Truck is an 07 4.6. it just passed the 100k mark so I'm going to replace the upper & lower radiator hoses. I read somewhere where I may have to bleed the cooling system system after replacing these hoses. True?
Secondly, I'm getting ready to change the oil/filter. I've been using Motorcraft 5w20 synthetic blend & am considering going with full synthetic. Is it worth the extra cost to go with full synthetic? Any particular brand as I don't think Motorcraft offers full synthetic. What do you guys think?

 

I have the 5.4L engine and a coolant reservoir. after refilling the system, I just squeezed the new upper hose repeatedly with the top off the reservoir and it displaced the air. After putting the top on and driving a bit, I had to top it off.

As for the oil, my truck has 164k on it and I ALWAYS used MC 5W-20 until the last change and put in Mobil 1 5W-30 high mileage full synthetic. The engine is quieter since putting it in. Only issue now is I was looking on youtube last night and there was a guy saying don't use the high mileage oil because it has additives in it that "swells up" old rubber seals and if you stop using it your engine will start burning a lot of oil. Until this change, it would burn about 1/2 qt every 3k. Now I'm thinking about changing the high mileage oil out. BTW, always a FL-820S filter.

 

Thanks for replying. Any particular reason for switching to 5w30?

 

There is a big debate on the forums about 5W-20 verses 5W-30 and after reading through them, I decided the 30 would not hurt my engine which is one of the arguments against it. Benefit being less rattling and clattering sound. Also, I live in the southern US where it's hotter more than it is colder by far.

 

I would question why you're going to replace the hoses. I have an 04 4.6 that gets driven in Texas heat and the under hood got a complete physical yesterday and the hoses are fine. If they are still flexible and show no cracks, they don't need replacement. Maybe a radiator flush if you've never done it. The anti-freeze should be changed every 5 years using Motorcraft fluid.

Motor oil. Most of todays synthetics buys you nothing but a lighter wallet. Todays synthetics are yesterdays conventional oils. Gone are the Gp IV based oils as the gas used to make them is in short supply. There hasn't been any since Katrina. Mobil One is made from the same base oil they complained to the Ad Council that Castrol was using calling it a synthetic which is a Gp III. The Ad Council said the fluid did not appear in nature thus is a man made synthetic.A lot of the oil blenders are using that criteria to push the Gp II base oils into being a synthetic as it also doesn't appear in nature. About the only base out there that meets the term conventional is a solvent refined Gp I and there's none of those on the market. So pick a brand in the right viscosity, use a quality filter (obviously not Fram) and change when it says in the owners manual. About the only caveat to that would be a high mileage engine, 100,000 miles plus could benefit from a thicker oil. The issue is the oil spray on the cylinder walls from the lower crank bearings. If there's significant wear there, the rings can be running in an oil starvation environment as the oil is running out of the worn bearings. The thicker oil can restore some of the oil volume. Most Xw-30 oils will be an Energy Conserving oil. That means they are going to be on the thin end of the SAE viscosity range (the industry uses Kinematic scale viscosity). So the differences in viscosity is small. High mileage oils will be on the thicker end of the SAE scale, closer to a 40.
Should you decide to use a synthetic, the only one out there worth any kind of premium is Pennzoil Ultra Platinum. It's a multi based oil with a healthy additive package. If you pay a premium for anything, you should get premium results. Synthetic oils fail miserably at delivering any result premium to an ordinary API SN oil in normal OCIs. Your truck, your money.

 

The truck has over 100k & the hoses feel kinda soft to me. And I already bought them so I may as well replace 'em. I haven't bought the oil yet, so I may just stick with synthetic blend Motorcraft & filter. Friday, it goes in for new plugs. I'm assuming their original as I bought the truck 4 yrs. ago. And I ain't got the time or patience for that job.

 

I just replaced my upper/lower hoses a few days ago, with 115K on the clock. They were fine, but getting a bit soft. It's only about $30 combined for both hoses, and is very easy to change them out, so it's cheap insurance. I recommend doing the serpentine belt at the same time, which is also pretty easy. It took ~2 gallons of Ford Gold coolant concentrate and 1 gallon of distilled water to fill the system back up. I also just squeezed the upper hose a few time to help push the air into the reservoir.

 

Not to be argumentative in any way, but here is what I discovered. I bought my truck new in 04 and had put 163k miles on it when I decided to change my OEM MC "gold/yellow color" coolant for the 2nd time. When I performed a inspection of my hoses, they seemed to look fine and were pliable, however, I decided to change the upper and lower hoses because I believed at some point going forward they would degrade to the point of being a issue and for what the mileage rating is on the MC gold the hoses may be prone to failure before the next coolant change was due.. My view was that rubber hoses with very hot water coursing through them had a finite life, and for $42 it was a matter of "just do it". I'm glad I changed them out (Gates BTW). I will admit that the condition of the hoses seemed to be "good" considering the time frame and amount of mileage.

I will add this concerning changing out the hoses. I also changed my serpentine belt and 4 pulleys at the same time as part of preventive maintenance. Changing the pulleys out while the top hose was off made access to the pulleys much easier. Changing the belt & pulleys out as a proactive action is a easy job, and does give peace of mind toward future reliability.

If I may add one more thing concerning the lower hose. The squeeze clamp where the hose connected to the engine was orientated in such a way that I couldn't get anything on it to get the squeeze, so I found it easier to just cut the hose and then was able to spin the clamp around for easy access. YMMV

 

I almost always use Gates hoses/belts as well.

I agree on the orientation of the clamp. It was clearly installed before the engine was installed and/or the radiator was installed. However, I used a Craftsman hose clamp tool (~$30) that made it fairly easy to access/remove the spring clamp. The tool self-locks the clamp in the open position, so its like having a third hand available so you can work on the hose with two hands and position the clamp easily. Upon re-installation I positioned the clamp towards the bottom where it should be simple to access next time (not that I will still have the truck by that point).

Link to tool:
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-cable...&mktRedirect=y