Oil changes, interesting article.

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

Just received this from a friend, found it very interesting and it just verifies info that is already out there.

Save some money.

http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/TechnologyDevelopment/OPPTD_FLY_High-Efficiency-Oil-Filters.cfm

[bigdisneydaddy 9]

A lot can dpeend on the vehicle also. As an example my Chevy Duramax can easily go 10,000 miles and still return a good analysis. The Ford 6.0 diesels we have at work struggle to achieve 5000 mile change intervals. Some of it is the way they are driven but MOST of it is the difference in the design of the engines. On our big trucks (series 60 and series 40 Detroit diesels) we go as much by hours as we do by miles.

The long and the short of what I tell folks is to follow the oil change monitor on your modern car and use the weight of oil that they recommend. GM in particular extended their intervals by creating their "Dexos" spec, essentially just a spec for a more robust oil with properties typically found in full or high quality blend sythetics.

You cannot tell the servicability of a fluid by sight. Dont fall for the service center trick where they take a small sample of your fluids and compare them to a supposedly fresh fluid. This is most often a ploy to get you to pay for an unneccesary "flush" that is typically not even called for in your service manual. Save you money and follow the manual and you will protect your investment.

[Andrew Roberts 17]

this is interesting and I do have to say that I get and easy 7500 with my duramax. We have 8  6.0 powerstrokes at work and as soon as the additives burn off the oil they start to run like crap around 3500 miles

[Discamper 394]

My Dad changed the oil every 30k if it needed or not most of our car had over 200k mile on them

[ImDownWithDisney 342]

This really isn't anything new. It does require some effort if you decide to use a bypass filter setup and just monitor with oil analysis. I've done it in the past, but decided to just go back to 5k intervals with full synthetic oil. 7.3 and 6.0 Powerstrokes use high pressure oil to actuate the injectors, and as others have stated the oil sees a lot more abuse. 

 

We have a pretty robust Condition Based Maintenance group at work that does oil analysis on everything that uses oil. Proper analysis will not only tell you how long you can run the oil, but it can also warn you before a bearing or something else bites the dust. 

[Davydee 3]

Can anyone confirm that the results are based on data that includes "2007 and later diesel emissions" engines?  David 

[bigdisneydaddy 9]

we catch a lot of bad injectors using analysis. The Ford 6.0 almost always has at least 2% contamination. detroit says anything under 3% is okay but I have never been able to pin Ford down on a threshold amount.

[bigdisneydaddy 9]

Can anyone confirm that the results are based on data that includes "2007 and later diesel emissions" engines?  David 

I dont see anywhere that it names a specific vehicle. I do know that GM's oil life monitor uses an algorhythm that assigns a numerical value to a period of run time based on the conditions the engine is running under (at speed or at idle, at operating temp or cold start) then when the values add up to a threshold the light will come on.

Personally I think the story paints kind of a simplistic picture of a very complicated issue. I would never reccomend extending change intervals over the manufacturers reccomended miles/hrs unless there was an analysis program in place. Realistically, most people dont want the hassle.

[Davydee 3]

Thanks!  The reason I asked is that contamination issue seems to come up a lot on Ford forums for the 6.4L engines.  I'm not getting a warm & fuzzy that extended oil changes for this engine are all that wise if you haven't deleted the emissions equipment.  Many of us do "make oil" due to the dpf cleaning cycle.  As a full-time RVer, I'm one of those who don't want the hassle and just start looking for a good spot to get an oil change as we approach 4,000 miles since the last oil change.  I'd probably have a different opinion if we were using our previous 2001 7.3L Ford. David

[stacktester 78]

My Duramax is fixing to turn 370k miles soon. I've just thrown Rotella every 5k it's whole life and it's done pretty well. Fixing to put round 3 of injectors in which sucks but I see no reason to get rid of it when it's still performing well. One thing that I've never liked about Ford is the amount of oil they use but I guess in reality the more oil it holds the less it gets used during the duration of service. 

[LONE-STAR 370]

My Duramax is fixing to turn 370k miles soon. I've just thrown Rotella every 5k it's whole life and it's done pretty well. Fixing to put round 3 of injectors in which sucks but I see no reason to get rid of it when it's still performing well. One thing that I've never liked about Ford is the amount of oil they use but I guess in reality the more oil it holds the less it gets used during the duration of service.

And if it turns into a oil burner with ford you have more to burn.

[Barney Fife 0]

My Ford 6.7 gets changed about twice per year. I think it calls for around 7500 miles or so. It uses a similar setup bigdisneydaddy spoke about but I put so few miles on it, I never get to see the computer tell me its time. I am starting to stretch that though. I have a 7 year/200K extended warranty and Ford does all my service work. So why not just go with what the computer tells me to do and if something goes wrong, its on Ford's bill?