Use good filters as well. I found a little piece of filter media blocking the oil restrictor in the head gasket on the passenger side of the Ram which caused the ticking and the carnage. How has the truck been treating you?

 

It doing well and has been a good truck. No issues other than the ball joint and rack replacement I knew about when I bought it. How is yours doing?

 

A decade later, does anyone still own one of these trucks?

And what have we learned in 10 - 12 years of oil changes?

 

12 years, I change my oil and filter(MC) every 3 to 4 months or when it gets black. I don't put many miles on my truck but it sits and idles most of the time. No engine issues and sounds the same as it did new off the lot.

 

I change oil and filter every year because I only put 2500 miles a year on it. I use Motorcraft 5W-20 and Motorcraft 400 filter. Engine runs great and starts easily. Of course, I have also always used a fuel stabilizer/cleaner, Startron for about the last year. For the OP, use the Motorcraft oil and filter and change every six months or 5000 miles, whichever comes first. I suggest you pick April and September since both months should have good weather if you do it outdoors. The F150 is very easy to get under for oil and filter with no jack required for most people. Just use 6 qts for the 4.2L, don't try to fill it by the stick. It will usually come to between the top and bottom marks on the stick, which is correct. These marks indicate the maximum fill which must not be exceeded, and the minimum level which means 'add a quart'. I don't know why they don't just do like everybody did for 100 years and put the top mark where the correct amount of oil will hit after starting and letting it settle, but it is what it is. Drain the oil, change the filter, don't bother trying to pre-fill the filter, put in six qts and you're done. You really don't have to pull the stick at all but you may as well prove it to yourself one time. My truck has never used any oil and when I change it in the Fall, it comes out looking good enough to go back in.

Yes, I realize I'm talking to nobody, but maybe someone with a 4.2L will see it. Anyway, the 5000 mile/6 mo change has become universal among owners of all kinds of vehicles.

 

2004 F150 4x4 5.4. I change it every 5000 miles with either 5W-20 syn blend or full synthetic and usually MC filter. 215K miles and no engine or oil issues. I tow a 5000# boat, 5000# cargo trailer and smaller trailers all over Florida. Doesn't use any oil. In the last month or two it did develop the tick. Bugs me but no way I am tackling that.

 

When I was driving the F-150 every day, I changed the oil "on the 5's". 5000, 10000, 15000, 20000........

Now, like you, the truck is not driven as often. I'm using a smaller Transit Connect for my daily commuting. The F-150 sees barely a few hundred miles a year.

I trust that my oil & filter are fine. But in my mind, I am wondering "for how long?" Obviously, I am not extending my oil change interval to 5 years or even 10 years. But at this rate, it seems almost a waste to change the oil every year. I actually waited 2 years for an oil change. The oil looked new coming out. That was last Christmas. Now it's September, and I'm trying to decide if I want to leave the oil in the engine, or change it. The oil still looks new. It bothers me to think about oil just sitting in the engine pan for that long. I know that today's oil is better than the oil XXXX years ago. But still get a bad feeling about it.

 

My mom's escape sat for 5 years with only 300 miles put on it. Oil looks fine, not going to change it yet. Only thing I can think would be moisture condensing inside the engine. I would run it at idle or drive it to temp once a month and once a week in winter to cook off the moisture. Oil shouldn't degrade in any time frame other than years. I don't see an expiration date on it. I would not change the filter til you have that 5,000 miles on it.

 

The most important thing I have discovered about lightly-used vehicles is not about the oil - its the tires. I had the original Hankook tires on it and they still looked almost new after 8 years. One day I was on my way somewhere and took an exit at 70 mph - suddenly it started weaving but I got it to the shoulder with no problem. The left rear tire was split across the tire from the wheel to the tread. I put the spare on but got new tires that week - BFG Radial Long Tour or something like that. I might live long enough to have to throw those great tires away too and get still another set, but they so far show no signs of ozone or UV degradation. I hit them a few times a year with Griot's Rubber Dressing which seems to keep tires fresh.

 

Rubber degrades. That is why tires have a manufacture code stamped on them. You're suppose to replace your tires, regardless of tread depth, if you see that the rubber is cracking or the tread is splitting. However, most people just don't look at their tires. Or even check the air pressure. Especially with cars that you don't drive often. I just replaced the Hankook on my pickup truck. Tread was good. Plenty of tread depth. Sipes were in perfect condition. You can kind of tell from the top 2 photos. But the rubber had cracks. The tread looked like it was separating from the sidewall. One tire had a a line splitting along the sidewall (similar to what you described) and was losing air. Only 10 years old with 70,000 miles. The tread could have been good for 10 more years, or at least up to 100,000 miles. I just got very inexpensive GreenBall Kanati Mud Hog. These will fall apart before I run out of tread.......just like the Hankook.