Just got an 08 V-10 F-350 dually. manual says 7500 between oil changes. I rememeber when auto OEMs used to say 3000 miles or 90days/6months, etc.

does anyone really let thir oil run 7500 miles...what if you only drive 3000 miles a year...2 years between changes???

 

You can go more than 3000 miles even conventional these days. A lot depends on how the vehicle is used. A lot of us operate under what Ford considers "severe duty" which shortens the recommended OCI some.

The way my truck is used falls under the severe duty and it racks up more hours vs miles. Shorter trips, towing, idling and etc. I usually run about 7 months between oil changes and run around 6,000 miles a year. Just use an 820s and a run of the mill synthetic like Pennzoil platinum. Waste oil goes to the farmer and I am not pissing money away on UOAs and mid OCI filter changes to run longer OCIs.

 

I go 5000 miles between changes. The $40 I spend for the filter and synthetic oil helps be sleep at night...cheap insurance

 

I do 5000 mile oil changes as well, and I use OEM 5/20 Motorcraft semi synthetic.

 

5k is the Ford recommended oil change interval on gas engines, some of the new ones with larger capacity oil pans go 7500-10k. 3k keeps the oil change places making big money. with modern engines there is no need for 3k oil changes.
Even when I had a diesel 10qts and factory recommended 10k oil change the oil change place recommenced 3k, its a waste of money.

 

I believe these fine folks.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/Newsl...uly-1-2013.php

 

I love it...blackstone is the new "how often should I" question.

lets not spend 40 bucks to change the oil every X thousand miles or Y months......lets instead spend 20 bucks every X thousand miles or Y months to do oil sample analisys.

 

With the extended oil changes 5,000 up to 10,000 miles, with the reduced ZDDP and the longer exposure to periodic oil filter bypass activation, this is another parallel IMHO, to the hydraulic timing chain actuators failing at around 100k miles as compared to their design specs which say they should be good for 150K+ miles. Those who have experienced these specific failures, the majority report they are on extended oil drain frequencies- most of the Ford Master Techs i have spoken diretly too regarding this, agree their gut instint says there is a relationship between the two.

I too do extended oil changes on a couple of my vehicles..........The oil on my 65 300 hp mustang (which has been in the family since new), has only seen 3 oil changes since its ground up rebuild (and of course after the engine break-in period) since the mid 1980's......but I do change the oem filter annually and i run a bypass filter (filters down to 5 ppm) and on each oil change (which was recent) I did add one bottle of ZDDP per after discussing this in detail with Ron Eskenderian (yes, Isky Racing Cams), and I add 1/3 of a bottle to my mod motors as well (1997 Cougar Sport 4.6 & 2006 Lincoln Mark LT 5.4)- IIRR it is a 9 oz bottle.

With regards to labs...........IMHO............
Well to start with, the majority of the "labs" are not certified by any state agency (required by most) nor subject to any ISO 3rd party verification- only self certification if at all. there are numerous postings going back 10+ years regarding the quality of these analysis......in general, it isn't good or to be believed in most cases. There are two things required for a test to be scientific- 1) does the test, test what it is suppose to & 2) if the test is repeated, does it come to the same conclusion.......if the answer is yes, then the test & processes are "scientifically valid"...meaning, it could even be brought into a court of law and submitted as "Evidence" (subject to scrutiny of course). Here's the real world, in one of the more popular threads posted, a gent sent multiple samples from the same oil, drawn at the same time, under different names. While there is always a possibility of minor variation (even caused by lab equipment re-calibration).....the results amongst the 4 samples were not even comparative.....as if each were from a different engine.
The concept is good & sound, the actual processes by most of the more "popular-labs" is a joke......nothing more than "snake oil on a paper" due to equipment maintenance, personnel training and general process controls.

Perhaps the best insight into this area come from, Tim Nelson, Technical Services Manager, Insight Services

If You Reuse Your Sample Tube Your Oil Analysis Results Will Be Inconsistent | Oil Analysis Blog

 

Really OCIs should be done by hours vs miles. Miles are kinda a crappy way of keeping track of maint on an engine due to the varying conditions that engines operate in from vehicle to vehicle.

 

your going to get nominated as the voice of reason.

multiple oil submissions using same oil but different end users....excellent

reduced component life due to reduced anti wear componets and extended schedules.....yes...makes sense

on the reduced wear componets such as zinc and phospours.....its easier and cheaper to replace a cat converter than an engine.

so we have this CAFE thing where theres a total score for an OEM for miles per gallon.....if we run 5W20 more CAFE points because we get 1/4 more miles to the gallon....but the engine will probally last 1/3 less than if we ran 5W30. Point being there might be a "green" score if our drains went from 3000 to 5000 to 7500....as long as the engine makes it to 36000 miles or 60 months do we think OEMs really care.

 

It is true you don't really know for sure if the "lab" that does the testing is doing it right. There have also been discussions about varying results on the same sample from lab to lab.

When I took the few oil samples I have sent off I always used a new container to hold the sample, pulled the drain plug and caught some oil directly into the container mid drain.

Due to the cost of UOA with TBN I did the math so to speak and just change it within a time I know will not be a problem. How I use my truck and liking to run a 0w30 in winter vs the usual 5w30 means I sometimes have to change a tad early.

 

Yeah---gotta agree 1,000,000% with this ^^--that's a lot BTW!

Just like spark plugs every part of our engines has a finite life including the engine itself. $40 a throw 3x/year seems a lot, lot less than the $4,500+ for a new engine, to me anyway.

If premature demise of parts like BeechKid cites can be attributed to longer oil change intervals then its only further evidence frequent changes cost nothing more than the materials involved, the cost of going longer tending to more costly in the longer term.

 

Thank you.......................

 

It's important to consider the life of the machine. And I'm specifically referring to its life with YOU.
I bought my van with about 113,000 miles on it in June 2013. I expected to add about 40,000 per year. In my opinion I'd need a "newer younger" model in three years, based on the idea that 233,000 miles is retirement for a workvan. Or at least semi-retirement: I wouldn't trust it to continue 40,000 miles per year after that. Stuff wears out, man.

Have you ever considered how many MILLION times those piston rings have violently scraped the cylinder walls? Maybe Billions. It is 96,000 times per hour (based on up and down stroke at 800 rpm idle).

And then consider the combustion pressures inside that thing. Pistons stroking engines is like cannon ***** stroking the cannon... 96,000 times per hour.

All this talk about oil analysis and oil change intervals is based on minimizing dollars while simultaneously maximizing machine life. That's crazy. Just change the oil a little TOO OFTEN and enjoy your truck.

It's a fricking oil change. Just do it. If you're struggling for the $40-50 then you should downsize or something.

 

Downsize to something pedal-powered, maybe walking shoes?