My V10 has been seeing 7k-10k oil change interval from day one. It now has 100k miles and no trips to the dealer ever.

My PSD is used to 5k miles change interval.

All of my dirt bikes have the every 5-7 rides oil change intervals.

no engine issues yet.


Heck, my honda crf dirt bike ran without oil for 4 minutes two weeks ago (rider error), and it's still working.

 

dgarzoli;
Glad to hear you are worried about the environment and the over use of oil. But may I please put your mind to rest. All good private oil change people return their used oil to a recycle centre. From there the oil is sent to an oil treatment plant where it is reprocessed and sold at a lesser price (oil brands like wally world). So the oil may be changed but it does not necessarily mean that it it is going into a landfill or incenerator. As an example; recently at work we disposed of 2300 gal of used oil and were paid to have it removed so it could be recycled. And no I can't prove engine failure on oil changes; but I can on the oil specs at the time of failure!

 

1996 Accord VTEC 4, 254,000+ miles. Changed oil around 3-4,000, a few 5,000 thrown in. Used various brands of oil and filters, most from Wally World. Religiously changed air filters every 30,000. Internal engine parts changed were timing belts at 90,000, & 180,000 give or take a few. Battery, radiator(rock got it), brakes, AC compressor just went out. Car still will run with anything new in it's class, doesn't burn a drop of oil between changes. On it's third hand me down from wife,daughter,son, and now me(30mpg regardless of speed :-),26 hours N.california to N.Louisiana at 71 mph avg trip speed. and my PSD gets to stay home and relax most of the time. I'm a believer in oil and filter changes, heck routine maintenance. It's all about longevity. Like the NASCAR commercial says, take care of your car, and it will take care of you. I'm a 5,000 miler on my 6.0, no synthetics, just a little Marvel in the mix.

 

[OR are you calling me a troll because this thread has caused you to realize how much money you have wasted changing oil and you want it closed.......]

Not hardly, I agree and could substitute KW's post for my own except I even do it more often. You will probably not find people here that have had an engine failure due to oil. Those that do not change their oil would obviously not care enough to come here. People (most) that post here seem want to look after their vehicles. You seem to be trolling IMO by attempting to stir up an arguement that will not float here, if you had taken the time to read some of the oil threads, no one that I have seen feels that you can go indefinitely w/o changes. It is a fact that diesels shear oil, the additive package loses it efficacy & if you want the engine to have some sort of longevity it must be changed. If you can afford to buy a new engine every couple of years, don't change it!
A good read I picked up here: http://www.boss302.com/oil.htm

 

I change my fuel filter every other time (depending on how hard the truck has been working) I change my oil, so I figure rather than start a new thread for one question, I'll ask it here -please pardon me if its not appropriate.
My father has a new (2005) F-250 offroad 6.0 diesel. He doesn't know what size wrench (or socket?) is required to remove the frame-mounted filter. Can't change it, has nothing in stock to do it with. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
-Nightbiker

 

I change my oil not by interval but how I use my vehicles....

 

"He doesn't know what size wrench (or socket?) is required to remove the frame-mounted filter. Can't change it, has nothing in stock to do it with. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
-Nightbiker"

36mm Socket for the frame mounted fuel filter and oil canister, 1/2" ratchet extension for the small fuel filter. Read over the fuel filter instructions in the tech folder for some nice tidbits of information that will make the job less messy.

 

Thanks, DB. I'll forward the info to him. I rather like the way the fuel filter is done on my old 7.3, no mess, no fuss.
We were up in Alabama hunting, and got ahold of some bad fuel -about 20 miles after fueling, the water light came on (intermittent, but enough to be disturbing) -so thinking it was as easy as purging my 7.3 (top, center of engine, down on the side of the fuel bowl, flip the lever and let the fuel and water drain out) we went to do that -only to discover that for some odd reason, Ford changed this easy to do procedure, now you need an allen wrench, its on the frame, under the engine (lay in the mud and dirt, why dontcha! ) and a pain in the butt, -messy, too. Bad plan. Cheaper for them, though. I told him I'd make an adapter, and change this crap. Put a valve on it instead.
Anyway, thanks again for the info.

 

I'll probably regret jumping into this, but;
(1) I think dgarzoli is probably just pointing out that, although the majority of us change our oils at or before the mfg recommended intervals, is it really necessary? (Would the end results be any different if we doubled {etc} the intervals?)
(2) I have almost always doubled the recommended intervals and have NEVER had a lubrication related problem. I got into the heavy equipment business about 9 years ago and started having oil analysis' performed on various engines and was able to determine that the results had very little difference if stretched out about 60% to 75% (changing oil & filter @ 400 to 425 hours vs. every 250 hours). Slight differences (accumulations of various metals and silicones {dirt}) started being noticable around 500 hours. "Dangerous" levels of contaminants started around the 550 hour mark. Based on that, I made the decision to increase our intervals to 450 hours. Some of the engines had nearly 12,000 hours (most of the hours at 2,200 RPM, hi ambeient temp, hi dust job sites) (we changed primary air filters at 200-250) on them when we sold/traded them, and we NEVER had any lubrication related failures.
(3) For what it's worth, I do my own maintenance on my 6 liter and I choose to do oil & filter at about 7,500. I've had it analyzed by Cat 3 times & it's always been fine. I have about 60,000 miles on it now.

 

Well, it shouldn't be an argument that the recommended change times are very conservative (good reason for this, I expect) but I've always changed my oil in Gas burning machines earlier than I would in diesel-burners -partly because the diesel ones had a hell of a lot larger sump tank.
When I was long-hauling, we logged a heck of a lot more miles (I cant recall the numbers anymore) between changes than I do on my 7.3L engine.

 

I have personally seen a sludged and failed toyota V6. The reason no oil change in 15-20K miles.

The oil filter gets full, the oil becomes severely contaminated, the oil pump burns up and the motor runs dry until failure.

The sludge is the consistency of molasses with beach sand in it...not a pretty sight.

Toyota ate the first motor, but if it happens again its on the customer, despite warranty. That was their policy.

 

And this is just how the owners manual and suggested change interval reads. Choosing a change interval should be wieghed against the environment that the engine has been exposed to. Just as how often you change the air intake filter. Those of us that run dirt bikes in the dust, forcing our play machines to injest dirty air need to change lubricants and filters more often. Those that drive our rigs in downtown LA and NY traffic all day long might want to think about using the harsh service interval. Joe-Bob on the Texas ranch with more range dust tween his teeth than dueling brain cells tween his ears might want to change oil more often than those of us that just commute the rural route with no load.

I change my oil, (Delo400) every 5000 miles because that is well within the capabilities of the oil, and within the reccommendations in our owners manual. And because I don't push my truck into harsh service or dirty environments all that often. I don't race, and I don't tow over the mountain passes every day pushing things to the edges of design limits. Nor do I run the engine to extreme temperatures. If I tow'd my camp trailer more often then maybe I'd change the oil more often. If I get into a rough service environment for a period of time, then I'll throw in an additional oil change. But that doesn't mean that since I go hunting a couple times a year, that I'm going to start a 3000 mile oil change interval. Same with other filters. Same with other lubricated items. Same with checking my tires more often. I adjust per the conditions.

I've had American gas V8's go well into 100,000's of miles with having changed the oil every 3000 miles. And they ran/run like new. There's something to be said for that. None of them saw anything other than Castrol.

Have I had a failure? Yes, now that you ask. I had a Briggs & Stratton ceaze last year. A little low on lube. Warm. Just up'n stopped in the middle of the yard. Lack of oil changes- Yup! Now I take better care of my new Craftsman with Kohler 14hp.

 

Argument....NO. Discussion, as in discussion forum....Yes. I don't beleive, other than my lawnmower EXAMPLE, that I suggested NEVER chaging oil, I simply questioned the scientific/mechanical basis for changing oil at what can be construed as more often than neccessary IE the manual says 7500 miles but so many people change at 3000-why??

Ill buy that.............................................

This statement is exactly what I am questioning and was the basis for this DISCUSSION on the FTE DISCUSSION forum. Who and how many people do you know or even heard rumor of that have had to replace engines as you stated resulting from too infrequent oil changes? Id bet lunch that there are thousands of people in this country who are are too lazy or dumb to change their oil every 15000 or 20000 miles if at all, much less at the manufactureres reccomended interval??? If this number of people were "buying new engines every few years" Wouldn't you think that they would be easy to find or read about or see on the news?? I suspect that, although not a preferred practice, modern motor oils are very capable of providing the neccessary amount of lubricaiton duties at least to (in this case the 6.0 PSD) 7500 miles and probably quit a bit beyond, before any appreciable wear (read NOTICABLE wear) ever occurred. Statements like having to replace your engine every few years if you fail to change your oil after every trip to the lake and back(a bit of sarcasm......sorry) is ridiculuous.

 

NightBiker--the filter on the frame rail for fuel takes a 36 mm socket. The drain plug is a 6mm allen wrench. On the '04, that is. Have they changed the '05s fllter housing?

 

does anyone have any personal knowledge or experience of an engine failure due to excessivley dirty oil due to too infrequent of oil changes?

dgarzoli ...The answer to your question, apparently, is...

...NO. Not here at FTE anyway.

'Nuff said.