Got some free time this weekend and decided to change the oil a little ahead of the recommended schedule. My current mileage is 3,254 with 1.5 months of drive time.

1. Oil drain plug is very very easy to get to. Ford got smart.
2. As usual, the dang oil filter is sideways mounted like the 351 and 302 oil filters.
3. The skidplate is engineered really well. The oil from the filter drained through a hole and not a single drop touched the skit plate. There is even this cool little drain trough that directs the oil to prevent spillage onto the frame/crossmember.


Now for the fun stuff.
1. The oil filter was torqued on so hard, that I had to use a wratchet driven filter removal tool and the old "screwdriver" removal method.
2. 5,000 mile recommended interval my @ss. that oil was so filthy I thought I was changing the oil in my 1994 F-150 with 96,000 miles. Oil was black.

The filter selector thingy at Wallyworld was WRONG. It told me the filter for a flex fuel 5.4 liter V-8 was part number FL-400S. That is the part # for the 4.2 liter V-6. The correct filter is part #FL-820S for the Motorcraft filter, and PH-2 if you are using FRAM filters. Needless to say, this put a crimp in my oil change for about 30 minutes until I ran back to the store and got the right filter. I should have read the dang manual first instead of trusting the store to be right.

Just a warning for you guys out there who do it yourself.

Oh yeah, there is another filter listed, but I think it is only applicable to the Canadian trucks. Maybe some of you guys can tell me if I'm right.

 

I agree with the oil filter being welded on the engine! I changed the oil in my girlfreinds 2006 5.4 C/C f-150 at 4,000 miles and I thought I was going to have to put the oil back in it and take it back to the dealer to finish the oil change!!!

 

LOL the FL-400S is for a focus with the spi engine... it won't fit. The oil being dirty is just telling you it is doing it's job suspending the dirt.. I wouldn't go by that.

 

I use regular 5w20 non synthetic castrol gtx and change it every 3k. It's always runny and black.

 

2006 f-150 fx4 5.4L I changed the oil at 3000 miles and the position off the filter with it being so tight made me drive a 10 inch punch thru it to get it loose.I can not imagine why it was so tight.I put it on hand tight and it is not leaking. When 6000 miles come up I want to see how it comes off.

 

This could have been me posting this. Exactly what happened to me. Except I spilled oil all over the place. I expected it to come down the trough and not out the hole in the skidplate.

I saw an oil filter relocation kit for the 3v mustang. I just looked for it an I couldnt find again. I'll come accross it again.

I had about 3400 on mine. Oil very dirty and smelled dirty.

Used a wix 51372 filter and penzoil conventional oil. I am going make an attempt to order my wix filters from fleetfilter.com and use the ford synthetic blend for my changes.

 

Just did my 1st oil change on the new '06 this weekend at 3,000 as well.......they must be using a 4' cheater bar on those filters at the factory!!!!!! WOW!!!! I ended up using my 3 fingered geared filter wrench and it crushed the end cap pretty good before it finally gave up and came off. Oil looked "average". Filled it back up with 5W-20 Motorcraft and an FL-820S filter, but the tight filter turned a 15 min. job into a 30 min. one!!!!!

BTW, who hates the sharp edges on that plastic filter drain shield?????

 

I think they use robots to put the filter on at the factory. That is the only thing I've been able to think off for the filter being so tight.

glad to see I'm not the only one with this problem. I am concerned about the oil being so dirty because the last 2 vehicles I've owned had the oil come out almost the same color as I put in.

 

Another thing they over tighten at the factory is lug nuts. If you have a new truck I would loosen them one at a time and retorque them. Some of mine were so tight I had to use a 3 foot cheater on my lug wrench and on the last one I twisted the shaft on the wrench before it broke loose. Others I have talked with have had similar experiences. You wouldn't want to deal with that beside the road on a cold winter night.

 

I can't remember if it was Car and Driver or Popular Mechanics that I read this in, but they bought a new car and did a study for 15k miles (I think). Every oil change, they sent the oil in for testing.
They changed the oil at 300 miles, then switched between every 3k and 5k.
Their results said that the oil was the most dirty at 300 miles.
The 300 mile oil change foudn metal shavings and assorted junk in the engine, probably from manufacturing.
They also said that there was no appreciable difference between the oil contaminates at 3k and 5k miles.

The ultimate point of the article was to change the oil ASAP after taking delivery, and then every 5k miles of normal driving.

 

I suspect the first time oil filter change is hard is because original filter is put on without the gasket being oiled. You can have the same difficulty if you don't oil the gasket when you change it yourself. Once the original filter is removed, the rest are easy. I use both the Motorcraft filter and recommended Motorcraft oil from WalMart as it is no more expensive that the others and is about the cheapest synthetic blend oil I have found. The 800S filter fits my 3 newest Ford products so I keep extras. The 62 Fairlane takes a FL-1 filter.

 

I can't get the motorcraft oil/filter here unless I buy it from the dealer. Not even at Walmart.

 

Go to Advance Auto, Auto Zone or similar, get the filter wrench specifically for the 800S filter. Its' black metal fluted to fit the flutes on the bottom of the filter, and has a square for the 3/8 drive. It works well. The orange plastic Wally world universal filter wrench isn't that great.
Color of the oil is no inclination of how the oil is. Basically it's doing it's job. Todays oil are so good, that I bet if you do an analysis other than looking at it you would see a lot of life left.
Buy the 5 qt MC synth blend at Wally world along with two more qts and the 800 S filter (think it is $3.29). You can't beat the price!
My only question to you is why did you not check your owners manual vs the stores information?

We all had the oil filter torque problem on the first change, do a search you will find 2 year old threads talking of this.

BTW heres a tip. After you do the change, hold the accelerator to the floor while cranking the engine. The engine will not start but will prime the filter etc. This way you don't get that knocking noise from the cam phaser and chain tensioner. Crank this way a few times. Then release start normally.

 

this is my first 5.4 and I bought the oil on a spur of the moment thing. I hadn't planned on doing it that day. It was my fault for not checking the manual first though.

why wouldn't the truck start with it floored? that seems like a bad idea while the filter is being primed for the motor to be spinning 2 or 3,000 rpm

 

the engine will only turn it maybe 300-500 rpm with the starter... if even that much. the computer may not let the vehicle start with WOT.. that would be a good thing and a good tip for priming the filter with no load on the engine.