Oil change intervals
 

So I've had my truck for almost 3 months and have 3000 miles on that baby. Is anyone else concerned about the 10,000 mile interval that has been suggested with the new oil cooler? Your thoughts would be appreciated!

Billy

No way I would do 10000 miles that is just me. I would get that first oil change done now to get out that breakin oil. I personally won't go over 5000. Oil changes are a cheap piece of mind. IMHO

I did my first oil change at 1500 put in Mobil 1 and will do oil changes at about every 5000 or every 6 months, since I do not put a lot of miles on my truck it is usually every 6 months
I got my truck in late December and just rolled over 3000 today.

My first oil change was at 2400 miles because I was getting ready for an 1800 mile trip. Now I have 4700 miles and plan on changing oil at 6000. Then 10,000.

I haven't decided from there, but wiil probably go every 5000 miles. It will also depend on how dirty the oil seems to get by visual inspection. I used to change oil every 3000 miles on my other vehicles.

CD2 did a study a few years ago and found that the additives in the syn oils begin to break down after 1500 miles, combine this with the fact the the timing chain tensioners are hydraulically actuated and are "sensitive" to dirt (leading to failure), I change the filter at 3K miles even if the oil looks good and change it if the oil is starting to look/feel tired...no longer than 5K miles ever.

I generally still do 3000, because usually by the time I get there the oil is about 6 months old. I will have to see with this EB truck, it is so much fun to drive my mileage may go up! I could never go over 5000, would probably start to bug me at 4000 though.

I'm at just over 1900 miles on mine so far and the estimated oil life monitor is claiming ive got 78% remaining oil life. definitely won't be going THAT long but, not sure when i WILL actually do the first oil change... (probably around 5k is my current guess)

The first change probably should be changed earlier, like 5000 mi, but 10,000 mi is for normal use. It's shorter intervals for severe use like dusty conditions, long idling, towing and hauling a lot, etc. If concerned about changing oil sooner, use the severe use oil change schedule listed in the maintenance manual.

fwiw i have asked two service managers at two different dealerships and both of them have said that 10000 miles on syn oil under normal conditions is perfectly fine on the 5.0's...dont know if it would be different for the ecos

Who/what is CD2?

How do you determine how used your oil looks/feels?

Plenty of UOAs have shown MC syn blend is good for 7500+ miles (on the 5.4L).

Before you guys decide to cut the recommended change interval by 2/3 (and thus piss away your money), why not at least get a UAO done?

Do you really think Ford is going to recommend an OCI that will destroy engines?

While I agree that frequent oil changes are fairly cheap insurance, it's a waste of money and perfectly good oil to change more frequently than the severe duty recommendations.

My last 2 vehicles, 2002 Ranger and 2002 Trailblazer got oil changes at 13000 miles. Got rid of both at around 180,000 miles. They both, twards the end, used almost a qt at the 13000 mile oci. They both ran like new. This was using a 0w30 synthetic oil and their propriatary filter.

I would like to post a copy of my UOA. but cant figure it out. I run Schaeffer 7000 5w20. 10,000 miles interval. All wear metals are in the sinlge digits execpt the iron are 21ppm. The base oil viscosity has not even began to break down. There is only one way to predict the life of oil and that is with uoa's. You can't go by feel, smell, or looks.

I had a Dodge Dakota (Never again Dodge) which I had for 10 years and one hundred thousand mile on it, I used Syn Oil from the first oil change and it never used any oil bewteen changes except for one time when I went almost 8000 miles before I changed it.
The only good thing about that dodge was the engine.

+1 on the UOAs. Only way to really know if your oil is in good shape when you change it. Good insurance to figure out if everything is good to go with the engine and how long to wait between changes. Especially with this new EB engine.

On one of the GT500 forums a member had extremely high aluminum content in the UOA. Took it into Ford and they ended up putting on a new head. Rare occurrence but he caught it way early.

I will be switching to a full synth oil for the EB. Probably Royal Purple as I can get it readily.