so just wondering, where do you guy get your info for each oil?
Information on oil? I usually check out the manufacturer's sepcs and the
oil forums when researching but just like here you'll get a lot of opinions which may not mean much, so I put a lot more emphasis on seeing how well certain oils perform in certain vehicles and driving conditions when people post up their used oil analysis.
Testing for yourself is about the only real way to know for certain how well an oil will do in your car under your driving style and operating conditions with your change intervals.
For fluids on my SVTs I'm currently running Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 in the near stock SVT but also have a stockpile of 0w30 "German" Castrol Syntec and Mobil 1 0w40 that I've run. While a lighter 5w20 is recommended for the other Zetec/SPI and Duratec engines Ford did recommend 5w30 for the SVT with that higher viscosity when hot being even more important if you're going to track the car.
For power steering fluid I've stuck with the stock synthetic Mercon V ATF but would probably completely flush and start using Redline fluid if I did any track duty. People seem to have had great success with it and I haven't seen posts about premature pump or rack failure when running it. For coolant I'm using Zerex G-05 which is the recommended HOAT (hybrid organic acid technology) coolant and I believe they are still the supplier for Motorcraft (who use a different color dye). For daily driving and track duty I'd probably run a distilled water heavy, 70/30 mix in summer months.
If you're shopping for brake fluid and comparing specs make sure to look at both wet and dry boiling points. For a racing fluid Castrol SRF is a great choice and will stand up to heat extremely well but is also extremely expensive. ATE Super Blue is another good choice and quite a bit less expensive and you can order it from Tire Rack. For off the shelf, auto part store stuff I'd probably use Castrol GTLMA or the heavy duty Motorcraft fluid, both of which have decent specs and should hold up well in light track use. Regular DOT 3/4 specs are find but never use a silicone-based DOT 5 fluid.
For transaxle fluid I've only used the Ford Fully Synthetic Manual Transmission fluid in the SVTFs. It works great, shifts great, seems to provide more than adequate protection, and is what Ford specifies. Other fluids might work just as well but I personally don't want to do oil analysis testing and tear-down inspections with them just to make sure I'm getting adequate protection for all internal components when Ford has already done extensive testing and the stock fluid appears to work great. Down side is that it's expensive and can be tough to find if you don't have a dealer close by but on the other hand it doesn't need changed that often.
On fluid amounts if you don't have a factory shop manual or the owner's manual and SVT supplement you can download them from Ford
here. One other thing to note is that for things like oil I've seen some people just dumping in what the manual calls and never checking the level. You always want to stop a little early and check the dipstick before topping it up to the full mark. It's also good after pouring in about four quarts to get in the car, hold the gas pedal to the floor so the engine won't start and then crank the engine for about ten seconds so the new filter is refilled. Then let the car sit for a moment and then top it off.
Too much oil can be a lot worse than running slightly low but still in the recommended range. If you put too much oil in the car it can cause the level to be too high and get aerated by the spinning crank much easier and aerated oil is tough on bearings. It can also increase the chance of leaks such as from the rear main seal.
