I'm sure I can find it then. The O'Reilly's by my house is pretty good.
Hey that would be awesome on the springs. Thanks!

 

Am I reading this right?

Wow, I could never go that long with out an oil change. Regardless of oil or filtration used.

 

I wouldn't go a YEAR without an oil change, regardless of miles put on the vehicle. Condensation builds in the oil, and water isn't kind to the internals. Micro-rust starts forming inside the cylinders which in turn gets scrapped up by the rings and starts to form wear grooves.

 

It's Zerex G-05 and it's an HOAT (Hybrid Organic Acid Technology) type coolant. It's has way less silicate drop out than the green stuff and on a scale of "Good, Better, Best" is better for a 7.3 and 6.0 than the green stuff.

I learned this becuase my 7.3 had the green stuff in it from day one (October 2000) when I bought it August 27th, 2001. It wasn't until the summer of 2007 that the waterpump failed for the first time. I had DI Performance replace the waterpump, they swapped the thermostat, flushed and refilled with the green stuff. Fall 2008, the water pump started leaking again, this time to the point I thought I wasn't going to get home, so DI performance got to do it again, same job as last time. 2 years later Spring 2010, the waterpump failed again, but this time I opted for Ford Premium Gold which is basically Zerex G-05 relabled. 2012 came and I kept waiting for the pump to fail again, but it didn't...

After reading that the 6.0 and 7.3 folks were using ELC coolant, I decided to do the same and install a coolant filter. I drained the G-05 from the radiator and the block only to find that there was little to no silicate drop out. I swapped the coolant anyhow, but the lesson here is that if you have a 7.3 and can't swing the cost of an ELC, the HOAT G-05 will do fine.

One last note, if you haven't replaced your radiator hoses and heater hoses when you decide to do a flush, please do so after. I learned the hard way that this is something you should do. Coolant is expensive and there's nothing like coming out of HEB to find all your expensive ELC all over the parking lot because you didn't replace the lower radiator hose when you should have.

Sounds like a tech day of sorts is in order.

We really should arrange something a little after tax time.


Back on topic, before we get too far off topic

 

Why?
Blackstone has reported trucks with over 1 million miles on the oil. If the oil is good why change it? This is a good read.

From a major oil analyzing company about the benefits of bypass filtration.

---"We receive many oil samples from clients who don't understand what is required to run unusually long oil use intervals in their engines. The accumulation of wear metals, blow-by materials, and oil oxidation products in their oils is alarming. It has been our experience that one cannot simply add oil of a particular brand or base stock and expect it will be useful for an extended period of time, lubricating, cleaning, and cooling as required. Oil that becomes contaminated needs to be changed promptly. In our opinion, there are no magic oils or additives. There are, however, auxiliary systems you can add to your engine's lubricating system that will keep the oil clean enough to use over an extended period of time. By-pass filtration units are the most common system used for this purpose. In-line oil filtration, which comes installed on your engine from the factory, filters oil entering the engine down to roughly 30-40 microns (millionths of a meter). This is about as finely as in-line filtration can filter, because when the oil is cold or the filter is partially plugged, a finer filter would cause too great a pressure drop, forcing open the filter by-pass valve and allowing unfiltered oil to circulate through the engine. By-pass filtration works differently. When this type of auxiliary system is installed, some of the sump oil by-passes the in-line filter system, passing continually though a by-pass filter and then returning to the oil sump. Using this method, sump oil is constantly being cleaned any time the engine is running, and it can be filtered down to a very fine size. All you have to do to maintain the system is occasionally change the by-pass filter. Not only do the by-pass filtration units cleanse the sump oil of blow-by and oxidation products, they also reduce wear metals and silicon accumulations, both of which are abrasive. Oil does not wear out. Its usefulness is limited by contamination. By-pass filtration removes most of the contaminants. How long can an oil fill be run using by-pass filtration? We've heard claims of large (Class 8) diesels going 1,000,000 miles on the same fill of oil with no harm done to the engines. We have analyzed oils which have been in service 240,000 miles and found nothing unusual in the analysis, other than higher than average iron and lead (from steel parts and bearings), and these wear accumulations were not intolerably high. After having run many tens of thousands of diesel engine oil samples, it is our opinion that a by-pass oil filtration system is one of the most important factors in extending oil drains. If you are interested in extended oil drains, we suggest you investigate adding this type of system to your engine."
---Blackstone Labs

 

Why not just change th oil sooner rather than playing with fire (extended oil change intervals)?

Kind of like feeding a baby till it gets fat and then stop feeding it till it gets skinny. Sure it may work, but there is damage being done. Black stone or not, no thank you. I like to take care of my vehicles!

 

I'm not sold on that, just my .02

 

Frequent oil changes are OK and expensive. I agree that new oil makes the owner feel better. But if you can keep the oil clean, filtered, doing it's job and looking new, wouldn't that meet the same goal?
How does increasing filtration equate to "playing with fire"? In fact isn't increasing filtration "taking care of your vehicle" more? How can removing soot and particles down to two microns be bad?

I tend to rely on facts.

 

Selling is not the issue. It's science and facts.... and a choice.

 

So increasing filtration replaces all the vital additives in the oil? don't think so! you do know that the longer the oil stays in there the more it becomes acidic?! a filter or 2 is not going to remove that! yes an oil change for around $75 every 7500 miles is a much better alternative!

 

High Acidic oil is a product of oxidation... caused by heat. Certainly towing and hot conditions exacerbate this. Here's some more info. Knowledge is good.

Seek to understand then to be understood.

Do I Need a TBN?

 

I can see the application and benefits for all this on OTR rigs that run nearly non-stop. But for the every day vehicle? Not so much. Half the time just popping around town on errands in bursts won't get the oil hot enough to boil out the condensation, not running it up to temp properly is where the sludge and all that comes from. Yes, too hot causes issues with oxidation and losing the essential additives but not getting it hot enough is just as detrimental to the longevity of the oil's useful service life.

 

I use my Ex for towing and long hauls... so the application for me is appropriate.
I'm not an oil expert or a lubrication engineer (although I work with some)and all I have is information that I read and repeat made available by trustworthy sources... like Blackstone Labs. I read, I learn, I put into use... and then double check from another source. I try to practice objective vehicle maintenance and I'm always open to learn something new.

I'm ok with how some people perform vehicle maintenance. How and why they do what they do is certainly their business and never wanna sound condescending... However it is to everyones advantage to know why we do what we do and be open to ideas and methods.

 

I used to be a "by the book" oil change guy. If the car said 3000 miles, that's where I changed it. Period. I would change the oil in the middle of the night so it didn't have 3100 miles on it before I got around to it. About 4 years ago I started sending samples to Blackstone. At the very least, it made me realize the world wasn't going to end at 3001 miles. After 4 years of tests, I now push that car over 4K and Blackstone recommends I can go further. I don't have the comfort yet, but you can see the trends of what contaminants increase with increased mileage and by what percentages. A little math and thought makes it clear that running another 1000 miles isn't wearing my engine any faster.
Blackstone says I can easily run the Ex to 7500. I will not blindly follow their recommendation, but I also won't rush at exactly 5K either. I'll get a few more samples analyzed and decide what to do then. With the car, I send a sample for analysis every 3 oil changes to verify nothing is changing. I tend to push that interval a little further than the others to see what I wind up with. Obviously how the vehicle is used plays a big role, which is why I get my own oil analyzed. Then I know how my use with my vehicle effects the oil change interval for me. I've done the math and even with the fees and shipping for oil analysis I am saving money and being more environmentally conscious at the same time.

 

For the 6L owners,

The bypass oil filter should NOT alter your oil change interval. The extra filter is fine at adding more filtering, but the 6L shears the oil and the oil needs to be changed at the same interval, some go 6-7 k miles with oil analysis testing, but 5k is easy to remember.

Just wanted to help out 6L folks that might not spend much time down on the 6L forum.