i drank the cool aid

[meborder]

I could, and would, but I'm trying to extend drain intervals. I no longer want to change my oil 4-5 times a year.

The trop artic run was under different conditions than the rest of the runs. On that particular run, I put on 5k miles in about 1.5 months. All interstate, during the summer, no towing, just a lot of interstate driving. All of the others are day-day use, usually winter time, with idling and towing.

This has always led me to believe that the engine is generally sound, but my typical use is hard on an engine, particularly during the winter.

It's really hard to compare apples to apples. Even this run of XL will be different than the M1 I just sampled. We are now getting into the warmer.side of winter and this run will.take me well into the beginning of summer where I will have a fair amount of heavy towing.

Maybe after this run ill do the trop artic for 7500? I've just never gone more than 5k miles on a synblend. And as you can see by the viscosity and TBN, my truck is a little hard on oil.

Open to thoughts, though.

 

[Kuato]

You're trying to extend, with lots of highway miles in summer? Then Amsoil SS or M1 EP both come to mind right away.

For summer you could use SS 10w30, a very stout oil, transitioning to the 5w30 or even the 0w30 versions for winter. I lived in Northern MT for about 4 years and the 0w30 worked well year round.

I do like your plan to run the TropArtic for 7500; with all the easy highway miles it should be just fine (but UOA...)

 

[OVERKILL]

What year is the Expedition?

 

[meborder]

It's a 2006 expedition.

If I knew all my highway miles were easy,I'd not worry about the trop artic one bit. But summer brings camping, and camping means towing

We will see how I feel in about 4 months and ~7,500 miles

The good part is at 172,300 miles, I'm not at much risk of wearing it out prematurely

 

[OVERKILL]

5.4L or 4.6? My 2002 had great UOA's on pretty much everything

 

[meborder]

5.4 3v

Only engine offered they year, so I usually forget to mention it.

Yeah, I dont know what the deal is, but it just doesn't appear to be wearing well.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Your engine is quite mysterious, because I beat the ever loving stuffing out of my 07 5.4 3V, and even MS5K conventional hardly noticed it had a job to do.

Something has your engine in love with beating up the oil and shedding wear metal.