Syn OCI

[Stang40]

I've been trying to overcome over changing my oil for a while, and I think I will finally give it a try. I will be using M1 or PP, 2006 Mustang V6, 152,xxx miles. Leaks/burns no oil between 4k-5k oci's. 90% city driving. Without doing a Uoa, how far would you guys run it? It has seemed fairly difficult to find many uoa's on this motor. I'm thinking 7.5-8k?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Why don't you take it to 8K and do a UOA just to verify?

 

[Stang40]

I guess I was just trying to save some money, but you're probably right. I know Tig1 does 10k on M1 in his Fords and to my knowledge, he rarely does a uoa. But I guess it would be better to know for sure.

 

[gtmaster303]

10k should be fine. Wouldn't lose sleep over it. Mobil 1 is a pretty robust oil and I haven't come across any UOA that proves it can't go for AT LEAST 10k

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Stang40
I guess I was just trying to save some money, but you're probably right.

Well, sometimes doing one UOA helps put people at ease, especially if they find it hard to extend their OCI. I was just trying to help you sleep better at night, whatever it takes.

Quote:

I know Tig1 does 10k on M1 in his Fords

Yeah, but is his driving 90% city like yours?

Are you doing any short tripping? That'll affect your oil's condition big time.

 

[Stang40]

My wife drives this one full time now, and it's a lot of short trips. 4 miles from home to day care, 3 miles from day care to work. then reverse that in the afternoon.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Aside from that, is the car taken out on longer drives on weekends at all?

If you were to let it go 8K miles, how many months would it take to reach it?

Personally, I think I'd just save some money and run mineral oil in it and change it more often to remove all the moisture and fuel that's common in such short tripping scenarios.

 

[DBMaster]

When I was in a carpool I was putting only about 10,000 miles a year on my 89 Accord. At times, it wouldn't get driven for days at a stretch. I was already doing 10,000 mile OCI's so I just wen to one year or 10K, whichever came first. Before I totaled the car it was still running quite well with 353,000 miles on it.

 

[raytseng]

well, I looked up Ford's maintenance and at least for your model car, it said 5k for regular service, and 3k for severe service on the ford site i found (3k?!, I know right?)

Since we can't tell exactly what kind of city driving you do, as idling is 0milage, I'd go by fuel used.

5000miles/20mpg=250gallons.

So the Manufacturer's OCI is change at 250gallons of fuel used.

Since you're going synthetic, maybe you're doing 50% better? go to 375gallons of fuel used (7500 mile equivalent).

Personally I'd just change at 250gallons of fuel used and use a full synthetic on sale. The oil change is not that expensive compared to I just bought 250gallons of fuel let alone all the other costs of ownership.

The question is how much do you drive, and is this a 6month thing, or you're changing every 2months? Cause then it will pay to really find out.

If 10years from now, the difference is you did 5 extra oil changes, who cares. But if you did 25extra oil changes now you're talking.

 

[SilverC6]

I'd use a motor oil (M1EP) and filter (Fram Ultra or Bosch Distance +) geared toward extended OCI's.

I don't know that there is much savings here compared to dino oil and a standard filter at a normal OCI.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Here are some calculated OCI numbers based on the formulas some BITOGers came up with in the past....

Granted, this does not take into account short tripping, which I think should qualify this as a severe service. However, TooSlick's formula does take MPG into account (fuel consumed), and your MPG will probably be significantly lower than 20 if all you're doing is short tripping.

You can play around with the variables up top if you want:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?...p=sharing#gid=0

 

[3800Series]

I personally would do 10k mile OCI on any oil if its 90% city driving.

 

[Stang40]

We do about a 70 mile round trip to my In-laws a couple times a month, but that's about it. Somehow we always rack up about 1000 miles/month like clockwork though. I didn't really think this through apparently. And yes, I've seen the 3-5k Ford recommendation for my car but I think that's a bit conservative. I think my best estimate for city gas mileage has been 17-18.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Stang40
Somehow we always rack up about 1000 miles/month like clockwork though.

Not to question your story, but that does not add up with what you noted earlier about her short tripping...

7 miles one way, 2 times a day, 24 days a month = 336 miles. If you add one 70-mile trip on top of it, that's only 400 miles a month.

 

[Stang40]

Hmmm, well she does drive around to see friends and family on weekends, and maybe could be a total of 12-15 miles round trip. still all city though. So let's say she makes that 70 mile round trip every weekend, and has a 15 mile one way trip...that's about 900 miles... which is more like it. What I meant by short tripping is that either way, she stops half way through her commute to drop one of the kids off. And several times a week I'll take the car 3/4 mile down the street to the gas station and back.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Stang40
What I meant by short tripping is that either way, she stops half way through her commute to drop one of the kids off.

Stopping for a little bit is not a problem. Now, if she stopped for 4 hours and the engine completely cooled off, that would have been worse.

Anyway, maybe your service isn't as severe as I initially thought.

I'd say run the synthetic out to 10K miles or 1 year, whichever comes first, and do a UOA to see what it looks like. Unless you do, you'll never know which way to go from there.

 

[Stang40]

Thanks Pete, and everyone else.... I'm hoping that extending my oil changes will also alleviate some of the motor oil obsession that I've caught since becoming a Bitog member haha...it's getting a little out of hand

 

[901Memphis]

7500 miles or 2 years

 

[babbittd]

Originally Posted By: raytseng
well, I looked up Ford's maintenance and at least for your model car, it said 5k for regular service, and 3k for severe service on the ford site i found (3k?!, I know right?)

Since we can't tell exactly what kind of city driving you do, as idling is 0milage, I'd go by fuel used.


FYI, Fleet managers and what not (and OLM systems) appear to go by hours of operation and then there's this:


Ford Motor Company defines extended idling as follows:
Over 10 minutes per hour of normal driving
Frequent low speed operation
Sustained heavy traffic less then 25 MPH
– One hour of idle time, is equal to approximately 25 miles of driving

source (.pdf)


I've seen variations on this number (idle time), from 25 to 35.

 

[Oregoonian]

Originally Posted By: Stang40
We do about a 70 mile round trip to my In-laws a couple times a month, but that's about it. Somehow we always rack up about 1000 miles/month like clockwork though. I didn't really think this through apparently. And yes, I've seen the 3-5k Ford recommendation for my car but I think that's a bit conservative. I think my best estimate for city gas mileage has been 17-18.

Based on the above, I think that 8K could easily be done with a quality synthetic (M1, PP etc.)....maybe even 10K.