El Comandante

Another oil thread geez.

First St let me say I don’t care what oil anyone else uses and no one should care what anybody else uses. Not trying to change anyone’s mind w my opinion.

I use Kendall GT-1 5-30 synthetic w liquid Titanium. It’s made by ConocoPhillips the same exact company that makes Motorcraft oil. Kendal has a better additive package than MC. Has Titanium a known anti shear additive. It costs $5/qt. I use MC filters only.

I switched from MC 5-30 synthetic a while ago and I noticed a difference immediately. In fact two passengers commented how quiet and smooth my ole gal is running. This on two separate occasions.

I change every 3000-4000 miles. I have 191,xxx now and engine runs smooth and quiet.

I just ran 1100 mile trip each way and on return leg I drove 18 hrs straight through in 80 degree heat I used 1 qt and had truck on cruise control at 80-85 mph w some stretches at 90 mph.

Use any oil you like.

Dustin Frey

I don’t mean this to be insulting or disrespectful in anyway so please keep that in mind with what I’m about to say. Advising someone to change their oil every 3k miles shows that you don’t really understand oil standards or today’s engines. The 3k oil change standard was developed way back when engines were carburetorated and therefore had issues with cylinder wash and subsequent oil dilution. As fuel was dumped into the cylinders upon start up it would wash all of the oil from the cylinder walls and work its way past the rings into the oil pan diluting the oil and thining it out dramatically. That is why when you change the oil on an old car you smell raw fuel. This among other factors like oil quality, metallurgy, etc. we’re the basis for the 3k standard. Today the precise metering of fuel in FI cars has all but elminated cylinder wash and dilution. This along with dramatic improvements in oils and the metals used in engines makes changing oil every 3k at best extremely wasteful. Of course the industry was very slow to adapt to this because who would want to lose all that money from keeping people under the assumption that if they didn’t change their oil every 3k they would ruin their engine. Thankfully independent people started to research this issue and after analyzing oil at various mileages and under various conditions in today’s modern engines found that oil lasts much much longer and it has forced the industry to change. Some of the most interesting findings showed that a modern engine with conventional mineral based oil hadn’t really even seen any significant amount of degradation at 3k miles. This conventional 3k mile used oil stil exceed the standards for new oil. After the full study they showed that conventional oil interval shouldn’t be any less than 5k and even up to 7 depending on driving conditions. Semi-Syn is more difficult just because there is no industry standard or requirements for the percentage of synthetic oil in the mixture for a semi-syn. Therefore one oil company my add as little as 1% of synthetic oil to their mixture and then market it as semi-syn. Whereas legitimate oil companies will have mixtures up to and even above 50%. So with that said the study didn’t focus on semi-syn because the variables were so high and claimed that depending on what semi-syn you purchased it’s change interval should be around the high side of the conventional and low side of synthetic. This of course goes to say that the aforementioned oils need to be thoroughly researched before deciding on the best change interval. Now synthetic oils showed little to no degradation at a 7k sampling again like the conventional exceeding the standards for new off the shelf oil. Their findings lead to a recommendation of 12 to 15k depending on driving conditions and even claimed that it extreme temps and environments that a 10k precautionary interval should be considered but, may not be necessary. This goes to show why compaines like Mobil 1 ten years ago started marketing their extended performance 15k mike oil fully backed with an engine warranty. This extended performance oil has few meaningful differences from regular synthetic oil and none to dramatically effect service intervals. The greatest proff of this whole point is the new standards laid out by the automakers, (not the oil industry that invented the standard and has worked to hide the truth) making oil change intervals once to twice a year. This sir is a far cry from every 3k of yesteryear. I hope you can take something from this and not offense, it comes out of respect and admiration that I say anything at all.

River1

Oh2supercrew

im not really disagreeing but imo 3000-4000 is cheap insurance. I’ve seen and heard engine after engine that ran/looked new inside of it after 3000 mile oil changes for the life of the engine and have not seen many with 10,000+ oil change schedules.

mbb

My company i worked for in 1990s made pao...poly alpha olephins.
Synthetic oil.

We did fleet testing with houston police

Conventional oils were trash by 5000 mi


Change oil 3000 miles is what i do....i seen it.

Keeps gums, varnish to minimum too.

If you want to use synthetic....take it to 7500 if you like. But conventional oil is way less stable.

mapleleaf1773

I do have to say, my 5.4 with 170,000 is amazingly clean inside.

I just had my timing chains fixed. While it was apart I saw how clean it was.

I bought my 01 from my neighbor who always changed oil with motorcraft 5w 20, synthetic blend with motorcraft filter and changed it 2500 to 3000 k miles.

After seeing the inside how clean it was, I will and have not faultered in doing the same the past 1.5 years.

The shop guys I trust that did the timing job said it was one of the cleanest old engine they have ever seen.

Food for thought.

1BobSmith

I’ve been using Mobil 1 5w20 and noticed I’m going through oil faster.
I was losing a quart a year then up to a quart every 6 months.
mileage is 340,000 KMS/211,000 mi.
Still runs like a top but I’m going to try a different oil like Valvoline high mileage oil.

RangoWA

Old thread, and it's oil! But oh well, my owner's manual for '97 says Super Premium Motorcraft 5w-30. Doesn't specify synthetics, not sure how common they were then. But I use Mobil 1 full synthetic at the recommended weights.

white89gt

Ford released a TSB changing the recommended oil type to 5W-20.

Jbrew

Also Ford did specify synthetics in their recommendation for gen 10's........" BLEND".

97-03/04 F150 updated recommendation was 5w 20 Syn Blend. I believe there's a picture of the bottle attached to the TSB.

It was updated back in 00/ 01. Quite awhile ago.