2006 Ford Five Hundred under valve cover pics, 186k miles conventional oil

[celicaxx]

So I'm doing the valve cover gaskets, plugs, and coils, on my mom's Ford Five Hundred again (Chinese coils failed in back, didn't do valve cover gaskets last time and they were leaking a bit.)

Anyway, here's how things look in front at least.

So that's it. There's yellow patina everywhere, but the only part with actual varnish I can see is the timing chain cover. Timing chain feels tight, still.

For oil change history, my mom got it with 60K miles, and did dealer oil changes until I think about 120K miles, with whatever the dealer used. She did them every 5000 miles. Once I took over, I used Motorcraft semi-synthetic 5W20 for 5K oil changes, but I did do one oil change with a Valvoline high mileage synthetic, maybe in 0w20, forget. At around 140-150K I switched to using Supertech conventional mostly, with a few changes with Valvoline Maxlife, almost always 5w20, but I used 5w30 in it once or twice with I think the Motorcraft oil, actually. I just switched to ST as the Motorcraft went up in price. Last two oil changes were Mobil Super 5000 5w20 I got for $1 a quart in 5w20. The cheaper ST oil seemed to run smoother than Motorcraft and leaked a little less, oil consumption went from a quart every 1500 to about 2000-2500 miles with ST conventional high mileage.

This coming oil change after I do the plugs (wish me luck today!) will be Mobil Super 5000 in 10w30 simply because I have it lying around.

Anyway, while synthetic is probably better, I think it's a pretty clean engine for conventional. I mostly always stuck to 5000 oil changes, but occasionally would go 6-7K or so, but rarely. Changed air filters every year or so. New Motorcraft filter every change, too.

What do you guys think?

 

[wlk]

Looks great

 

[Brian123]

I really think 4 a 5000 mile OCI Dino oil is fine, or 2 things, cheap oil has come a long way or it could be driving habits.

 

[OVERKILL]

Looks great, though it's not really 186K on conventional given the history you've provided, but does look good for the "value" tier oils being used for sure.

 

[KCJeep]

Looks very good, what engine is that?

 

[JeffKeryk]

Looks good. I hate those cheap coils. I got burned on a set of 8 for my Tundra. Fake NGK plugs are the worst!

 

[dnewton3]

Proof that you don't always need super expensive oils to have a reasonably clean engine. It's not spotless, but it's still quite acceptable.

 

[Kira]

Is that dull bronze finish (yellow patina) some kind of residue for certain?
The metal couldn't change color or just stain?

 

[celicaxx]

Looks very good, what engine is that?

Ford Duratec 3.0 V6.

Is that dull bronze finish (yellow patina) some kind of residue for certain?
The metal couldn't change color or just stain?

I actually don't know which it is, to be honest. I see valve cover pics here with this, but sometimes the metal is still silver looking. Either way I don't think it's abnormal/bad.

Looks great, though it's not really 186K on conventional given the history you've provided, but does look good for the "value" tier oils being used for sure.

I'm fairly certain the dealer just used bulk oil, as she didn't specify synthetic oil changes. So I doubt it was the MC oil. To be fair it spent most of its life on the MC oil, which is semi-syn but highly regarded here.

I really think 4 a 5000 mile OCI Dino oil is fine, or 2 things, cheap oil has come a long way or it could be driving habits.

My driving habits are fairly not great. It's been short tripped most of its life, but the last year or so I've had a 4-5 day a week 10 mile each way commute on the highway, so maybe that's helped things out. The only thing exceptional I do is I give it about 30 seconds most days to warm up before driving off, and try to baby it a little before its warmed up on the gauge. I do drive like a grandpa most of the time, though. I think things mainly worked out because it's a non-DI V6 that's not under a lot of stress most of the time.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Looks good

Since it can be difficult to work on a transverse V6, I hope you used OE valve cover gaskets and coils, and NGK or Denso iridium spark plugs, so you'll never have to get back there again

 

[Passport1]

Very nice. Tks for the pictures, great resolution.

 

[HouseTiger]

Sweet. Taken care of that should only last, maybe, another 200,000 miles ?

 

[demarpaint]

Looks great! Keep doing what you've been doing.

 

[CleanSump]

That looks really good and should blow some minds here.
The Gold is nothing. Even a life of Castrol's best synthetics have left that in a couple of my cars.
Keep up with a good thing!

 

[celicaxx]

So I want to be honest with the condition, good and bad. The back bank while not horrible, definitely has some real varnish and not just the patina color. The back bank has an actual PCV valve, whereas the front back is just vented via a tube. I didn't change the PCV the whole time we've owned it. So it's getting changed now finally, thankfully. PCV wasn't stuck, it still moved, but still, should have been changed. I think the bigger problem, though, is being so close to the firewall, there's no airflow to that bank of cylinders compared to the front, so it gets a lot hotter. The valve cover gaskets in back were a lot more rigid and hard compared to the front.

So anyway, back bank doesn't have as good pictures, it was nearing dusk and I didn't finish tonight. That and the angle isn't great compared to the front for pictures, and I used a flashlight/etc, too. But still, hope it's interesting.

As far as why did I use "conventional" oil, it had a little leak in the valve covers and I found cheaper ST conventional made it leak less, mainly. But also, I had a Mitsubishi Galant that had a happy life on Supertech conventional with 5-7K oil changes for about 50,000 miles, and one day I put in Rotella 10w30 "synthetic blend" to try to clean things out for no real reason, and it shortly after developed a very large crank seal leak when it used maybe a quart between changes prior. (Maybe the extra detergents were the cause and not the oil itself.) Also, under the Galant's valve cover was pretty similar to these pics, some varnish, but no sludge. My Sentra was the first car I ever had with actual sludge. With the Galant, though, I was quite religious about cleaning or changing the PCV valve every year or so.

I think if I got a newer car with less miles, I would definitely use synthetic, especially because I have a Costco membership now.

Obviously conventional is in quotes, as I do realize since API SN at least conventional has been semi-synthetic. I've had trouble explaining this to stubborn Boomers at auto parts stores complaining about the lack of conventional oil as of this year. I'm usually met with hostility explaining they've been using semi-synthetic for the last decade or so, but oh well.

Anyway, wish me luck tomorrow with getting this all done.

 

[redhorse554]

So I'm doing the valve cover gaskets, plugs, and coils, on my mom's Ford Five Hundred again (Chinese coils failed in back, didn't do valve cover gaskets last time and they were leaking a bit.)

Anyway, here's how things look in front at least.

So that's it. There's yellow patina everywhere, but the only part with actual varnish I can see is the timing chain cover. Timing chain feels tight, still.

For oil change history, my mom got it with 60K miles, and did dealer oil changes until I think about 120K miles, with whatever the dealer used. She did them every 5000 miles. Once I took over, I used Motorcraft semi-synthetic 5W20 for 5K oil changes, but I did do one oil change with a Valvoline high mileage synthetic, maybe in 0w20, forget. At around 140-150K I switched to using Supertech conventional mostly, with a few changes with Valvoline Maxlife, almost always 5w20, but I used 5w30 in it once or twice with I think the Motorcraft oil, actually. I just switched to ST as the Motorcraft went up in price. Last two oil changes were Mobil Super 5000 5w20 I got for $1 a quart in 5w20. The cheaper ST oil seemed to run smoother than Motorcraft and leaked a little less, oil consumption went from a quart every 1500 to about 2000-2500 miles with ST conventional high mileage.

This coming oil change after I do the plugs (wish me luck today!) will be Mobil Super 5000 in 10w30 simply because I have it lying around.

Anyway, while synthetic is probably better, I think it's a pretty clean engine for conventional. I mostly always stuck to 5000 oil changes, but occasionally would go 6-7K or so, but rarely. Changed air filters every year or so. New Motorcraft filter every change, too.

What do you guys think?

looks pretty clean.

 

[tdi jerry]

I really think 4 a 5000 mile OCI Dino oil is fine, or 2 things, cheap oil has come a long way or it could be driving habits.

it looks good.

 

[blufeb95]

what engine is that?

The the Ford Five Hundred and Montego had the 3.0L in it, when they dropped the 3.5L in the same chasis a few years later they dropped the Five Hundred and Montego name and made it the Taurus/Sable for a two years then discontinued the platform.

 

[jimurphy]

Looks very good, what engine is that?

3.0L Duratec, one of my favorite Ford engines

 

[Oillover]

Nothing to worry about on that engine.
Keep up with your current maint. schedule.