TJPlatinumEB

Owners manual says to watch the Oil Life Monitor and Spark Plugs at 100k, which most of us know is pure crap and should not be followed.

Plugs: Every 30k or so with Motorcraft SP-534 gapped at .030-.032

Oil: I change mine every 6k when I rotate the tires. Easy to do both at the same time and don't have to remember multiple intervals. Never a problem in the two EB's I've owned, full Pennzoil Platinum synthetic in both.

Cord

Oil life monitor will have the oil changes at exactly 10,000 miles, regardless of how you drive it. That said, many have blamed the timing chain problems on that long of a oil change interval. That there have been problems with oil dilution during cold weather short trips is very well documented. If you are going to pile on the miles, then go 10,000. If you are taking short trips, then go every 5,000.

Change your plugs before 50,000 miles or you'll be forced to by a check engine light.

Adobe2X

If the plugs are the original ones, I'd say get them changed right away. As others have suggested, go with the new plugs SP534, and have them gapped .030 to .032.
As far as the oil change interval, go with the 5,000 mile intervals others have recommended. And, do check your oil level and smell frequently over the life of the oil.
When you check your oil, take a drop of it and put it on your finger, then rub it between finger and thumb. Then take a sniff of it, and if it smells strongly of gas, your choices are to change more frequently, or take longer trips to where the oil gets good and hot more often.
Direct injected and turbo'd engines are known for gas dilution of their crank cases, and the EB does occasionally suffer from this malady. Some here have even had the oil level increase on the dipstick due to the gas in the oil.

Tothemax

7k is nothing for synthetic oil. Guys who do oil analysis push it out to 30k, as long as the oil allows.

amascio

Swing by www.GF-6.com and check out article about gas turbo engines. Of note is the fact that the oil gets contaminated with soot, much like a diesel. Soot particles are very hard ( at the microscopic level ) and make a right fine abrasive when concentrated in your crankcase oil. Is it any wonder that timing chains and sprockets take a beating?

In my EB engine oil changes get done every 4k miles to keep this phenomenon down to a reasonable level. I'm also using European oils now (A3 rated) because they are quite robust. Don't really relish the idea of hanging chains on my motor, so this my new maintenance schedule for my baby.

itguy08

On my 2 Ecoboosts....

The Taurus gets it done at the dealer when the OLM goes off or a little sooner depending on my schedule. It gets whatever 5w20 they have (that's what it's spec'ed for, not 5w30). 82k and she runs like a top. Sometime there is a startup noise but it's not like the chain noise - more like a lifter that bled down. Apparently it's common on them and truly nothing to worry about.

The F150 gets its oil changed by me 2x a year which is usually about 5k. I use Pennzoil Platinum in it. Only do this because it doesn't get driven a whole lot and I want the oil out after the winter. So it's usually a change in April and a change in Nov. Right now I have a Fram Ultra on it.

One thing that may be worth considering is running a higher quality filter, like a Fram Ultra or other synthetic media. If you're changing early, run it out to about the manufacturer's life. The Fram is rated to 15k. I plan to change it at 10k or once a year. Why? Because the filters have plenty of capacity and they filter better the more stuff they catch (within reason).

geno51

85k HARD HARD miles only ever changed it when the monitor told me to do so. Never one problem

chrisuf2000

I'm changing it today and putting in castrol edge synthetic and using the wix filter. The local auto parts store showed me a fram and wix filter cut open side by side and the fram has cardboard/paper top and bottom piece to keep the oil separated whereas the wix is all metal inside. Plus the antisiphon part in the wix was also much better quality. I've never cut filters apart before but it was interesting seeing the diff between those two.
Also changing plugs today with the newer Motorsport plugs since mine are original at 70k miles. Very curious to see what they look like.

winchested

Funny thing is those Synthetic ultra filters actually filter out less particulate than the motocraft filters. They let through bigger and all the smaller mircron particulate than a standard filter does... or so I have read on a few filter comparison articles.

I'd rather change the filter twice and leave the oil in the full 10k. But I run 5K (8K Km) oil changes on mine. However I bought it with 23 K miles (38K Km) so not sure what they did before. I am now at 34.5K miles or 56 K Km and it is a 2011 and already has the timiing chain noise.

Always full synthetic on my end.

F150XTR

Mine does not do this at all.

If I drive more city, the interval decreases. It is not a countdown timer. Your manual explains this.

Out of curiosity, has anybody had an oil-related failure on any 2011+ engine??

Not to stir the pot, but I also have a twin-turbo direct injected BMW, where the OCI is 30,0000 kms or 1 year (whichever comes first). I've followed it pretty much since new (now 190,000 km) and have no oil-related problems with the engine at all. I sold an earlier BMW with 210,000 km and did the same. I presumed that the engineers for all of these companies build in a buffer when they recommend an OCI. You know, they have used these long OCI's in Europe for years and I am not hearing about a lot of oil-related failures and their city traffic is a lot worse and the highway speeds are a lot higher.