Ford Duratec 3.0 Preventitive Maintainance

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I've just purchased a Mondeo ST220 with a Duratec 3.0 V6 lump and 120k on the clock.

I'm planning on swapping out the oil tomorrow with Shell Helix Ultra 5w40 and a Motorcraft FL 820S. Car has dealer service history up till the previous owner who has owned it for the last 4 years and maintained it himself with OEM filters & the cheapest oil that met Ford 913-B with receipts to prove.

The car has recently had new leads and plugs and it runs a K&N 57i which I will clean and oil.

Is there anything else on these Duratec 30 lumps that require maintenance or are common failures?
 
Originally Posted by demarpaint
I'm not a fan of K&N air filters, I'd use something else.


Any actual reason for this? I can always change the filter on the end of the K&N 57i MAF adaptor.
 
Originally Posted by Bailes1992
Originally Posted by demarpaint
I'm not a fan of K&N air filters, I'd use something else.


Any actual reason for this? I can always change the filter on the end of the K&N 57i MAF adaptor.


Because in this forum K&N air filters are considered crappy rock/bee/butterfly catchers that let all the dust get in the engine intake and combustion chambers causing engines to wear significantly.
Thats not my opinion though.
I have used K&N filters when I reached the first 5.000kms on my car (182.000km today) and similar in my motorcycles (now 72.000kms on the Ninja and 25.000kms on the CBR) and always had clean intakes,no problems with throttle body operation and all my engines consume zero oil (ok 200ml of oil have vanished at the Ford's last OCI which was 20.000kms....)
 
Originally Posted by Bailes1992
Originally Posted by demarpaint
I'm not a fan of K&N air filters, I'd use something else.


Any actual reason for this? I can always change the filter on the end of the K&N 57i MAF adaptor.


Yes you can very likely get a better filter cheaper.
 
I had a Mazda MPV with this engine. I'm not sure how relevant these are for you, but:

I had several coils go bad
The engine developed an oil leak in the timing chain cover
Timing chains got rattley at startup
A PCV elbow on the back of the intake developed a leak, causing rough running

Overall, it was a pretty good engine.
 
Originally Posted by Bailes1992
Originally Posted by demarpaint
I'm not a fan of K&N air filters, I'd use something else.


Any actual reason for this? I can always change the filter on the end of the K&N 57i MAF adaptor.



Is the air filter a significant source of restriction in your intake? Do you want to worry about MAF cleanings? Do you need a servicable filter media? That said, I'd been running a K&N FIPK on my 96 Mustang for 10 years without a problem... or a service!
 
Our 2005 Mercury Mariner with this engine is at 196,502 miles right now, I just changed the oil and updated the log book. We've had it since brand new and I've done every oil change at 5K mile intervals. It likes a 5W-20 (or 5W-30 in Summer) oil with lots of moly, e.g. Pennzoil High Mileage or Quaker State Ultimate Durability. Not sure if these are available in the UK, however their parent company is Shell and other labels are no doubt on the shelf...research options. Oils with less (or no) moly result in a ticking noise from the valvetrain at hot idle on mine.

It has a slight oil leak at the oil pan front junction with the timing cover. Not worth the effort to repair in my case, I just clean it up each oil change. The bolts are torqued to spec. This seems to be a common issue with this engine series.

Spark plugs: use only Motorcraft plugs in the specified part#. Lots of reports of poor engine performance with aftermarket plugs, e.g. Bosch. Have to remove the entire upper intake manifold to get to the back plugs, not worth experimenting given Motorcrafts are a sure thing.

Mass airflow sensor: I've spray-cleaned mine with aerosol cleaner specified for this purpose during spark plug changes. No issues to report, just preventive maintenance. Note that I only use paper air filters, not oiled gauze such as K&N. Motorcraft or Purolator.
 
I had that engine for years. Other than 2 waterpump changes, it was very reliable. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the Taurus wrapped around it.
 
Originally Posted by HangFire
I had that engine for years. Other than 2 waterpump changes, it was very reliable. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the Taurus wrapped around it.

Sorry, had the Vulcan. My brother had the Duratec, fast engine, no problems there at all.
 
Ditto get rid of the K&N. The issue you will run into is that the oil will get on the MAF which will screw with the car. Most people tend to over oil it.

I had a Taurus with the Duratec and got over 200k (miles) out of it. Transmission died before the car. Some standard stuff, intake/exhaust manifold gaskets at some point. Good time to change out PCV valve when doing those. DPFE went often. Alternators were tricky to change. Oil pan gasket tended to leak, on the Taurus, you had to drop the exhaust which I never bothered to do so never fixed it. As others said, use only Motorcraft plugs. Funny how you use 5w40, in the US they speced 5w20 which I mostly used unless I got some 5w30 on sale. Yeah, pretty solid engine, never changed the water pump, just the belt. The rest of the car had various other issues, but the engine really didn't have any problems. It's a Ford so I think Forscan should work for you even in the UK, it's a free software package that can scan ford specific error messages.
 
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