I'm not saying this is 'the' way but it has worked for me.


1. at 500 miles, changed oil--Motorcraft 5W20 plus their filter.

2. at 4,000 miles, changed to Royal Purple #11(5W20) Synthetic Racing(they have a 'street' syn. too--it's cheaper) oil and a K&N Gold filter. Mobil 1 goes in my other two vehicles.

3. at about 4-5,000 miles I repeat step #2.

I now have 19,900 miles on my 01--No oil-related problems--no piston slap, no unusual noises, no 'smoke' at cold start-up(or at any other time), and there was no oil on the plugs when I changed them out 3 weeks ago.

For some really good info on 'oil' see www.carjunky.com. There are excerpts from "The Motor Oil Bible" there that makes the case for synthetics. Syn. oil does not 'leave' the bearings and bushings after shut-down. It clings for days(?) and therefore, you will not have 'dry' start-ups like you will with dino oil.

R/P is available from Jegs--get a case and pay no shipping.

Dan

 

I checked mine yesterday. I have 1400 miles on the truck and it still has the factory oil in it. It was about 1/2 quart low.

Ive heard some of you guys say that youve noticed that oil sometimes gets sucked into you throttlebody. maybe that is where some of the oil is going.

Andy G

 

Amazing the things you can find out SkankDog. I asked on here last night and was told my plug was leaking that Ford would'nt short me 3 quarts. Now I smart enough to look for oil under my truck! So our Lightnings have a drinking problem ? When I was driving her I new something was wrong , like she needed a drink. You can tell. Thanks everyone for the warning!

 

I have 42K plus on my truck, and only run 5.5 quarts in it. I have yet to add oil in between oil changes. I did chainge to 10w30 oil to quiet down the startup noise.

I have run Redline synthetic since it had 5000 miles on it.

 

I beleive the correct amount of oil is 6 quarts for all 5.4's and 4.6 truck motors including the L motor although the dipsticks would have you beleive that 6.5 are required,the dipsticks are wrong. As far as the L's consuming oil, i beleive after tearing my motor down today and seeing all the oil in the upper and lower intake and ic that some of this oil is being eaton [pun intended.]