Yadda, yadda, yadda. All this oil and oil filter talk is mostly useless. Most motors I have ever owned went down due to top end problems. I never spun a bearing or threw a rod, but I burned some valves and wore out rings, pistons, and cylinders. When my bottom ends were finally dead, the car was trash anyway. And I did it on dino oil. I remember trying to jack up my old 72 Cricket and putting the jack through the rusted out floorboard. Hey, Amsoil dude, you got some miracle coating for floorboards that prevent rustout to make my body last as long as the 500K mile motor you want to provide me with, so I can be even more out of style for the next 300K miles? So you think I should have used synthetic oil so I could have a better motor in that worn out POS? Funny, but it survived many subzero cold starts with never any major damage or excessive oil drag. When it got below -30F, I just stayed at home until the blizzard went away, so the -46F pour point of synthetic oil is useless to me, and I had these wonderful things called engine block heaters installed that kept the engine from ever getting anywhere near that cold.

For the 99% of people that drive rational vehicles, it would make more sense to consider the air filter you are using and what you are running in your gas to keep your rings free and lubricated, and your valves and injectors clean. When the valves go, you don't. When the rings go, dirt and carbon are blown down into the motor and into the oil. The oil filter can get overloaded in a hurry, and if it does it can take out your bottom end as well. This was especially true when I lived on dirt roads. People who had bottom end problems are the ones that didn't change oil often enough in most cases, and their worn top ends probably caused oil contamination. A good air filter actually made more difference than a particular oil, because it saved your rings and prevented blow-by from contaminating the oil. What you use in your top end protects your bottom end much more than the other way around.

You need more frequent oil changes in the USA and Canada because the gas has a much higher sulfur content than in Europe or Japan. Don't use their oil drain schedules to support extended drain schedules here. Rather than pay for an oil analysis, I'll just change oil at the recommended intervals. 6.5 quarts..........whoopee, big deal, big savings. Just where ARE the savings? I'll just save my motor, thank you very much. For big farm tractors that used gallons of oil and ran in dirt all the time, I would consider oil analysis. And I'd keep the oil bath air filters on them, thank you very much. Sort of a submerged K&N. Mercedes-Benz believed in oil bath air filters for cars sold in dry dusty countries, if you dig through their old shop manuals. Anyway, they work really well on diesel engines. The Motorcraft oil filter is almost as good as any out there at any price. For the same amount of money, buy more Motorcraft filters and change them more often. If you live on dirt roads, use really good oil and air filters. It's MUCH more important than the brand of oil you use. Put something in the gas to prevent harmful top end deposits (this means don't wait until you hear pinging or notice oil burning or compression loss. It's often too late then.). Change the oil at recommended intervals and you don't have to worry about the oil too much. It provides you a cushion of safety.

Most of your Ford F-150's will have their first engine teardown due to a top end problem rather than a botton end oil related problem, if my guess is correct. After 10,000 miles, my truck has burned 500 gallons of gas. 6.5 quarts of oil saved by going to a 10K oil drain schedule isn't REALLY a savings in natural resources. If you REALLY want to save natural resources, drive a little four banger. If I was going to change oil at 10K miles and oil filters every 5K, I might as well pop the drain plug and change oil at 5K while I'm at it, and step down to dino oil or a blend. Now then, really do yourself a favor and start thinking about protecting the top end of your motor, the part that really takes a beating. The part that handles gas and air and produces all that heat and carbon deposits, among other things. With my personal history of engine failures, the gremlins ain't hiding in the oil pan.

And now a word from our sports car, competition truck, and Amsoil crowd.

 

So how much sulfur is still in our fuel since EPA regulations reduced the amount allowed?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...22199-idx.html

Will the extra corrosion in my engine keep me from making 200,000 miles?

http://www.daverushton.co.uk/tech%20brgs.htm

 

I agree, I've heard the AMSOIL 1 Micron bypass filter can clean to near new specs but no screw on filter can polish oil.

I use Mobil 1 5-30 and Motorcraft filters and I change the filter at 2.5K and the filter and oil at 5K.

 

Temp1, your filter and oil change schedule is very good if you're a farmer or rancher opereating in the dirt frequently and pulling heavy trailers and hauling heavy loads. It's similar to what I would do. I drive down the highway in overdrive most of the time these days and rarely take a dirt road. The actual revolutions and time on the motor would be the same as mine between oil changes when you consider my 5K oil/filter change using a Motorcraft FL-820S and Castrol 5W30 Syntec Blend. I'm probably paying too much for oil as it is. I'll probably switch to Castrol GTX High Mileage, and put the savings into a better filter.

I don't know what the exact count on sulfur is for our fuel, but it has tended to be over twice what the European standard has been. That's western European, of course. I once got caught in a traffic jam in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the summer. I didn't have to pop any hoods to tell that Russian gas and Russian cars were a bit behind us in environmental friendliness.

When you consider that you can fit a Motorcraft FL-1A Long Life filter in place of the FL-820S, you could change your filter and oil together at the same 5K interval and be none the worse for wear. I'm considering going to the FL-1A bacause, 1) It really doesn't cost but a smidgen more for the extra flow and filtration capacity. 2) The lack of a silicone anti-drainback valve has no meaning in an F-150 application because the filter installs threaded end up and CAN'T drain back. 3) My motor is getting older and causing more oil contamination, so the extra filter media would be nice. 4) The extra surface area prevents blow-by on even the coldest starts. 5) The slower flow through the bigger FL-1A filter provides even better particle retention.

If I used my truck commercially and treated it rough, I would probably install an oil bypass filtering system. At this late of a stage in the game, I don't know if the system would pay back before selling the truck, but you can always pull them and install in the next vehicle. The Oil Guard brand looks like a good one.

I still maintain that lousy air filters and combustion deposits are the major killers of motors as long as the oil and filter are changed at recommended intervals. If your lifters ever get noisy on a cold startup, try some Rislone in the oil for a while until it quits. My motor has used MMO in the gas since 10K miles, and at 146K, it runs like a new truck and always gets over 20MPG on a trip. Uses a quart between oil changes. I recently got 548 miles on 22.5 gallons on four consecutive round trips to the same place consisting of 8 cold starts and Dallas freeway driving about 1/3 of the time. That's 24.35 MPG according to my calculator, and my odometer is working correctly. Couldn't believe it myself, but go figure from a couple of miles west of Highway 75 on Highway 82 in Sherman to Highway 75 and a mile east on Walnut Hill Lane in Dallas on your own map. I would like to see all you "Amsoil this-and-that-everywhere" guys beat those mileage figures. My truck has NEVER seen synthetic anything. Don't tell me MMO doesn't work because it's too old fashioned and all that other yadda, yadda, yadda BS I've heard about it. It forms a highly polished surface over time. Where it counts, in the combustion area where the motor takes a beating, turning combustion byproducts to soft ash that never hardens up. It works best for those who used it all the time from a new motor, because it doesn't do a good job of getting rid of old hardened carbon deposits and can't reverse wear that's already taken place. It's a wear preventative, not a band aid for ailing motors. It can't get rid of carbon buildup in gross oil burners either. If you're using more motor oil than MMO, don't expect good results. Pay for a ring and valve job.

I have since changed all oxygen sensors and the DPFE sensor, and my mileage may be less now, but it's still darned good for an F-150. I was getting 20-22MPG all the time on my brand new motor before it was even fully broken in. Once got around 23MPG on a Ski trip. I EXPECTED these mileage figures when I bought the truck, having just sold a '78 Chevy 3/4 ton that never got over 14MPG even with a 30 MPH tailwind.

 

I imagine blowby is going to be less on some of the newer vehicles because they are reducing the tolerances of the ring end-gaps which like you say is going to make the oil last longer and protect the bottom end of the engine better.

http://www.babcox.com/editorial/ar/eb90329.htm

 

I am running Mobil 1 in my 2004 F150 with the 5.4 l 3V engine and use a Fram XG2 oil filter. This oil filter is designed to keep the oil cleaner for extended periods between oil changes. Try one of these next time you change your oil and I believe you will see a difference in the color of the oil on the dipstick after extended use.

 

Oops, made a mistake in the previous post. Oil CAN drainback in a filter oriented bottom end up as the oil in the engine from above pushes down due to gravity and forces unfiltered oil back into the sump. One of the worst dangers is that lightly trapped particles may dislodge from filter media due to the slight backflush and fail to be captured on startup, and this would be after an oil starved bearing journal has no oil cushion for the particle to fit between. On a really cold morning with a revving engine, the bypass valve might immediately open due to lack of backpressure because of the air bubble between the filter and bearing journals. The dislodged particles would shoot right through the open bypass valve to wreck havoc on the oil starved bearings.

If you hear rattling on startup which quickly goes away, it's usually because of oil drainback. The silicone valve on the FL-820S filter fixed the drainback problem. If you're going to run a Fram oil filter, at least get the Tough Guard TG2 with better drainback protection. The original FL-820 without silicone valve that came on my F-150 would allow rattling for several seconds after startup after sitting for several hours. With no air bubble between the filter and bearings, an initial huge surge of oil through the filter will not be necessary to get oil immediately to the bearings and the bearings will be providing backpressure due to the close tolerances to keep oil flow through the filter below bypass levels.

So heed the warning: If your engine rattles on startup after sitting quite a while, you had better get a filter with better drainback valve. The FL-820S solved the problem in my truck. I'm going to try a Motorcraft FL-1A "Long Life"and see what happens.

I checked a Motorcraft FL-1A at Wal-Mart last night. It didn't have "Long Life" printed on the can like the one at Autozone did. I wonder if there has been a recent change in the FL-1A filter, or if Wal-Mart gets a cheaper version and the lack of "Long Life" on the can is Motorcraft's way of letting you know. Is the "long life" FL-1A an extended drain version of the FL-1A? Is the FL-1A "long life" just because it's a longer can with more filter media? I would want mine to say "Long Life". The FL-820S I bought at Autozone does not have anything about long life printed on it. Any ideas why some FL-1A filters get the long life tag and the FL-820S doesn't? Wal-Mart sells the Fram TG2 for $5 and Autozone sells it for $7. Either Autozone expects a much bigger profit margin, or Fram is building filters to somewhat different standards to meet a specific price point. Anyway, the Motorcraft FL-820S is better at $3.00-$3.50 if it really has Purolator Pure One internal design, regardless of what is printed on the can.

I'm going to cut open my next used Motorcraft FL-820S and see what it looks like internally. It should have over 50 pleats if it has a Pure One filter element.

When a cylinder bore and ring wear, the end gap opens and a lot more blowby occurs, regardless of how close the ring gap was when new. You can either change your oil more often or get a bypass filter installed or use a bigger oil filter if you can find one that fits. I put a big Fram PH7 on a little Alfa-Romeo 2.0 liter engine (looked like some kind of farm equipment filter, and mostly heavy equipment was listed as the intended users. SAAB 99 was one of the few cars that used them as original equipment, probably to supply flow on cold starts.), and it functioned as an auxiliary oil cooler of sorts. Had a ram air filter as long as the engine head, with throttle plates for each cylinder. The Spica mechanical fuel injection pump never gave problems except for a broken pipe because the original owner didn't replace two missing clamps. Like all my blown engines before it, it finally died of top end problems, but it was known to leak oil into the coolant and warp the aluminum head. Loved to eat resistor spark plugs also, which often went out by 5K miles. Loved to plug up the expensive underbody fuel filter before the recommended change interval. You had to remove the camshafts to set tappet clearances. You had major maintenance headaches every 20K at least. Got 200K out of it before it died, which is better than what most users got (100K was considered about average). The body was a rusted out POS by then anyway, because of the crappy Italian paint. I was happy to get $500 for it. F-150 owners have a lot more reliable ride, believe me. But man, the beautiful song that engine made as it revved high, and the handling was something else. A real driving experience, and I never want another one.

 

I started using mobil1 fully syntetic oil on my 2002 f150 and durango 2002 since they got 10K miles.
intervals 10-12k miles. oil comes almost same color as it was before using.
I have more than 100k miles on both cars and they run as new. Did oil analis
came with great results. just a week ago I tryed schaeffers fully synthetic oil
and its even better I noteced little engine temp drop and better perfomance.
looks like schaeffers oil have some good stuff only thing sucks its hurd to get it.

 

Motorcraft filters are top quality, but for oil, I prefer Castorl Syntec 0w30 synthetic oil (Made in Germany) over anything else out there.

 

My advise = Change your oil at 5K and quit trying to figure out how dirty it is! You're just wasting good oil to change it any sooner. Heck, Ford will let you do that and still honor the warranty. Believe me, if it was harmful to the engine, they'd change it. Dude, most people aren't that picky about what you eat, much less, what their truck eats.

 

The discussion just becomes Charley Brown's teacher to me after awhile.

But what I CAN interject is three things:

1: I had the notorious 97 V6 with the hydrolock issue and was one lucky ones it never happened to. But I do do short distances and was getting a stuck lifter until I switched to a filter with an anti-flowback valve to keep the head more lubed between starts and I never had the problem again.

2: I believe in synthetic for colder weather starts. Just turn standard oil and synthetic on it's side when it's 10 degrees out. It speaks for itself.

3: I've tried a half dozen brands, and Castrol always made my motor the quietest.

 

according to many of the reports on BITOG, Mobil 1 sucks compared to Penzoil Platinum. Mobil did a reformulation apparently, and now Penzoil is a better oil.

If oil isn't darker after a couple thousand miles, then it is not doing part of its job in cleaning. Beware of new looking oil after it has been running for a few thousand miles.

 

i have used clean 5000 in my old 99 and had to put in a bottle but it was never really dirty. ran 5000 miles and never worried about it.

 

You doc, you got a link to that article? I'd like to read it

also, for a good view on oil, mms://multimedia.ford.com/seopts/Tech8_250k.wmv skip to about the 18 minute mark and there you will see what extreme milage changes do

 

Unless you are driving 55 to 60 MPH you are a liar good sir