Hey there. First time truck and Ford owner here.

We picked up a 2000 F150 with 4.2l this weekend as a kayak porter and DIY home project hauler. It's also going to a winter vehicle.

It's approaching 100,000 miles and appears to have been very well taken care of. I have a Carfax report that notes that it was in the dealership for every 12,000 mile service and I suspect that the 6,000 mile oil changes were done by the owner. The only bad news, if it is such, is that the first owner put 74,000 miles on it during the first 3 years of ownership. It's taken 7 more years to reach 98,000.

Anyway, I'm really hoping to get another 10 years out of it in the limited role I have in mind for it. So I'm wanting to treat it right.

With past, high mileage vehicles I've always swapped over to synthetic (Mobile 1) without any problems.

First, though, I've always drained the old oil and filled it back with 5-6 quarts of cheap ATF. I let it idle for 10 minutes and then drain/fill with the new synthetic and replace the oil filter. Can I do the same with this Ford engine?

Can anyone add to this procedure or recommend something entirely different that will result in a clean engine?

 

I'm surprised to see 6K on the service, thought it was every 5K. Remember to use the 5W20 with this 4.2L engine. Top end issues will creep in on you. I used Castrol for the first 200K. The last couple of changes its been Motorcraft, don't know why I changed, guess Walmart sell the Motorcraft cheaper. No comment on trying to flush the engine with ATF. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the tip.

I just saw the TSB and, sure enough, Ford has been recommending 5w-20 since 2001.

My other 3 vehicles use 5w-30. Since I have jugs and jugs of that around my garage I'm probably going to keep using it for a while unless I can find 5w-20 on the cheap.

 

In speaking to the guys at the dealership, (fellow mechanics) they see accelerated valve train wear especially with the 4.2L. Am not an engineer to understand all that stuff, just passing along the info. I guess if I had the extra jugs of 5W30, I would sing a different tune.