thinking about oil additives, I've never used them, I've always bought low mile cars and trucks and just ran good brand oil and changed it 3-4k and been alright, now this 2005 f250 5.4 gas, I just bought has 128,000 miles on it, and 3,000hrs. I have no idea how it was treated in its life or the interval of oil changes, it had pretty dirty oil when I changed it as soon as I got it home, I use 5w-20 valvoline and a motorcraft filter, I'm wondering if a can of "Restore" or "Dura Lube" additive would give an engine with this kind of miles a boost, or benifits to last longer if it was abused, any additives you all suggest??? or just continue with straight name brand oil? thanks!

 

my 10 min internet research has lead me to believe that good ole regular oil changes are best, best not add unknown additives that could clog a good running system...

 

Yes sir!

Modern oils are manufactured with additives built in to meet and/or exceed user requirements. Some third party additives can interfere with these factory additives and cause undesirable results such as foaming! Especially important in an engine with HEUI injectors, where the oil is used to "push" the fuel into the cylinder.

 

Yup...

Not sure of your location or how you use your truck, but I'd suggest going to a bit heavier oil, say 5W-30 or 10W-30 or 15W-40. The lighter weight oils are OK for the manufacturer to get through the warranty period and to make a bit of improvement in the MPG for marketing and for reporting to the government.

If the oil seemed very dirty, it also wouldn't hurt to do a second oil and filter change very soon.

 

I'm in Southern IN, so the thicker oil 5-30 10-30 is ok.

 

Again more backyard mechanics reccomending the wrong thing. 5-20 is the only correct oil. I can go into great detail about all the taxis, squad cars and municipal trucks I serviced that have high idle times and miles running nothing but motorcraft 5-20 and the 820s filter.

 

You don't need any additives they usually do more harm than good. Really 125k miles is chump change for the engine. See the thread of a guy who posted about a new odometer because the 5.4l in the shuttle van where he works rolled over 1,000,000 miles and the odometer was stuck at 999,999. So 125k ain't no thing.

As for oil weight recommended from Ford is 5w-20. One of the guys from the Ford block plant posted on here that they test with up to 5w-40 due to engines going overseas and that oil works fine. It is up to you just remember in all cases thicker is not better.

 

I will agree with this. It's not the 70's anymore where you go to 40 weight after 100,000 miles, these engines were designed for 5-20 whether you think it is too thin or not.

 

5w-20 only! Mobil 5000 meets Ford Spec and is fairly cheap at Wally World

 

I use 5W30 Synthetic in my 5.4. No problems. I want happy with the 5W20 and the truck would sound like a diesel on start up. Never happened again after I switched. Had a customer use 10 W30 in his V10 and its going strong 200K miles later. Personally, would use a decent synthetic like Mobil 1 and not use any additives.

 

Lots of consensus on...
use high quality oil, oil filters, regular oil changes, and don't use oil additives.

(Sorry I strayed off-topic and mentioned oil viscosity. That is an entirely different issue.)

 

This is all from my previous post so Ill just copy and paste,

"I dont think you have to worry about the motor wearing out on 5-20. I used to service Crown Victoria Police cars, they ran 24/7 mostly idle time. In the hot 100* summer months with AC running and more idle time. Usually Those units would avg about 3,500 idle hours + about 80k miles. Ford justifies one hour of idle time equal to 35 miles of driving. If you factor in 3,500 idle hours x 35 miles = 122,500 equivalent to normal driving wear and tear. So add the 80k of actual mileage is 202,500 miles worth of wear and tear on the moving parts. Those units always got the FL820s and regular old Motorcraft syn blend 5-20 for years. Usually those cars then become taxis with more idling, less maintenance and go until 300k on the odometer, We used to delete the idle our meter out of the PCM on the 05+ cars for that very reason that idle time destroys any value that is left. I had one that I picked up to derby with 290,000 miles on it and just over 7,000 idle hours! Thats 245,000 miles just in idle time! Now plus that 290k is just over 535,000 miles worth of wear and tear on the moving parts. So now that my little almost pointless post is over, you should be just fine with any high quality 5-20 and I highly recommend the 820S (usually 5.00 at wallyworld) you choose"

 

One thing to note here is that the OP has a 2005, which means he has the 3V 5.4. The 3V 5.4 is different because it has variable cam timing, and the oil is used to operate the cam phasers. The VCT system is designed to operate on 5W-20 oil. This doesn't mean you will blow up the engine by using something other than 5W-20, but it's not doing you any good to use a heavier oil either.

So far, my 3V 5.4 seems to be extremely happy with Valvoline MaxLife 5W-20 and an FL-820s filter.

 

Not pointless at all and very informative in fact. I am one that finds it hard to use 5-20 due to my long history of working on cars but I realize things have changed and car companies aren't stupid. I always use 5-20 now.
Don't sell yourself short when you have a story to tell. Most people in here don't have a lot of background to contribute.

 

I've done a lot of reading the past day or so... "It's what I learn after I know it all that counts." Anon

Stay with the 5W-20 the like others said. 5W- oils are better than 10W- oils at startup.

It's highly unlikely the heavier (5W-30) would harm anything (lots of people use it), but it's unlikely you need the heavier oil now. You may need to use that when the higher viscosity is needed to maintain adequate oil pressure when the engine is at operating temperature... Hopefully that will be many years from now.