F150 oil change

[nstuck]

Changed the oil today in the truck. I last changed it on 10/29/09. I forget the exact mileage at that time, but it was just under 70k. I have 7485x miles on it as of today, so this oil had almost 6k miles on it. I used Kendall GT-1 Syn blend 5w30 last time. I topped off with a quart of Valvoline 5w30 conventional about 3k miles in and then a quart of Kendall GT-1 (w/ liquid titanium or whatever) 5w30 at around 4.5k miles into the OCI. It was about 3/4 of a quart low today before I changed it, so consumption is definitely something I'm gonna keep an eye on.

I noticed with the last bit of oil that came out of the pan today, that there were small bits of what appeared to be sludge. I've never noticed it before today, so I assume it got in there during this OCI. Looking in through the filler cap, it is definitely pretty dark where it was always a nice amber color before. I don't know if this is because of pushing the oil too far (I can't imagine 6k miles being too much for this oil) or what. It was in all through winter with the salt, a couple of snow storms where I was pulling people out of ditches and flat towed a Dodge 2500 about 15 miles through a foot of snow. But for the most part, it was normal driving.

I think I'm going to go about 4k on this oil change and see how it goes. I'm not going to bother with oil analysis. The cost is just way too much. I can do another oil change for the cost of the analysis.

I used Motorcraft Syn blend 5w20 today and a Motorcraft FL-820S filter.

 

[kcfx4]

i recently heard the motorcraft and the kendall are packaged by the same co., true or not, made me drop the mc like a bad habit

 

[Nick R]

Originally Posted By: kcfx4
i recently heard the motorcraft and the kendall are packaged by the same co., true or not, made me drop the mc like a bad habit


Yes. ConocoPhillips. Excellent products.

 

[nstuck]

motorcraft and kendall have been produced and packaged by conoco phillips for some time now. both seem to be widely respected around here (at least the motorcraft, haven't seen too much on the kendall) for both quality and price point. the motorcraft is one of the cheaper oils on the shelf and seems to be a solid performer as well.

 

[kcfx4]

good product? now maybe? a few yrs back, dad ran only kendall w/religious 3k mile changes. had issues, dropped pan, you could nearly see where the rod caps drug thru the sludge. another example of brand recognition, just negative

 

[TireDude]

Screw it, just go get some Formula Shell Full Synthetic and call it good.

Seriously, where is that oil going? I have a 99 F-150 with over 110k miles on it and don't use any.

 

[nstuck]

i've had consumption issues with this engine since i bought the truck. about one quart per 3k miles seems to be about the norm. this was really the first time i've gone past 3k on a OCI. it seems that after the first quart is gone after 3k, i lose another quart every 1.5k or so. maybe it burns more with dirty oil? don't know if that's even possible, but a thought... the truck also has a manual transmission, which i've been told makes the engine more prone to burning oil. don't know how true that is, but it does kinda make sense. the constant opening and closing of the throttle plate (vacuum fluctuations?) could increase consumption.

there does seem to be a (very) small leak around the PCV, so I need to look into that.

for my use, i don't really see the benefit of using a synthetic oil in the truck.

i got this truck about 2.5 years ago with 38k miles on it. it now has 75k miles. the maintenance history before 38k is basically unknown to me, although the guy said he changed the oil every 3k (which would have been about once a year on average). first oil change (two days after buying the truck...just to be sure) i took off one of those fram filters with the bits of teflon in the media (ugh). i ran a couple quick OCI (like 500-1k miles) to get rid of any of that [censored] that might have been in the engine. then did a double auto-rx cycle. then changed the oil every 3k since then up until this most recent change where i went almost 6k. maybe i just pushed the oil too far. we'll see what happens when i change this oil.

 

[kcfx4]

i only bought mc for my wifes car/warranty. but any thing that says semisyn and has a less than $3 price tag and wasnt on sale made me go HMMMM....

 

[nstuck]

i'm not really concerned about the quality of the motorcraft oil. there are guys on the ford truck forums i frequent with over 400k miles using nothing but motorcraft 5w20. obviously it is not a low-quality product.

 

[Ridds]

Have a 2008 F-150 5.4L
Use Petro-Canada 5W-20 SUPREME motor oil which meets Ford WSS-M2C930A.
I do an oil change every 12,000km. Haven't had any issuses what so ever.

 

[nstuck]

i wouldn't really expect you to have much if any consumption on a newer engine like that. by the way nice truck. '08 was the last year for that body style. haven't really gotten along with the new ('09-'10) body style yet. i'd love an '04-'08 truck.

anyway, the unknown history of my truck, combined with the very low mileage before i got it, and i'm not really surprised i'm having consumption issues. i'm sure that with 3k miles per year use for almost 10 years there are some dried up seals, and the rings might be letting some oil pass. otherwise, the truck is in excellent shape, so if i had to add a quart here and there, i'm not gonna complain.

my main concern was not really the consumption, but the small bits of sludge looking stuff that came out with the oil. any thoughts on that?