When to change oil for first time?

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I just bought a new Ford F150 with the 5.4 engine. I am curious what the opinions are on when to do the first change? Didnt know if there was special break in oil in them or not. I was thinking of doing it at around 750 miles to get any particles out of there from break in. From the looks of the UOA pages, I figure I will give the reccommended oil a try as well...which is Motorcraft 5w-20. Any thoughts are appreciated!
 
Nice truck, the 5.4 is a nice engine. You can change the oil at any time. The Motorcraft 5w-20 is a good oil. I think that and the Pennzoil 5w-20 are great dino choices. For synthetics if you ever decide to go that route, M1, Amsoil, RL and German Castrol all are great choices.
 
I think everyone has their own practices. I like to get it out of there early in life. (less than 1000 miles). I changed out the oil in my 2110 Sentra at about 30 miles. I think the motor craft is a good choice. And beings its winter and a new engine-both those facts make the 20 wt. choice a good one. I'd be putting the 30 wt in come summer though.
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Oh yea
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quote:

Originally posted by Al:
I think everyone has their own practices. I like to get it out of there early in life. (less than 1000 miles). I changed out the oil in my 2110 Sentra at about 30 miles. I think the motor craft is a good choice. And beings its winter and a new engine-both those facts make the 20 wt. choice a good one. I'd be putting the 30 wt in come summer though.
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Oh yea
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hey al,

does the 2110 Sentra come standard with a V-6 now a days?
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5.4, You'll get lots of differing opinions here...

I like to change my "3 times by 3K". 500 or so miles, 1500, then 3000. Most factory oil is quite mediocre, so changing it early guarantees that you'll have EXACTLY what you want in the crankcase. Motorcraft, Chevron, Penzoil, Amsoil, Mobil1, take your pick, they're all good!
 
I used to be the type of person who always did the first oil change at 500 miles or sooner, but after seeing quite a few UOAs on here now where the original fill of oil was run out to 3k or even to 5k, it looks to me like the early oil change isn't as necessary as I thought.

It still doesn't hurt, but I always figured the oil had tons of wear metals in it by 500 miles, but we've seen enough reports now where the factory fill didn't show high wear metals at all.

If I bought a new car, I'd probably do the first change somewhere around 2000 or 3000 miles.
 
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My formula is the first change at half the recommended interval with conventional oil then at the recommended OCI with synthetic. My '02 Ranger calls for 5000 mile OCI, so I did the first at 2500 with dino, then at 5k and every 5k after with synthetic. I've done this for about the last 10 years with my new vehicles. If I buy something used I stop on the way home with it for new oil and filter.
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1000 - 2000. That engine has a 6 quart sump. Works great with a by-pass filter mounted in front of the power stearing unit. Just make sure you do some firm acceleration in that first 750 miles to seat the rings right and it won't burn a bit of oil.
 
Hello and
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. I have purchased mostly new vehicles over the years and I have always performed my initial oil change at 2 to 3 thousand miles and that has worked well. I think your choice of the Motorcraft 5w20 is a good one and I would also recommend Motorcraft oil filters. Both are easily found at Walmart or Advance. Enjoy the new rig.
 
Thanks for all the replys! I appreciate it. Keep up the good work, alot of good info on here!
 
Congrats on the new truck! I'm another one of those types who like to get the factory fill out relatively soon. I did the first oil change in my 2001 F150 at about 500 miles. All told I did 3 changes by the 5000 mile mark and have stuck to the 5,000 mile interval ever since.

As for oil choices, from what we've seen here in the way of UOA posts, the Motorcraft 5w-20 is a fine choice for the Ford modular engines. I don't recall seeing even a marginally bad report from the FOMOCO 5w-20...all have been very good. Pennzoil, Chevron Supreme/Havoline also make a very good conventional oil and have posted excellent results. I've used Chevron Supreme, albeit in 5w-30, for a while and te UOA I had done by Blackstone showed the Chevron Supreme to be performing extremely well.

Good luck with the new truck!

Mikep
 
Hi I just got a Mustang GT 4.6L V8 last week. I just passed 500 mi and changed the oil the first time today.
Mobile 1 full synthetic 5W-30 + Purolator PureOne Filter.

I keep reading conflicting posts some say only run dino oil for proper break in for the first 5,000 mi then switch to synthetic, others say you can switch it as soon as possible.
Now I am a little worried mabey I should have gone with dino at first.
For the first 500 miles I romped on it quite a bit, mabey a little too much fun
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gotta test out the HP gains ya know! So...Is this going to be enough to seat the seals properly?
 
First off
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You'll be fine. Synth oils work fine, even as factory fills. The only caveat is not going for long OCI's before the car's broken-in.
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Welcome to the board guys. We need more modular folks.

If you're super worried about it, change it at 500 miles and cut open the oil filter and look at it. Then decide when you want to change it next. =)
 
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