I have been reading posts for about a month now, trying to learn more about the F-150. (4.6 Supercrew on order for delivery sometime in the future) I do 35.000 miles a year, and for the last ten years, I have grown used to service intervals of 12,000 miles.
Its often 14.000 between services on my present car, and I have never needed to put more than 2 litres of oil in between sevices. 3.000 mile oil changes will be like going back to the 60's. Is it really necessary? For me, thats a filter and a heap of Mobil one every month!

 

Speaking as an engineer if you go 14000 miles on a new engine with out changing the oil and your asking for problems. New engines are built to tight tolerances. With the variety of materials used to make one engine block you get a lot of different oxides, ceramic particles, and acids created in the first 3000 miles.

 

Heres one opinion on the subject.

http://cartalk.cars.com/Columns/Arch...tember/04.html

 

MechE
Thanks for the response, but I wasnt asking about first, or even second oil change. I will do theses at around 600 and then 3.000 miles. I am an engineer too, and it is the very use of modern machine tools, materials, metalurgy and synthetic lubricants that has both extended engine life and the need for such frequent oil changes. I dont live in an extreme climate, so I wont be changing grades in summer/winter, most of my journeys are 100 miles+.
It is many years however since I have had a car with SOHC and 2 valves, but other than the lump in a Mastercraft, I am not familiar with V-8's so I have to seek advice. Do people that live in the mid-west and the Rockies use summer/winter monogrades?
01Sport
had a look here. Feel better now. Thanks...

 

If I'm not mistaken, there are two different service schedules given for our vehicles - a regular service schedule and a severe duty schedule. Ford terms severe duty driving as including lots of short trip driving (engine and oil doesn't reach operating temps for long periods of time), trailer towing, or extended idling applications where mileage may not be an adequate indicator or engine hours. Oil changes are recommeded at 5,000 miles for normal maintinence schedules, and 3,000 for severe duty.

In my case, I run 5w-30 Valvoline Durablend Oil, year around, and I change it on a 3,000 mile interval. Others here switch to 0w-30 for cold start reasons in the winter. I do a lot of short trips and extended idling in the winter, leading to choosing the severe duty schedule.

That being said, the best way to do oil changes would be with an oil analysis to dial in your particular engine needs. At this point, I've racked up 133,000 miles in less than 5 yrs, and still haven't had one engine problem, so I'm not going to change.

Best of luck!

 

gopher
thanks.........I feel calmer now

 

Someone else I'm sure could give you more info but...

You might want to look into a double oil filter set-up. I mention aimsoil because I know they have a by-pass system available for our vehicles. It uses a full flow filter for most of the filtration but also a by-pass filter that does like 10% at a time but filters to a much finer degree. Supposedly, the purpose is mostly for work vehicles who want extended service intervals but could be use by us average joes for the same reason. Claims 15k oil intervals or something like that. Worth looking into perhaps.

 

Try 100,000+ mile oil changes

Also not just for work vehicles. Anyone who wants to protect their engine by removing particles between 5 and 20 microns should look into by-pass filteration.

Filtration is the most important. The extended drain intervals are just a bonus!!!

 

My last three trucks (94 F150 5.0, 97 F150 4.6, 99 F150 4.6) all logged over 150,000 miles with Amsoil. Only changed oil 6-7 times on each and never an engine failure. I also use all Amsoil on transmissions/xfer cases and diffs. My '99 Expy 5.4 and '01 SCrew 5.4 are also on this oil. Big difference is on high miles, I'm not in an oil change center every 4-5 weeks. No other synthetic gives you 25K+ on a change.

I have the dual filter setup to put on my SCrew soon as I can shut down long enough to do it--then, no changes for 100K!!!

Check it out. I use 0W-30 on all vehicles, in Texas. 0W-30, think about it, you in the cold north climes.

 

http://www.nas.edu/trb/publications/...ACulpepper.pdf

 

There are a few things that you might want to consider:
1) Ford recommends an interval but they would also just love it if your engine was worn flat out about the time your payments expired - so you will buy another new one. For most people that will happen at about 100,000 or 5 X 20K miles. For that reason alone I personally am still changing at 3K.
2) If the Engineers base the interval on expecting most people to use conventional oils, you could probably extend the interval a bit by using synthetic. Just don't forget that synthetics pick up impurities and contaminants just as quickly as the conventional oils do.
3) The Engineers probably base the interval on the "average driver" doing 80% city and 20% hiway driving. Most people seem to agree that non-stop, hiway miles (no towing) are a lot easier on an engine than stop and go city driving. If your miles are non-stop, hiway you might have another reason to extend it a bit.

When I was in college, I worked in an oil change shop and got interested in oil brands and change intervals. I started asking people who had more than 150K on the engines what they did. They all used a major (but different), high quality oil brand but they all were emphatic about changing the oil regularly at 3K or every 3 months (which ever came first).

Synthetics are much better lubricants and they don't break down as quickly, but half the reason to change the oil is because of contaminats. All kinds of water vapor, gasoline, exhaust, and carbon particles get into the oil from piston ring blow-by. Even using synthetic and driving hiway miles, I cringe at the thought of putting over 8000 miles on a single oil change. If stopping to change the oil is a problem have you considered buying a 10 quart oil pan?

Good Luck

 

By-pass filtration and synthetic oils are a little more scientific than what you will see at a quick lube.

Hence the need for Oil analysis

How about 254,000 miles on 10 oil changes???

How about 409,000 miles on 1 oil change.

This is what is possible with by-pass filtration. Not just mindlessly changing your oil at 3000 miles.

 

I recently became an Amsoil dealer. I have several friends wanting to buy but have questions and are skeptical.

1- Is it possible for them to go 25k miles without an oil change (with good results from oil analysis of course) and changing the filter at 12,500 miles?

2 - Also, I posted a question on your website about wanting any oil studies about Amsoil versus other oils. If you have any information or sources please let me know.

Thanks.

 

Hughie,

Here's my $.02 worth. If I were putting 35K per year on my baby, AND it wasn't all stop and go (seems unlikely). Then I would change it twice a year with Mobil 5W- 30. The First 3 oil changes , I would do a 5K each. I might consider just changing the filter and adding 1 qt half way between each change. This all presumes you want to keep the rig until it has depreciated to say 20% or less of its original value.

 

i look at it this way...if i am going to pay $25K to $32K for a new truck, then i dont think it will be THAT big of a deal to change the oil every 3K miles...i mean, if you are paying from $400/month up, then whats the big deal with shelling out $20-$30 once every 3 months? i guess i just dont get it...it seems like it doesnt really matter in the scheme of things...