What range of years take the same clutch? Mine is a 96, 2WD, 4.0 5speed

My truck has high mileage and I am thinking of giving her some TLC. I am thinking of adding a motor additive of some kind to try and keep her running nice and smooth. The oil stays nice and clean and i don't think it uses any. I do know it leaks some though.Anyway, I want to get opinions on what if anything you guys/gals use.

 

^^^It'll run just fine and live to a ripe old age without funky oil additives, just change the oil and filter regularly. On the leak, look and see where it's coming from and if it's an easy fix, like tightening a valve cover. If you can't pinpoint it, wash the engine, drive for awhile and look. Of course, depending on how slow/fast it leaks, it may take less or more time to find it. If it's something that takes some doing to fix, like a rear main, and you don't want to tear into it, you might consider high mileage oil. High mileage oil differs only from the regular stuff in that there is an additive designed to soften the seals a bit and hopefully lessen/stop leaks. BTW, I would never, ever pour high mileage oil in an engine that wasn't leaking. Which get's back to what I said about trying to fix a leak by tightening loose fasteners on bolt ons, a leak that high mileage oil probably wouldn't fix.

 

Yes, i do believe the oil is coming out of the valve covers. I have it booked to go to the mechanic to have him tighten the manifold bolts as suggested:) Thank you! I may be able to do the valve covers myself as they are pretty accessible. I can't believe the condition of this truck for the miles on it; 319,000+

What are your thoughts about synthetic oil for the old girl?

 

just curious why? i run valvoline maxlife in my truck,dads car, and my moms van and saturn...no problems what so ever and i change it every 3k

 

I'd steer clear of the mechanic and tighten the bolts on valve covers and the oil pan myself. It's free, it's quick, it's easy, and imagine how satisfied you will be doing it yourself. Just don't overtighten and break one. If yo don't have the tools, but them, the money you save by not paying the mechanic will pay for your tools.

Oil talk ranks right up there with politics and religion, and nearly always it opens up a lot of talk and a can of worms, replete with every prophet speaking being armed with the "correct answer". With that said, here we go. I've read claims that putting synthetic in an old motor causes oil leaks/slow seepage called weep. Of course, that will be debated. I used to be religious to dino oil of always the same brand. I've personally witnessed people who swap brands, then they started to see oil consumption begin, and it went away when they go back to their old favorite. Then again, I've seen examples where nothing like that happens. FWIW, I've experimented with swapping brands and never had a consumption problem but I've only tried this on my current rig.

I've carefully experimented and documented my comparison results between dino oil, synthetic and semi synthetic and saw no benefits in mileage or power whatsoever. It starts the same in the winter and summer, no benefit. No engine temp differences between synthetic and dino oil, no benefit. I can get 250,000 miles out of an engine on dino, the only reason I don't know how long they last is I'm not the last link on the chain of ownership. However, my last Ranger that I bought with 2 miles on it now has over 300K and the current owner tells me it's still not using any oil, and that was always fed dino. I'm generally on the buy a new truck every 10 years or 200,000 miles, whichever comes first. Me likes to change oil just before the 5,000 mark, and all the synthetic did was add cost. Therefore, since I like clean oil and I can't prove any benefit with alternatives, I stick with dino unless something, like my rear axle, is speced for synthetic.

My conclusion is that best oil for any engine is any major name brand that is clean, replaced on a regular basis, and of the correct viscosity, and a quality filter is used (meaning no Frams or Pennzoil brand filter, used to be good but that ended long ago). None of this Amsoil (aka SCAMSoil) 25,000 miles between changes stuff with microscopic crud floating around in it that can't be removed by a filter because it's too small to be trapped, floats right through the filter, and therefore accelerates wear. But hey, some people think Scamsoil is greater than sex, so as long as they're happy, I'm happy. I've also seen people buy new cars, change the oil at 1,000 miles, never change it and go to 100,000 miles, change it and sell it. I have noticed that they aren't using oil either. These were cars, not trucks, and trucks that get used as they were intended to be used. Even though I don't worry about the next guys experience at 150,000 or 200,000+ miles, I won't be doing that to my vehicles.

 

As a matter of personal opinion, I can see no good reason to soften seals that are currently not leaking; the idea of doing that bothers me. I'd really hate to risk weakening a front/rear mail seal and start a leak.

 

i can see where your coming from

 

I like to do oil changes every 3,000 miles. (Yep, even though I'm Canadian, I am old and stubborn enough to keep my mind on 'normal' counting) I have always owned older vehicles and have been really fortunate by asking questions and sometimes being what my friends call "over cautious". Don't care. My 97 GMC has 318,000 on her too and with TLC she's doing fine.

Yes, i will do the oil pan (forgot that) and the valve covers myself. Have lots of tools:)

REALLY informative. Thanks very much. Curious about your Fram comment. I have always used fram and often the extra service one (has a diaphram in it) What filter brand do you use?

 

i either use motorcraft or purolator(same thing...purolator makes the motorcraft filters)

and x2 on fram

 

anyone know the answer to my clutch question? I have some options for used clutches.

 

Motorcraft (strange, they are made in USA and NOT China) or a Wix.

Once upon a time, Fram used to make a good product; somewhere along the line that went down the drain. I've had brand new ones leak right after install. No, they weren't overtightened either. If you troll the net, you will find some very good write ups, along with pics, comparing the construction, materials used, minimum particle size trapped by the filter material, and the internals of major brands of oil filters. The fact that Fram glues the pleated filter element ends to cardboard scares the hell out of me. Better brands, and that's just about everyone, glue the pleated filter material to rubber. Bypass valve material in a fram = plain rubber, bypass valve material in a Wix or Purolator = (surgical grade?) silicon rubber. Compare the face of the filters where they screw onto the engine, you may notice that Fram is light on providing for good oil flow (fewer holes but maybe bigger or more but smaller, end result is not as much area for flow as competitors). Seriously, I used them for ages until I got into it and researched. After what I learned, I wouldn't use a Fram on my lawn mower.

Do some digging and reading on the net, you'll find open minded, non-biased, non-opinionated studies and comparisons of the brands. I bet when you're done with that, you won't like Fram anymore. I know I didn't. Reading about collapsed Fram internals found on a BMW didn't thrill me much either. I have to wonder how much paper is stuck in funny places in that guys engine.

*It seems that on some models of vehicles, the filter material that Fram uses may be overly restrictive. One vehicle that I've read about people having Fram problems with on Rangers and Explorers with the 4.0. Delayed build of oil pressure (this means delayed lubrication at startup, the worst of times for wear), low oil pressure at idle, and lifter clatter at startup allegations have been levied against Frams, and when the Fram went away the noises and low oil pressure issues away.

 

I don't know and I don't wanna guess, but if you look on rockauto for your model they should have applications for the parts. Not that this is ever a 100% guarantee of course, but something to look into.

I have never enjoyed doing clutches. On that note, the last time I did one on my last Ranger, I went down to Ford and bought brand new Luk clutch parts (no thanks to any rebuild) and a pilot bearing. I also threw in a new slave cyl (Raybestos) since there's never a better time to deal with that then when the tranny is out, and I put in a new throwout bearing. I made it to something like 165K miles on the original clutch, the only problem that developed was that the pilot bearing was going bad. I didn't want to deal with a clutch on that truck again.

 

I got a new bearing and slave cyl for $40. I figure that while he has it apart, I could do the clutch/plate and disc? I'm not touching it. That's what a mech is for:)