Oil for slightly neglected ford explorer 4L sohc

[oil pan 4]

Brother in law truck (it's a Ford explorer sport Trac pick-up truck thingy). The oil needed to be changed, let's call the oil bitog black.
Well I figured it was neglected so I rounded up some Pennzoil Platinum 10w30, Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 and a jug of 5w-20 Pennzoil Platinum that was keeping dust off my shelf in that one spot and finished off all 3 open jugs of Pennzoil Platinum figuring this would probably be a flush oil change.
Drove it 300 miles and the oil is already starting to not look so great.
Thinking this will be a 1,000 to 2,000 mile oil change.
For the next oil change I'm thinking Valvoline Restore and Protect 5w30 and probably a FE2 oil filter since no one seems to make an oversized 22x1.5mm oil filter.

 

[Kira]

What year and how many miles?
I ask because I have the same engine and 'feel' for them.

If your BIL has a 2004 or earlier vintage, he has the inferior chain guides.
Three to five seconds of "Clear Flooded Engine" cranking -at least for the first startup of the day- can't hurt and might help.

 

[oil pan 4]

What year and how many miles?
I ask because I have the same engine and 'feel' for them.

If your BIL has a 2004 or earlier vintage, he has the inferior chain guides.
Three to five seconds of "Clear Flooded Engine" cranking -at least for the first startup of the day- can't hurt and might help.

I forget they made these things foreva, 2010 and 150,000mi so probably about normal.
Yeah I heard about those 4L chain guides, I just didn't know what years they were. Looked that up before we bought it.

 

[addyguy]

I’d let the PP mix ride a bit longer, it can handle some cleaning.

 

[Kira]

What about the other fluids...and everything else?
Inspiration and action on your part now might save lotsa money and woe.

 

[oil pan 4]

What about the other fluids...and everything else?
Inspiration and action on your part now might save lotsa money and woe.

I was going to top off the diffs but the fill plug has barely enough room to unscrew the plug and remove it. I'll need to put a new tube on my gear oil pump setup and jack the truck up high enough to get a 5 gallon bucket with pump handle.
Probably go buy a greasegun.
I wonder if the diff oil is 15 years old...

 

[We're Metals]

Brother in law truck (it's a Ford explorer sport Trac pick-up truck thingy). The oil needed to be changed, let's call the oil bitog black.
Well I figured it was neglected so I rounded up some Pennzoil Platinum 10w30, Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 and a jug of 5w-20 Pennzoil Platinum that was keeping dust off my shelf in that one spot and finished off all 3 open jugs of Pennzoil Platinum figuring this would probably be a flush oil change.
Drove it 300 miles and the oil is already starting to not look so great.
Thinking this will be a 1,000 to 2,000 mile oil change.
For the next oil change I'm thinking Valvoline Restore and Protect 5w30 and probably a FE2 oil filter since no one seems to make an oversized 22x1.5mm oil filter.

Are there any actual mechanical problems with the truck or you just have a feeling that something is wrong?
Or are you just telling a story?

 

[oil pan 4]

Are there any actual mechanical problems with the truck or you just have a feeling that something is wrong?
Or are you just telling a story?

He was driving around with a broken anti sway bar for probably for a long time. I've never driven a vehicle without a functional anti sway bar, it was wacky. Took 20 minutes to fix.
2 TPMS were bad had to go to discount tire drop it off all day and spend $160.
The check engine light was on.
Coolant is on the edge of being bad according to test strips at work.
It's missing the coolant overflow tank.
Air filter was covered with feathers and the foam was split and filter pleats were torn.
Battery terminals look they were under the sea. I haven't fixed them I can take a pic.
My snap on tester says the battery is at 75%, should be fine till fall/winter, he absolutely would have ran it till it didn't start any more.
Last set of tires he ran till one tread separated and ripped off the rear bumper.
One fog light broken.
Like Boston said it's "more than a feeling".

 

[melk]

I’d buy a couple bottles of your favorite fuel system cleaner as well. Can’t hurt

 

[oil pan 4]

Are there any actual mechanical problems with the truck or you just have a feeling that something is wrong?
Or are you just telling a story?

$169
Air filter is in the trash 240 miles away, I think it was a fram and have no idea when it was installed.
The sway bar end links are sitting atop my unsorted hardware collection at home. They're fairly long 8x1.25mm bolts in good condition.
Oh yeah and he's got a brand-new looking Craftsman 48 inch riding mower with 24hp Briggs engine with 202 hours on it with a burned up engine because he didn't change the oil.

 

[oil pan 4]

I’d buy a couple bottles of your favorite fuel system cleaner as well. Can’t hurt

Good idea.

 

[oil pan 4]

Supposed to look like this on both sides.
Oil spots are from my dodge.

This is what it looks like

Ebay price to fix it is like $500. Hopefully I can do it for a lot less with junkyard parts.

 

[oil pan 4]

Looks like the Ford oil life monitor starts screaming at you after 7,500 miles or 180 days. Yeah after 180 days it's only going to have 1 to 2 thousand miles on it at as this isn't going to be a daily driver once I get the hybrid put back together.
I'll probably just reset the darn thing when it starts screaming at me and track the miles on "trip B", change it once a year or at around 4 to 5 thousand or when I need more reclaimed motor oil.
PP isn't the lightly baked group2 SM rated motor oils that were widely used around 2010.

 

[oil pan 4]

I found the used endlinks.
One on the left is as found and right one is reconstructed with left over bushings and washers from an end link bushing kit.

The rears are just as bad.
Like I said it's more than a feeling.

 

[oil pan 4]

Coolant and rear diff oil were both brown. I'm sure the front diff is just as bad.
And it's got a coolant overflow tank now.
The rear diff was so bad I'm considering dumping some reclaimed motor oil in there, going around the block and dumping it again before I fill up with my cherished Mobil 1.

 

[Carlostrece]

Whatever oil you choose, I suggest change oil and filter, then change again 3K miles later (to clean out sludge that might still remain from the prior/neglected oil). After that 7.5K OCI.

I recommend NAPA Gold filter. My 2nd choice would be Oreilly Microgard Select filter. Gold is NAPA's premium line. Select is Microgard's premium line. After that any autostore housebrand premium filter. From their premium line of housebrand filter, not their cheaper line.

 

[oil pan 4]

Whatever oil you choose, I suggest change oil and filter, then change again 3K miles later (to clean out sludge that might still remain from the prior/neglected oil). After that 7.5K OCI.

I recommend NAPA Gold filter. My 2nd choice would be Oreilly Microgard Select filter. Gold is NAPA's premium line. Select is Microgard's premium line. After that any autostore housebrand premium filter. From their premium line of housebrand filter, not their cheaper line.

Yeah that's probably going to be the plan.
It's got about 500 miles on it and the oil is starting to look distressed.
I thought it took an 18x1.5 so I bought one of my large $3 clearance OCDs but wrong size so I grabbed a wix from O'Rileys which is walking distance from the brother in laws house.

I've put a little over 15,000 miles on the beater dodge Dakota pickup and have done about 6 or 7 oil changes and the filters are still kinda slugy when I cut them open. I've settled on 4,000 mile oil changes for it.
See:
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t...n-miles-cut-open-with-sludge-deposits.372975/

My wife's car recommends 7,500 mile oci and I can't even get 6,500 miles on the oil before it's done. 5,500 looks like it's probably the limit and I've always done oil changes early on that car 3,500 to 6,600.

 

[Carlostrece]

If new oil already looks distressed at 500 miles, that tells me it's loosened up a bunch of sludge left from prior oil that was left in too long. So just once change it at 1K to 3K. After that 5000K would be more than often enough. If it was me, I'd go 7.5K with an extended fill oil and ext fill filter. Then you'd still be changing oil & filter way sooner than they recommend.

An advantage of using cheap oil is it doesn't cost as much when you change it early. There are some very good cheap oils. Quaker State Ultimate Protection Full Synthetic is amazingly low cost at Walmart. Shell Rotella is reasonable at Walmart. Rotella is reasonable at NAPA when on sale.

I suggest using Quaker State Ultimate Protection Full Synthetic or Shell Rotella Multivehicle because those are thicker per grade than any other non Euro oil that I know of. So less (or no) oil leaking or burning.

They claim to be better than most oils for preventing and removing sludge, which is exactly what you need.

They're both made for extended drain intervals. Quaker State Ultimate Protection Full Synthetic claims 20K drain interval. Shell Rotella also claims extended drain interval. Shell doesn't state how long the recommended ext drain interval is, but we can use some basic reasoning to make an educated guess.

10K is the new normal for manufacturer recommended OCI. So to be an extended fill oil, it has to be at least 15K, likely 20K.

I suggest using either of those oils with a NAPA Gold filter and 7500K drain interval will be more than good enough (after doing 2nd oil change at 1K to 3K to clean it up). Quaker State Ultimate Protection Full Synthetic would be better for the catalytic converter than Rotella, but Rotella is rated for gas engines. So Rotella is acceptable for cats.

NAPA Gold filter is rated for extended fill and filters 99% @ 23 microns.

 

[oil pan 4]

If new oil already looks distressed at 500 miles, that tells me it's loosened up a bunch of sludge left from prior oil that was left in too long. So just once change it at 1K to 3K. After that 5000K would be more than often enough. If it was me, I'd go 7.5K with an extended fill oil and ext fill filter. Then you'd still be changing oil & filter way sooner than they recommend.

An advantage of using cheap oil is it doesn't cost as much when you change it early. There are some very good cheap oils. Quaker State Ultimate Protection Full Synthetic is amazingly low cost at Walmart. Shell Rotella is reasonable at Walmart. Rotella is reasonable at NAPA when on sale.

I suggest using Quaker State Ultimate Protection Full Synthetic or Shell Rotella Multivehicle because those are thicker per grade than any other non Euro oil that I know of. So less (or no) oil leaking or burning.

They claim to be better than most oils for preventing and removing sludge, which is exactly what you need.

They're both made for extended drain intervals. Quaker State Ultimate Protection Full Synthetic claims 20K drain interval. Shell Rotella also claims extended drain interval. Shell doesn't state how long the recommended ext drain interval is, but we can use some basic reasoning to make an educated guess.

10K is the new normal for manufacturer recommended OCI. So to be an extended fill oil, it has to be at least 15K, likely 20K.

I suggest using either of those oils with a NAPA Gold filter and 7500K drain interval will be more than good enough (after doing 2nd oil change at 1K to 3K to clean it up). Quaker State Ultimate Protection Full Synthetic would be better for the catalytic converter than Rotella, but Rotella is rated for gas engines. So Rotella is acceptable for cats.

NAPA Gold filter is rated for extended fill and filters 99% @ 23 microns.

Here's 4,000 mile oil changes on my neglected dodge Dakota beater truck.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t...n-miles-cut-open-with-sludge-deposits.372975/
I don't think the Ford is as bad.
Seems like it takes a while to clean them out.

 

[Carlostrece]

Here's 4,000 mile oil changes on my neglected dodge Dakota beater truck.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t...n-miles-cut-open-with-sludge-deposits.372975/
I don't think the Ford is as bad.
Seems like it takes a while to clean them out.

It does take a while. That looks gritty.

I suggest you join an Explorer Sport Trac forum and Ranger forum because they're likely to know of 1 or 2 longer filters that are compatible with 2010 Sport Trac. If you're lucky, you might have a couple of upgrade size choices, such as a ⅓ longer choice and a ½ longer choice.

Buy the longest compatible filter that you have enough clearance for. Buy a filter with fine filtration with 99% @ 20-25 microns filtration.

NAPA Gold is my favorite fine filtration filter because (according to filter dissection video I saw) it has more filtration material and pleats per length of filter. So it's a better filter in standard size/length, and evenmoreso if you find a compatible longer filter.

If you find a longer filter, it might hang lower where a flying rock or stick could hit it. Yes, a stick. I live in a rain forest where branches sometimes fall on roads. If you drive on gravel roads, gravel can hit a filter.

So you want a thick (tough) can. NAPA Gold filters have thick cans.

An vehicle specific forum (if it has active members) can conveniently provide you a lot of vehicle specific information, especially about common upgrades such as longer filters. Ranger owners can be helpful because they're into upgrades and Rangers (of similar model years) use same filter as Sport Trac.