hockyis1

I know this thread is a little old - sorry for the bump.

I just picked up a 2011 FX4 but my old truck was a 2008 XLT with the 5.4. I installed the Amsoil by-pass kit at about 25,000 miles and switched to synthetic at the same time. I put 248,000 miles on the truck in 4 years with 10,000 miles "standard" filter changes and 20,000 mile "by-pass" filter changes. Sent in my oil every few months for analysis which came back either good or "fair". I never changed my oil in 225,000 miles. I only added about a quart to each filter before I reinstalled them. I used Amsoil full synthetic.

Whether you use Amsoil or a home-brew by-pass system, it's worth taking a look. My engine may have gone 248K without the system, but considering the amount of driving I do for work, I'd rather know my truck will last a while.

I'm putting the old by-pass system from the old truck on my new FX4 this weekend.

djquik1

Can you post some of your reports? I'd be interested in seeing the wear and how well the oil held up.

hockyis1

I was pretty good about keeping my records in the beginning but deleted the reports after they kept coming back OK. I went back and the most recent report I kept was back from 2010...the oil had about 55K miles on it.

You can see the previous reports numbers in the bottom part of the report along with the "lube time", which is miles.

Looking back, I should have kept the reports. I also should have asked the dealer to keep my old sparkplugs. I used the original sparkplugs up until 230,000 miles. The service tech couldn't believe it.

Also, ignore the address on the report - I no longer live in California.

djquik1

Looks like entry 4 was showing abnormal stuff but overall for the mileage, looks pretty good

max69power

Here is an issue also if you mount the filter with the threads on the down side. The oil will drain out causing dry starts. Not a good thing for your engine. even small amounts of air every time will add up over time to more wear to your engine.

hockyis1

Yeah - but even after another 200,000 miles after that last report, the analysis kept coming back in the 3-4 severity level range usually because of one or two areas of concern. I'm pretty sure the extra 1-2 quarts of oil I was adding every 10-20K miles (due to changing of the filters) was helping keep the oil from going into the level 5 "severe" zone.

Overall - I'm happy enough with the system that I'm taking the old one and adding it to my new 5.0. When you do 5-7K miles per month like I do, I can't take the time to sit in a shop getting my oil changed every few weeks. The savings from the oil changes alone paid for the system over 250,000 miles.

hockyis1

Also, the by-pass filter (which is significantly larger than the regular filter) holds about a full quart of oil. Every time you removed this filter, you'd end up dumping 1/2 quart all over your engine compartment and driveway.

djquik1

Fair enough....How many miles a year do you drive?

otto457

Personally I would have dumped the oil and started over just because of the silicon. Iron should trend with wear, but you can see the silicon is slightly excellerating that wear. TBN stayed in a good range though with the 1 qt change. I'd probably go with dumping it all when you see contaminates reach a certain point. Seems to be working for you though. Those Amsoil Ea filters aren't cheap though.

hockyis1

I averaged a little over 60K per year over the last 4 years.