Although I applaud this motivation and vigor for maintaining clean oil, today's synthetic oils combined with the right filtering raises that old number of 3,000 miles to 5,000 miles. The 3,000 mile oil change recommendation was actually a requirement from the old days of non synthetic oils. You do you but 3,000 is too frequent and is a waste of valuable resources. Not meaning to offend.

 

For an engine like the 5.4 3v, 3k changes are cheap compared to timing components.

OP, I would look for a 4.6 if you like this generation. The 5.4 3v is too risky.

 

No offense taken, thinking mainly of timing chain wear on these newer vehicles myself
Agreed,
I would cut the manufacturers recommendation in half for all makes
Agree with the 4.6 too, being a better motor for longevity
The pre 2000 5.4s seem to run forever
I see a bunch of them with over 300k still running fine

 

Prior to the purchase, I took it to my mechanic as suggested. He checked out the truck and said the timing chain sounds good. He did a scan and found no bad codes. He found the following issues:
Transmission dipstick is badly corroded and needs to be replaced.
Power steering system has air in it..
The odometer LCD is intermittent. It randomly flashes as all blank blocks.
Recommends replacing plugs and fuel filter.
Any insights/advice on how to's for this work is appreciated. (I am having my mechanic change the plugs. Don't want to take any chances. The COPS are the earlier black ones. Not the brown)

 

Assuming your fluids are all good and at proper level, I would recommend that you just drive it a while before messing with anything. Log some miles in various conditions, see if anything crops up. Hopefully there wont be any gremlins, but best to find them before spending more money.

not suggesting that you shouldn’t do plugs, id just fully test it out first.

re plugs: get motorcraft, buy boots/springs for coils, but keep existing coils (assuming they are working fine).

getting a scanner or at least code reader and finding fordtechmakeuloco on YouTube will be very helpful in future.

 

'it's the COP boots that have the 2 different colors.