Question Oil change?

BamaSixGun

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I was reading the 6.0 Power Stroke owner's manual about the oil change intervals.

It states that a normal schedule is 7,500 miles or 6 months, which ever occurs first, OR...........

special operating conditions of 5,000 miles or 6 months, which ever comes first.

My truck is mainly a daily driver around the house. I no longer haul with it so it would take me several months to reach 5,000 or 7,500 miles.

Should I do my oil changed based on the 6 month interval?
 

bushpilot

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i change mine every 5k...if i were wondering if i should change
it sooner (due to lack of milage) id send samples off to blackstone-labs.com

in my experiance (using rotella dino & sampling) 7000mi is pushing the oil...
additives fall of after 7000 and the viscosity seems to drop pretty
quickly as does the flash point.

5k is a good round number & its well w/in the safe "zone" in my experiance.

the problem w/ oil that isnt run is that it picks up & contains
impurities <acids from fuel, moisture & exhaust> that arent
necessarily the best thing to have setting in the pan....sample it @ 6mo
and then decide if it needs to be changed or not.
 

BamaSixGun

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I drive it everyday and put on around 300 miles in a week and a half just around the house.

The current oil change has 3000 miles on it.
 

bushpilot

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are you running synth. or dino ?

when in doubt...sample it and get a report.
 

F350DRW1

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Mine's usually dishwater @ 4k, so thats the magic number for me. Then again, I tow frequently. I'm not sure what the optimum conditions would be to get 7500 out of regular 15w-40. Maybe on a common rail, but not a 6.0. The Ford description of stop and go driving and frequent dusty conditions as "severe operating conditions" seems like a nice way of saying to change it at 5k.
 

bushpilot

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Motorcraft has always been used on my truck.

which motorcraft...SYNTHETIC or CONVENTIONAL (dino)

MOTORCRAFT® OILS AND LUBRICANTS

fwiw -

dino oil: Motor oil derived from traditional hydrocarbon/crude-oil sources (decomposed dinosaurs and plant matter).
Also often referred to as "mineral" based oil. This in in contrast to the new synthetic lubricants which have to
be "manufactured" from various chemicals rather then just simply boiled off from a crude-oil source
.
 
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bushpilot

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so id say, test it...its cheaper than changing it and you MIGHT
be ok to hold it beyond 6 months (if the truck is sitting a lot).

for engines that dont get run alot, you might be better off using
synthetic oils (since they wont break down as fast).

engines that arent run enough to get good an hot ('specially diesels) never
have a chance to evaporate these impurities....short tripping, as i suspect
you know, isnt the best thing for any engine.
 

no-red 6 0

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bama,

you are like me, go to 5k and have it blackstoned. i am about 500 miles past 5k now - just been too dang busy to get it tested. it has gone as long as 11-13k before i changed it and at that time i had that oil tested and it was fine - but i had changed it anyway...

i now have amsoil in it and before that was mobil 1 syn and before that was alternated fomoco and rotella - all w/ no issues..
 

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