She goes in for her first oil change tomorrow, does anyone know if they even make 5-50 in conventional? The reason I ask is that the service adviser mentioned it, which I didn't think was made. I repeatedly told her it takes 5w-50, not a big deal, I've just never seen conventional.

 

Not that I'm aware of. Ford almost definitely won't stock it as that would not be a common oil at all

 

Since Ford has used synthetic blend as stock for over a decade now, I doubt they even make it in Motorcraft at least.

 

Just 5w50 synthetic as far as I know

 

Well, they all made fun of that service adviser. It's synthetic only.

 

How many miles did you have before the change? I'm wondering when I should do my First?

 

I did 5,000... The oil life monitor still had 50% left, but I figured that was a good place. That's what the dealer has been doing for everyone else.

 

Unless you track the car 5000 is too early for changes. I had 4800 on oil that I did track and it had life left per oil analysis. I highly recommend getting an oil analysis done at least once as that will tell you if your going too loony or not long enough between changes. If it shows you can extend 3000 miles it pays for itself quickly...

 

What about your initial oil change though? I'm at 2800 and I was thinking of doing it at 3000, rotating the tires and then from here, I was going to switch back to my "every 6 months, regardless of mileage" time table. I pretty much drive the same routes, with a road trip maybe once every 6 months. Generally that's between 5-7k miles, deepening on side trips.

 

The Motorcraft quickly shears to a 40 weight, after just a few thousand miles of 'normal use', so dont be alarmed if you get analysis results reflecting this...

There are a lot of superior performing oils that meet/exceed Ford specs, see the Greasy Spoon section over on SVT.

I chose to put a 'better' oil in my Boss, but had my wife do the dealer oil changes up to 100k miles with Motorcraft. Her 11 GT runs strong, burns no oil, but is now getting Penzoil Ultimate that i got on sale at Walmart. Will be getting that tested at 5k miles to see how its holding up. Results will be added to the spreadsheet over on SVT.

If normal street use, the Motorcraft is fine, but for any other drag/track use, consider switching to something better...

 

What filters are everyone using? I just ordered 6 FL500S filters because they are almost nonexistent here in Germany.

I'm still using RP for oil. Not a drop low and I have 2% left for this cycle. Anyone know if the countdown is a set number of miles or based off of viscosity analysis?

 

Oh, I actually did an initial oil change at 400 miles.... necessary? probably not, but it was right before the first track outing, so I very much wanted fresh oil.

 

I have a 'service package' that includes 3 changes/tire rotations - but it's only good for a year, so I might as well use them up. There's no way I'll have all the mileage to use up all that oil.

 

The OLM (oil life meter) counts down according to an algorithm programmed into the car's computer, based on miles, temp, rpm, and even the calendar. You could put the car in storage on a battery tender and come back a year later and with zero miles driven the OLM would tell you to change the oil. You can google 'Ford oil life monitor' for more info.

Those FLS filters are fine, I have been using RP filters as I got a bunch on sale, but would consider also Amsoil, or Wix filters. I will be switching over to Amsoil once my current fill of RP is done.

 

This explained a lot. Thanks. As I spend quite a bit of time over 3500rpm I'm sure that is what contributed to the notice. I'm about to reset it because in tired of it popping up.

 

Thank you I was thinking of doing the same. I have a suburban that I changes out at 5k on first and then used the OLM. It now has almost 300K and is still running strong. Always used Syn oil. after the warranty. I had the dealer do the changes for the first 36K. I think the key to all of this is Good oil and even a better oil filter. I was shocked to read on some of the test sites about some of the higher end oil filters that do not perform.