Yeah, the full syn oil is a mind set that took me a while to get over as well. Now I climb under my vehicles twice per year. Once to change the oil and again to change the filter half way through the life cycle of the oil. Then I top off what was lost. I've been doing this since 1995. I've never had an issue. There wasa pretty lengthy thread on this a short time ago.

My brother in law has a 2000 F-350 DRW 4x4, V-10. He gets 10.5 mpg's on his best days. I think the 6.4L is getting 16-17 mpg's empty. I may be wrong. None the less, it's better than the gasser though not what it once was.

Tim

 

6.4 is probably more around 13 14, my 6.0 is around 15

 

slightly off-topic I know

Synthetic or Dino, oil breaks down. Period. It happens, no contest. Oil also gathers water and other impurities...some dissolve and just circulate. If you are lucky, most stay in particulate form and the filter gets them before damage can be done.


In a clean controlled setting, I can see running oil for extended intervals...but not in a car motor. They are inherently dirty...valve leakby, piston rings, bad PCB, seals leaching...there are so many different ways for crap to get in there.


To knowingly run oil that amount of time boggles me. At a minimum, do you at least conduct oil testing? Or just blindly put your faith in a Synthetic label? If you do Lab testing, then by all means...I'll be the first to say your good to go.


To each his own, but I would never run oil that is over 3,000 miles/3 months old. Oil is cheap...engines aren't. BTW, maybe 7,000 miles annually for each of my vehicles. They each get an oil change roughly around each new season.




I might spend $80-90 a year on oil, but I know my oil is clean. Can you honestly say the same?




g'night all. sorry for the hijack

 

Thank you for your service shipmate! Actually, I was a cook. However, all of my friends were snipes, as cooks had real odd schedules. I knew by your sig that you are an MM and with that comes an inherent 3M, PMS and 10000 RPM oil and water separators and tons of other really cool gadgets that will enable a ship to deploy independently for months at a time.

You can't begin to compare the immense amount of maintanence performed on a US warship even to that of a Merchant vessel let alone a passanger car.

I don't have my oil tested not do I do any testing. I change my MOTORCRAFT filter at 6000 miles and then the oil at 12k. I've done this on four new Fords since 1995, have driven over 150k on each and never had any issues. The engines were as quiet old as they were new. I consider that my measuring stick. A defective engine will fail regardless.

I know this because I had to replace the engine in my '88 at 101k. All the required maintanence done by the book. We found three cyclinder walls cracked.

Coast Guard aircraft (rotorheads) use Mobil1 synthetic, or at least they did in the 90's. I'll bet that most US aircraft are pretty standard on that reagard. I know for a fact that Coast Guard and US Navy ships are.

Fair winds and following seas.

Tim

 

thats where us 7.3 guys differ from the 6.0 and 6.4 guys. we HATE a quiet diesel i took my wife for a test drive in a 6.4 a while back and even she commented that it didnt sound like a "real truck."

 

I agree with cpdorroh, no matter what the oil mfg says I couldn't let it go for the extended periods of time some people talk about. I use Mobil1 full syn and still change it every 3k. The oil is still cheap to buy however the truck was not. On the F250 topic they do ride much stiffer than the 150's even though they have been refined over the years. Good luck with you decision.

 

yes, im driving a regular cab. its a 2000 reg cab, 5.4 , 5 speed, 4.10 gears. my father in laws is an ext cab, auto, 3.73 gears and a 4.6. last time i had my truck over the scales it was right at 6k lbs. the reason he gets worse mileage is because he has a smaller engine in roughly the same size truck, worse gearing, engine has to work harder to do the same job, etc. out of my SD, OBS, bronco, my dads OBS f150, my father in laws f150, i prefer the ride of my SD the best.

just my personal opinion and not a reflection of the quality of the truck, but i wouldnt own an f150 from 97-up. i dont like how they look or how you cant order them like you want them. like a crew cab, long bed 5 speed. if ford ever takes the manual tranny out of the SD then my next truck will be a dodge...... never mind my distaste for the 5.4 and towing up hills, i wouldnt recommend the OP get an 09 f150 for the simple fact they only come with an auto.

 

How many miles have you towed with the 09? I have used manuals for the last 15 years in my work trucks, vans and cars and this is my first auto and to be honest it so much nicer than the manual. I think too many people are stuck in their old ways and struggle to move on to current designs and ideas. Ok there's a need for manuals in certain circumstances but not many.
Sounds to me like you have zero experience towing with a 09. I think you will find that people who tow with the 09 find it a very capable truck. I tow 7000-8000lb daily up and down mountains a lot. The 09 has zero problems towing this weight. My setup has the 3.55ls and the truck is pretty close to GVWR and it still handles it no problem. Ok it ain't no race car when towing but no truck is. If an 18wheeler can move 40+ tons around at the speeds they can then i see no problem with a 1/2ton moving 4-5tons abouts day in day out. Let alone a few times a year.

 

it doesnt matter how many miles ive towed with an 09. which is zero. i hate automatics and the only reason i own one is because im still teaching my wife how to drive a manual. the only time an auto comes in handy is when you are trying to talk on the phone, shave, eat your breakfast, put on make up, play with your ipod, etc. crap that doesnt belong in a vehicle in the first place. if you think the auto is nicer, thats your opinion and you should be allowed to get one. what i have a problem with is people like me who like manuals cant get one in about 90% of the cars made today. and the biggest reasons for that is because people like to multi task when they should be driving or they are just too lazy to learn how to drive one. there are those of us that actually enjoy the driving part of owning a vehicle. and for the record, im only 28, so its not that im stuck in my "old" ways.

and like i said in my previous post, thats my personal opinion and not a reflection of the quality of the truck. and no, theres no "need" for a manual. is there a "need" for a 500 hp mustang? but how many of us own them? is there a "need" radio controls on the steering wheel? or cruise control? or gps systems? do any of us that own a camper actually "need" them? its about having the option to order a vehicle with what we "want."

if you tow 8k lbs up mountains and have zero problems, then you must have one heck of a 5.4 or really small mountains. or dont view anything other than breaking down to be a problem. there are several hills within an hour of my house that i drive regularly that even 3-4k lbs would have any stock 5.4 doing 35mph with their flashers on. been there, done that, and wont ever take mine there again.

 

The reason you are seeing less and less manuals is because the autos are very good at doing what they was designed to do and why have the hassle of changing gear when you don't have to. Perhaps they should remove remote windows and starter motors because they make life easier. A lot of exotic sports cars now have full auto boxes because of being more efficient and quicker at changing gear it just the way all car and trucks will be soon. There's not one reason i can think of that when driving on a road a manual is better than a auto. After nearly 5000 miles in my 09 F150 which is my first Auto i cant see one downside.

Yes perhaps my 5.4 is one heck of a motor but I'm almost certain it's the truck and the new 6 speed that makes it such a joy to drive. OK i ain't on no 10000ft mountains but I'm in between the blue ridge mountains and climb mostly 3000-5000ft elevations. Yeah i have to slow down on some of these roads but i really don't want to be doing 50-60mph on these mountains roads with a trailer anyway.

 

im not saying take everything off a car that isnt something we "need." im saying quite the opposite. there is no need for power windows, but if you want them, i want you to have the option to get them. i just want the same option to get what i want in a vehicle. neither of my trucks have power windows, automatic hubs or cruise control. i dont care how good an auto shifts, how much better they are than older autos, or how many gears they have, etc. they take all the fun out of driving for those of us that like manuals. are the exotic autos faster at shifting than me in my manual mustang? for what they cost they dang well better be. but whats the fun in racing if you dont actually get to be the one shifting? anyone can win a drag race when all they have to do is press the gas.

the only advantage i see to an auto is in bracket racing, but i still wont use one there. the last fun ford i went to i finished 5th out of over 100 cars in my division. i was the only manual car that even made it to the top 16 and i lost by .01 in the round of 8 to the guy that won the whole thing. would i have beat him if i had an auto? probably. but i get more satisfaction out of knowing i made it that far because of my driving abilities, not because of technological advances. watching the light, making sure youre at the right rpm to launch, having done your burn out right so you dont spin when you do launch, and not missing any gears is so much more fun than having an auto, trans brake, stall converter, etc and just pulling up the to light and holding it wide open until you cross the finish line...... shifting is fun for me, not a hassle.

im not on any 10k foot mountains either. i live on the tn/va border. but i do a lot of towing all over west virginia, going to asheville, va, etc. and it gets old having to hit 3rd gear and hold it wide open with trailers that my 7.3 can handle in 5th gear without even knowing they are there. since youre from the blue ridge area, you may be familiar with sams gap. the speed limit is 70 there, but pretty much every gasser you pass is doing 35mph with their flashers on. and im not talking with big loads either. small trailers in the 3-4k pound range.

im not one that thinks towing is a drag race or does 80 mph with my trailer either. i wont do over 65 mph with my trailer no matter what the speed limit is. it just makes a world of difference to be able to maintain 60-65 mph in 5th gear instead of making a 10 mile pull up a hill with your flashers on. but the bottom line is, if you want an auto, i want you to be able to have one. it just really chaps my you know what that i cant get what i want.

 

What i find strange is your going on about being able to change gear and use the gears you have but you want the truck to be able to stay in one gear when towing?? Vehicles have gears for a reason. They take the strain from the engine and make it easy for the engine to get into a power range that is better for what your doing. Be it a hill or a flat road. I have no problem with a truck changing gear to make it easier for it to make it up a hill. Who cares if it's in 5th or 3rd as long as your getting up the hill! Been through sams gap a couple of times and yes it was hard going but with tow/haul mode on and a constant speed i have no problem getting up that hill and around the tractor trailers. Ok my truck was staying high in in the revs and was make More noise than it does when I'm cruising but i can almost put money on it that it was quieter than the diesel doing the same thing. OK i may not have been able to gain any speed going up that hill but it done it with zero problems. Yeah the diesel may have been nice for that hill but how often will you hit a hill like that and when you are back to normal roads you have the niceness of the f150 for the rest of the trip and daily driving.

 

I've only owned straight sticks in my trucks and I for one am finally tired of jamming gears. However, I'm still miffed that the auto industry is slowly taking that option away. The 6 speed is a great example of a manual tranny that should never be tampered with. You can pull stumps and still get the RPM's low enough to get respectable mpg's. The trouble is, you can't computer control a manual tranny. The driver can still manipulate and "drive" the vehicle.

When I transferred to San Diego in 2002 I had a brand new Ford Focus with the auto tranny. The five speed would have been better suited for getting over the mountains between Arizona and California, the mountains in New Mexico and again in Va. The auto tranny worked it's a$$ off.

Tim

 

i just had an entire reply typed and when i hit send it logged me out and erased my post but basically what i said was that its not the changing gears that bothers me. its the fact that i think my 5.4 is weak as water. having to run an engine that hard to get up a hill, at best, is going to burn a lot more gas. but at worst, it puts a lot of strain on your engine and the older 5.4's like mine are known for shooting spark plugs through the hood when they are under too much strain.

i wont "argue" with you on the quietness of the trucks. im not really arguing with you about anything, just stating my opinions and experiences. but the loudness of a truck depends solely on what type of exhaust you have. ive heard 5.4's that were so loud they drowned my diesel out as they drove by.

the thing that does kind of aggravate me though is people that talk about the higher maintenance cost of a diesel when they have never even owned one. this part of the reply isnt aimed at you, just my thoughts in general. yeah, the diesel holds more oil, but the simple fact is, if you use synthetic in your 5.4 it costs more than me using conventional in diesel. it doesnt matter that we are using different types of oil, you still paid more. on that same note, i just looked up a few parts for my 5.4 and my 7.3 and it proves quite the contrary. and yes, this is using the exact same brands and everything. not a high dollar part for one and low dollar for the other. alternator-5.4 is $200 and 7.3 is $140. water pump for the 5.4 is $63 and the 7.3 is $155. spark plugs and COP for the 5.4 is $92 and glow plugs for the 7.3 are $63. fan belts are both $40. clutch for the 5.4 is $350 and 7.3 is $240. its just simply not true that the diesel costs more to own.

what i find strange is those same people that argue about the higher maintenance costs of the diesel as a reason not to own them drive an auto instead of a manual. the auto comes with a higher sticker price from the dealer, requires filter and fluid changes every 25k miles, and 9 times out of 10 has to be rebuilt by 150k miles.

 

Lol i do that with posts often and it's so annoying. I know what you mean about the pre 09 5.4's feeling underpowered as we have a couple as del trucks at out office and you have to drive the 09 to feel how much different the 5.4 now feels with this new trans. I think someone said that first gear with the new box with 3.55ls is like having 4.30 axle with the old 4 speed. I was worried about the 3.55 not having the tq for my trailer but i was very wrong.


Ok perhaps someone can explain the difference for me between using 1st, 2nd or 3rd gear on the new 6 speed compared to using the same gears in a manual for say pulling a car from a ditch or going through some thick mud. Whats better for that? The manual or the auto??