucas last summer and it didn't do anything for me unfortunately. I had much better results with Seafoam last week. Almost instantaneous and still quieter than it was.
I use their fuel system product regularly. I don't know what it's doing for me, but a colleague told me a while back that it's like brushing your teeth every day. Good preventative maintenance. I've never had any fuel related problems that I know of so it can't hurt.
I'm definately going to keep that seafoam in mind for the next time I change my oil. And I think I should switch to 5w30 instead of 10w30 because my explorer has about 185k miles on it. Would you recommend that first before I try the lucas?
Why is that? They're both 30w oils. The only difference is the "5" version flows better at low temperature than "10". If you live in a locale with cold winters, 5w30 is better than 10w30.
I use 0w30. Amsoil doesn't even make their "Signature Series" oil in 5w30 or 10w30 because 30 weight oils are interchangable. Having it flow so well at super cold temps doesn't hurt either because I live in Canada. Having said that, the late EF member "Aldive" used the same oil in Florida. He didn't need the cold weather startup ability, but at operating temps 0w30=5w30=10w30. At cold startup temps, 0w is thinner than 5w which is thinner than 10w.
If you want "thicker" oil, go with a 40 weight and 20 weight if you want to go "thinner". Ford now recommends 5w20 for a LOT of their older engines (pretty much all except the SOHC V6 which 5w30 is recommended still).
Many people don't understand how to read oil ratings. I add you to that long list. There's one forum member who always chastises me for using "thin" oil when it's apparent he doesn't understand oil ratings despite being shown many external sites I've sent him to.
Lets not get to far off this thread; but oil weights, such as Ford recommended 5w20 in some vehicles is due to the much tighter machineing tolerances that are available today in the making of engine parts, the gaps are so small that a thinner oil is required to flow to all parts.
I am sure we could debate all day about oil thinness and oil quality lubrication propertys, but the fact is thicker oil stays on engine parts better.
Some used car salesman put heavy oil in a high milage engines to quiet them down because it sticks to the moving parts better.
I use 10w30 because it is a slight bit thicker than 5w30 and with the timing chain tensioner issue I have I need it to be super slick and stay on the parts, also with 200k mi on the clock the wear gaps in metal engine parts have become a bit bigger. I would use 5w40 but not a lot of oil manufacturers make that weight.
Anyway, to each his own. Never used Seafoam in the crankcase but I like it through the IAC valve when cleaning my intake. To me thinner oil is for gas milage, I would not trust any brand of 0W30 oil besides Amsoil to protect an engine, especially in the summer months and that is only because Amsoil has extensive tests to back it up.
If you dont mind, I'd like to know what the IAC valve is... I've been hearing a lot about it and I'm not too much into the mechanics of explorers yet but its strange that I'm just hearing of it now... From what I hear, if your explorer hums your IAC valve should be cleaned??
I'm not quite sure I know what the humming sounds like, but when i have the air on my truck does hum a little. And I did look up that thread on how to clean the IAC, but if thats not the humming I'm hearing then I dont wanna mess something up that just cost me time and effort.
Use the force oops wrong people. Use the search as celly said many good threads for iac cleaning and if its not the sound still good to clean it not a wast of time
I did. I've searched around and what I'm asking is about the "Hum" that it says. My truck hums but I'm not sure if its the same hum. This is the only good thread I've found on the subject http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84220 , but its still not 100 percent clear. Could someone else link me to another good one?
Are you talking about your air intake making a noise? http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=191915
There is a video in that link that describes what im talking about. I had that happen to me a few days ago and all I had to do to fix it was clean the fliter in the black cap.
Definately what I was looking for. Yeah mine does NOT do that. Wow. Mine hums a little when its doing something with the air, but nothing like that. So thank you!
There's one forum member who always chastises me for using "thin" oil when it's apparent he doesn't understand oil ratings despite being shown many 
