I was told by a semi-truck driver that they change their rigs oil every 10,000 miles and that I could safely extend my oil changes up to 10,000 miles also because of the size of the oil capacity in my 7.3.

I tow my horse trailer 4 times a month, 20 miles round trip.

Other than that, I use it for errands, ect.
Nor do I let it just sit and idle, or warm up.

If you "KNOW" the answer to this, let me know.
I don't want un-educated guesses, or a Ford Manual response. I know what it says.
Thanks, Gman

 

Its never REQUIRED to change your oil in short intervals such as 4000-5000 miles. With things like this there is no specific answer that will encompass every vehicle because of so many different variables amongst cars and drivers, but the general 4-5k change has become the safe normal/average amongst cars and trucks.

Just keep a close eye on the color and smell of the your oil. If you're towing and not letting it warm up, etc, I would suggest sticking with the regular 4-5k. My brother with his 97 F250 PSD, changes his oil every 5k miles AT THE MOST, I do the same for my 5.8L gasser.

Oil is a relatively cheap component in your engine when considering the incredibly important role that it plays in keeping the engine running well and prolonging it's lifetime. I would rather have the peace of mind in knowing that my oil is going to be doing its job ALWAYS. Just my .02

 

Welcome to FTE!!

Only you can know the answer to that question, in the sponsor links, you will see a link to blackstone labs, they are an oil test facility. At the 5000 mile mark, the 10,000 mile mark send a sample in and they will test it. You can extend oil change intervals beyond 10,000 miles safely if the oil still provides the lubrication required and is not dirty. The blackstone website explains all of this in more detail. By pass filters are also an option if you are looking to extend oil change intervals, in the next day or so I am going to be posting results from two oil samples that should reveal the effectiveness of the frantz by pass filter system.

here is a link to black stone http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

There is a fellow named pops in the 99-03 forum that has excellent oil samples even at 15,000 miles, he changes it at that point because at an 18,000 mile sample there was some degradation in oil properties, so he tests at 10,000, to ensure all is well and 15,000 when he changes the oil, and histruck is consistently good. I recommend that you check at 5, 10, 12.5, 15, 17.5 the first time if you are interested in pushing out that far, and also listen to how well you truck runs, that will tell you a lot.

 

Definately have an oil analisys done. That is the only way to know for sure if the oil is O.K. and you can keep it in there longer. Short trips, not letting it warm up and get up to temp will not get the oil hot enough to disperse the water in it. This lets the water interact with the soot and other contaminates and lets acid build up in the oil.

 

The majority of trucks are changed well past 10,000 miles.

You could go with oil samples and all of that crap, but I cannot see the benefit of it. Without good oil, the engine dies. I am running dino oil, so I am going to change it pretty often, usually around 3,000. If I was running synthetics, I would bump that up a little bit. My use falls under the severe duty. If it wasn't, I would change at 4-5,000, but no more than that.

Every day I get to see the end results of oil not changed regularly enough. At cummins, I regularly change oil in the 6.7l's, every 7,500 miles. The oil at 7,500 miles is just plain nasty. It isn't really oil anymore. They are running Rotella 15w40, what I bet most of us are. Yes, they do oil samples. The oil still has some lubricating properties, hence that being that max. However, oil is used for more than that. What is happening is the oil is absorbing the soot in the engine (like it is suppose to) until it gets so sooty that it starts to get thick and literally stick to things in your crankcase. The oil itself is fine, it is just highly contaminated. This is beyond a oil filters capability.

Changing oil on celedon trucks is even more of a disaster. They are mostly running ISX's with oil change intervals at 25,000+. Coal dust would more define what comes out instead of oil. Being a warranty repair facility, we had to tell them that this was not working.

If you want to greatly extend your oil changes, lets say to 18,000, drop the pan and take a look inside. I bet you will find lots of nice treats in there. Oil is cheap, engines are not. Believe it or not, I am victim of this exact situation. I bought a vehicle that had extended oil changes done on it. The engine was toast and past rebuildable. I have already taken a peak inside, but when I do tear it down for inspection and to install the new engine, I will post pics here for your viewing pleasure. Needless to say, I don't think it is worth it. Stay within recommended ranges. They do extensive testing on engines and oil to determine what you need to go with.

 

I agree somewhat with 79f150idi, that dirty oil causes big problems, and that soot can saturate oil and cause it to gum up, but that is what oil analysis is for. They will tell you how dirty your oil is, its viscosity, it will also alert you of impending issues, excessive wear and things like that. Extending oil change intervals is however possible and safe, if done correctly and with the assistance of a good by pass filter.

 

Please explain a By Pass Filter. Gman

 

At the bottom of the post is a link that explains in more detail the by pass filter. Essentially, your pickup moves to much oil to filter small particles on every cycle. So your oil filter that comes from the factory is a full flow filter that only gets the large damage causing chunks out of the oil. A bypass filter only filters a percentage of the oil per oil cycle. So lets say in 30 seconds 100% of your oil goes through the full flow filter, only 10% would go through the bypass filter, but that 10 percent would be cleaner than the other stuff. Bypass filters get all of the oil eventually, but not every oil cycle in the engine. Our truck is set up very well for a by pass system, it has a pressure and return port that are currently plugged, all you have to do is tap in to them and mount the filter, it is very easy. I should get my oil sample results back today that will hopefully tell if the bypass filter is doing its job. I will post the results.


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