Synthetic Oil Damaging Engine??

So, my dad just threw a rod in his 97 F-150 and according to the dealership it was because he was using synthetic oil even though his owner's manual said to only use conventional. This engine only had 145k miles on it an I know for a fact he had his oil changed every 3k miles throughout the life of that truck. The mechanic told him that his oil pump was not equipped to handle the synthetic oil. I thought that the oil is the same weight so matter what the type just as long as it has the same rating? Sound fishy to anyone else? Oh and my dad said that when it started knocking he changed over to regular oil at his last change and it went away for a little while before his engine completely went. I don't get it...

 

That's BS, SAE certified oil, you can put what ever you want in your engine as long as the the oil weight is correct. 5W-30 is the same whether or not it is Dino oil or synthetic. The old pump makes no freaking difference what so ever.

 

That's what i thought but i guess the guy somehow has my dad convinced now that the synthetic oil is what did it (not that that is hard to do)...

 

That doesn't sound right to me on that one, that knocking could have been the lower rod bolts getting loose or space between the rod bearings and crankshaft, due to wear and not synthetic oil. Did he ever hear that knocking before at all? Maybe a couple thousand miles ago?

Never have heard about that with the oil pump, maybe he just doesn't know what happened and made that up or something?

What does everyone think on this one?

 

The engine damage had nothing to do with him running synthetic oil. More likely, it was the fact that it was a 90s-era Ford...

 

IMO--An engine is not going to "throw a rod" due to using a synthetic oil. There was obviously a mechanical problem and I seriously doubt the type of oil is going to cause it. Would have happened at some point with conventional anyways. If synth could have actually "caused" this, we would have already heard plenty more documented incidences. There's way too many people using synthetic oil in their engines that have run just fine. I'm not buyin' it.

 

What brand of oil were you using

 

To be honest with you, I have no idea. I think he just took it to those quick change places and payed the extra money for their synthetic oil change. Maybe that could have been his downfall.

 

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uhh get that thing back on synthetic...its not the fact that its runnin synthetic that threw the rod....its worse for you to run conventional now since hes been runnin synthetic its whole life...

 

When did he start using the synthetic oil?

Has he been using it recently? Or the entire life of the truck?

I call BS on the mechanic....... but... If the truck has been running on conventional oils most of its lifetime and you suddenly changed to synthetics, there could be some issues there. Synthetics penetrate more and cleanse also - which could disrupt the sludge/buildup that's already been in the engine for all those years.

But, I still call BS on the mechanic pulling that excuse out of his ass. The truck has 145K miles on it - it could be anything.

 

Ford + Quickie Lube Shops = Destined for Failure

I took an old G/F's car to a VW dealer for prematurely worn rear brakes (wore before the front ones).

I told the service advisor that something is wrong, hinting that the calipers were seizing up, and he had the nerve to tell me that newer cars have more of a 50/50 front to rear brake bias so it is normal. What an F-tard.



So yeah.... don't always believe these dealers.

 

Be glad he got that many miles out of it. My dad had a 96 F-150 that blew three engines before reaching 60k on each of them. With regular oil and maintenance.

 

If it has FORD in the name, that should be enough info for you! I had a 93 Ranger that was always getting fixed for some reason or another.

 

Late model (2005+) Fords are excellent vehicles in quality and reliability. This includes the F-series trucks.

But Ford didn't get turned around until about 5 years ago. During the 90s, they were shit...just as bad as GM and Chrysler. Of the Big 3, Ford is the only one that seems to be fighting its way back to competitive quality with imports.

But I would still never buy anything they made before the 2005 model year.

 

That's a bunch of B**L S**t. Synthetic vs regular wouldn't make a difference, but if you added any kind of "oil additive" that might make a difference, some of those snake oil things can loosen sludge and do bad things.

 

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I usually hate all domestic automobiles. I scoffed at anybody who told me to buy a ranger or something during my tacoma search.

But I must admit, Ford is really starting to get their shit together.

 

What engine was in the truck ? 4.2 v-6 or 4.6/5.4 v-8. I worked for ford for 20 years at the dealership level and they had sludge problems in the v-6 creating low oil pressure and piston slap problems causing excess play in the cylinders on the v-8's. In fact, when we did customer oil changes the motorcraft oil we used was a semi-synthetic speced by ford.synthetic oil did not cause your oil pump failure.

 

If i remember right it is the 4.2 V6