I personally like Amsoil. My girlfriend uses it in her mustang and at 15000 mile intervals there has never been any oil consumption and the oil looks like it has maybe 2000 miles on it. This is with an amsoil filter also, which I believe are Baldwin filters which are great elements. I also used Amsoil in my powerstroke , but had a filter bypass on it and at the time I sold the truck, it had 26000 miles on the oil, with 10k intervals with the filters. Its great stuff.

I don't think there's enough benefits gained per dollar to warrant the use of a high dollar synthetic in these engines nowadays. But it's your money.

Those guys changing the oil filter every 3000; you are not doing the engine any favors. The oil filter starts to perform best at about 3000 miles. You can reference that at several hundred places on line, or read any book on the subject.
The oil filter industry acknowledges that.
They sell filters by the physiological method of asking 'do you want to leave a quart of dirty oil in your engine’.
This is pure salesmanship and it works well.

Every study shows the filter will last two oil changes (3000 mile intervals) so 5000-6000 is never a problem.

All studies, every one, found that changing the oil filter every 2-3k miles resulted in a less clean engine.

Changing the oil early has a purpose. The oil may get contaminated with gasoline if you run a lot cold or if you hot rod frequently.
Also if you do a lot of short hop driving. If you freeway often the oil at 3000 miles is almost indistinguishable from new oil...

The filter does not remove gasoline of course as gas penetrates better than oil. The crankcase vent system can remove gasoline when kept clean and the engine is driven warm at light throttle.
This works great when you run the freeways for twenty or more minutes with a warm engine.

If you wish to use the synthetics and a premium oil filter like the K&N or Mobil 1 you really might want to leave the filter on at least 5000 miles.

Of course you can do anything you want; it is your truck, but do check the amount the filter filters at 0-3000 vs. 3000-5000.

They are built to filter better after they are used for awhile. This is to protect the engine from long oil change intervals, plus it is a simple side effect of the method of filtering used.
Chris

P.S. I do know that most guys change the oil extra for the same reason others wax the truck every weekend. It makes them feel better. If that is the case, enjoy. It's cheap enough for most of us, and who cares if it is really needed?
I'm only addressing the guys that are worried they are not changing it enough to keep up with the Jones or that they are somehow damaging their engines by following the guidelines.

Anyone ever get their oil analyzed? This may also be overkill or whatever but curious as to what the process is. I assume you send them a sample and they tell you what's going on with it, anyone know? My personal preference is Amsoil. 160K hard miles on my car with the last 60K using Amsoil and it still comes out clean. May be more than what is required, but changing it once a year is worth it to me.

I've seen the analysis kits for sale at Autozone, but I've never looked into 'em. Blackstone Labs seems to be the premier oil analysis folks out there. I might send a sample in one day just for poops and giggles, so I can see how "inferior" my Motorcraft oil and FL820S filters are.

The 9 RWHP increase was gained on a car that had the diff fluids, tranny fluid, and oil changed with royal purple. We already have full syn. fluids in our diffs, so count that one out. I guess you could use the Max ATF in the trans, I even emailed them and asked if it was compatible with Mercon V and they said yes. But our trans holds 13.9 quarts according to the manual so......wow that would be about $90 worth of fluid, PLUS somehow have the means to flush out the torque converter and lines of the old fluid. So basically you are left with the engine, and I'd say one good synthetic is probably as good as the next guys. I run Mobil 1 cause it is only about $35 for the oil and a few bucks for the motorcraft filter. Like I said before, Benz's oil change intervals on the current models are 13,000 miles on the same fleece filter and Mobil 1......and they recently went to all customer pay services so you'd think since they weren't paying for it anymore, they would jack up the service interval.......but they didn't so M1 must be some good stuff!

I know this thread is talking about motor oil, but just yesterday I changed my rear differential fluid. Used Royal Purple 75W140. I think I picked up at least 10 RWHP!! In the case of gear oil, the RP is actually much cheaper than Motorcrap. But the real reason for the fluid change was to install my Off-Road Unlimited diff cover.

I just used 7 quarts of Royal Purple, I heard claims of hp gains so I figured I just try it once and find out. I didn't notice anything, my edge tuner read about the same temp for the EOT.

However,
I did try another 0-60 on the tuner and beat my personal best... might've been the update but I'd like to think it made the expensive oil worth it.

Previous time:

7.30 0-60 5.4 XLT SCREW 3.55, AF1, Banks +Stock wheels with Stage 3 Edge

7.18 0-60 with all that plus royal purple. Ambient temp and engine heat were about the same so...

Gas tank was about at a 1/4 both times too.

Used 10w-30 with a Fram Sure-grip

Quintin, in regards to oil analysis it's already been done on the motorcraft 5-20 on anothere forum. Google (bob's the oil guy) and you will find tons of people who report oil testing results, which vehicles and how many miles. It's been a while when I looked but there was a big debate on there when the 5-20 came out if it was inferior. From what I remember the analysis tested very well to the 5K interval, and people thought it could go longer..

Jason

What's the poop on Fram filters? I don't usually read the oil change threads because I don't believe in 'upgrading' the oil from manufacturer's suggestions. I use Motorcraft oil and Fram filters, less than $19 total per change. But I'm open for changing to Motorcraft filters if something documented on the fram filters.

Not to hijack the thread, but Thumper I have a question about your tool box from your last truck. Did it sit high enough off the bed floor so that a long board would still fit angled down from the tailgate to the front of the bed. For instance, could you still haul 8' boards with the tailgate up and the board not sticking out more than about 3' ?? Thanks.

[QUOTE=thooor]What's the poop on Fram filters? I don't usually read the oil change threads because I don't believe in 'upgrading' the oil from manufacturer's suggestions. I use Motorcraft oil and Fram filters, less than $19 total per change. But I'm open for changing to Motorcraft filters if something documented on the fram filters.

Yeah, me three on the Fram filters. Want to know about that too.

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...highlight=fram

For what it is worth, this is just one of the many reviews available on the internet.

http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilters.html

Thats about everything in a nut shell.