how often to change oil

[Peterfurlan]

Re: how often to change oil

It was called bulk oil and it came in a fifty gallon drum. You just slapped a pump in
the drum and filled the bottles. A set of six of those bottles with the metal carrier will
sell for about four hundred dollars. So if you come upon a set at a tag sale grab them.

This post was meant as a reply to posts 24 and 25.

[jerzeebird]

Re: how often to change oil

My 2002 LS now has 203,000 miles with no issues. She still runs great with oil changed every 5,000 miles. I am following the same regimen with the 2004 Bird. Our 2009 Flex manual suggests 7,500 miles between changes now.

[Tbyrdy]

Re: how often to change oil

Oil is cheap.

These cars do not get a lot of use, so there is all kinds of stuff in the oil just waiting to attack some component in the engine. Gas blow-by during ring seal at start-up puts stuff into the crankcase. Dirt gets into it the same way. Moisture always condenses inside a hot crankcase when it has the opportunity.

Personally, I think the oil should be changed every 6 months on a car that gets very little use. The filter is not an issue on those cars.

When I grew up, I worked at my Dad's Phillip 66 station in Daytona Beach. We use to get some fleet trucks in from Eli-Witt, a distributor of restaurant foods like Sam's is today.

They would always send the proper amount of Havoline oil with every truck and let us use our own filter. They'd pay us a fair price for the labor, etc.

I hated Havoline...it really stunk like dead fish. One day, when returning a truck, I asked the fellow there why they used that stuff...I thought our Trop-Artic oil was better.

He pulled out a log book and showed it to me. They had monitored all of their trucks and found the ones getting oil changes at Texaco were going 3, 400 thousand miles without engine problems! So, they wholesaled the oil to themselves and used it in all of their trucks.

I started using Havoline in my car after that. I still use it when I change the oil, but I wonder if it is the same as it was 40 years ago.

You know how everything changes.

[Lonestar]

Re: how often to change oil

I started using Havoline in my car after that. I still use it when I change the oil, but I wonder if it is the same as it was 40 years ago.
You know how everything changes.

No, Havoline is not the same as it was 40 years ago. The Spec back then was SA and a SA oil in a modern engine would render at least the emissions system, if not the whole engine, useless in short order. Today’s Havoline is a good oil but for the Thunderbird one should only use the syn-blend or synthetic versions.

As with so many things, what is in the Havoline bottle is in the Chevron bottle. What is in the Phillips 66 bottle is in the Conoco, as well as the Motorcraft, bottle, etc. etc. etc.

[theflash]

Re: how often to change oil

Engines that are used long and often should get the oil changed as manufacture subcribes.
Changing the oil too often is a waste of money and time. The oil is not worn out why change it. It is not 1950. We have very good engine oils today.

As for the engines that get very little use, it will depend on the engine cycle.
Is it drive once a month for a long ride or does it just run to the Gym every other day and never get heated up? That will determine the oil change cycles.

i would ask the Ford dealer they should know best. Unless it's Gobber.

Happy Motoring

[Rondor]

Re: how often to change oil

You know over the years the strangest thing on this subject to me was the ones who used to change oil and not filter. If I was only going to do one I would change filter. Clean oil thru a dirty filter seemd so useless but I knew several who did it.