94 ranger oil question

recently bought a 94 ranger with a 3.0 V6 engine. The place where I cought it form changed the oil before they sold it and put in whats it calls for wich is 5w-20 i think. My mother had a Ford Taurus with the same motor and when we got it it of course had the same oil in it. However after 1500 miles it burned a quart of the light oil so on the next oil change we put in 10w-30 and it never burned a drop since then for the nest 130,000 miles. My ranger seems to be doing the same thing. The oil is gone down from when I bought it after 1500 miles. should I put the 10w-30 in it? Why would a vehicle use the oil it is manufactured and recommended to use?

how many miles do you have?? i have a 94 3.0 w/ 133,000mi. and it dont burn oil at all. i use maxlife highmilage 5w30, the max life is supposed to help on oil loss or oil consumption by reconditioning the seals....i like it. and for the 10w i dont know about....but your supossed to be useing 5w30, but 10w40 wont hurt.

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thanks for the reply, its got about 108,000 on it but my moms tarus with the same engine would use the 5w-30 from the day it was new just like my truck does. I do live in a cold climate where it does get down to -20F during the winter. If i put 10-30 in it and plugged it in at night whould that hurt anything. Thats what we did with my moms car and it never used a drop of 10-30 and was running strong when she sold it with 165,000k Thanks for the help

my 94 ford ranger runs 10w-30, i am going to start putting 5w30 in it in the winter. i live in a cold climate as well.
My truck uses a little under 1 qt of oil at the 3000 mile mark.. right when it is time to change the oil

Don't follow Fords instructions of using 5w20, it was purely done to extract a bit more gas mileage out of them. Just get some API certified 5w30 and you will be fine. My 4.0 uses about 1 quart of oil every 5k miles (my average oil change interval) under normal driving conditions.

Well heres the thing, My moms ford 3.0 used a quart of 5w-30 every 1,500 miles the day we got it and it only had 15,000 or less on it. So we put the 10w-30 in it and it never burned a drop the next 130,000 miles. My 3.0 ranger motor that I recently bought seems to do the same thing burn a quart every 1,500 so should I put 10w-30 in it. Heres where I am concerned. I live where its cold and I dont want to hurt my evgine during startup by using thicker oil. Will this happen if i use 10w-30 or is the difference minimal and im just splitting haris here??? Thanks for the help

if you recently purchased a Ranger ..... do a motor flush....then use 5w-30. my Ranger has 135,000 miles on it... use Pennzoil 5w-30 since there was 33k on it. flushed it and it uses a little over a pint in 3500-4000 miles