Being a new older truck owner, and it not being my daily ride... What have you found to be the best way to keep track of maintenance? Do you go by mileage, or by month, etc? I just bought a 1977 F100, 302, auto, 2wd and not sure what's been done in the past. What is the recommended/required maintenance schedule?

 

Depends on your use for the vehicle. Off road or dusty conditions? What oil are you planning to use - dinosaur or synthetic? We need more information.

From the gate, I would change the oil and filter - don't use a Fram oil filter as they're junk. NAPA/Wix gold filters #1515 are good. Plugs and air filter as well as checking the punkin and trans for correct fluid level....coolant level and radiator/hose condition.

I go by mileage and have a book to write down what I've done - month/day/year. If you're only driving her on weekends maybe change change the oil and filter once a year, and check the plugs as well.

 

For that, I would on initial purchase, change all fluids and give it a tune up.

After that Spring and Fall for Oil changes, every Spring I'd change the fuel filter. The rest whenever the spirit moved me.

 

I'm curios why are fram filters junk? I only use fram filters. I have no problems in the many different cars and pickups I've used them on.

 

As a practical matter the owner/operator manual for your truck has capacities, specifications and lubrication and inspection intervals (time/mileage) for every component or system on your truck. Quality reprints for every year are available for about $10 or $20; for example the "severe service" interval for lubing grease points is every 500 miles.

I'd recommend a Ford Truck Shop Manual as well, these are available in paper reprints or CD. Very, very useful.

 

There are some good youtube videos that show the guts (build material/quality) of various oil filters. Regardless of the video's "slant" you'll see that not all oil filters are created equal. Fram doesn't typically do well in any of the evaluations, As Filthy Beast mentions, Napa/Wix usually fair well in the evals but you can form your own opinion.

I was a Fram/Motorcraft guy until I saw a few of the videos and some threads on this forum. Wix 51515XP is the only filter I use now on my 400.

 

The lower end ones use cardboard endcaps and just aren't as well built. I personally just use OEM on all my vehicles.

 

When I had a job changing oil in college we cut a lot of filters apart to drain them. Frams were the crappiest looking on the inside and wix/napa gold were the best.