500K mile comparison between Synthetic and Conventional Oil on EcoBoost engine

[CoBigBlue]

Oh well, this sorta reinforces my intents to switch to full synthetic at next oil change.

Had oil sample reads at approx 1,500 miles since new. No surprises, expect metal n silicone so got oil change then, using blended Motorcraft oil. Now have ~4,000 miles on truck or approx 2,500 miles on this blend oil. Plan to let truck go to 5,000 miles on this oil. Pull sample, get results. Then next oil change, switch to full synthetic. I’m hoping to see less metal in the 2nd sample before switch to synthetic.

i purchased this truck Oct 2023. Coming up Oct, it be a year of ownership, and today, just turning 4K miles. Hardly used, huh? Longest road trips was couple round trips of ~650 miles, otherwise mostly local driving (Lowes, Home Depot, Sam’s, garden center stuff, lol).

When weather cools , plan to reorganize garage, get this truck inside out of weather. Can you say “oh hail yea”!

Where can you get your oil tested? The Maverick I have on order will be the first car I’ve owned that’s less than 5 years old and I’d never heard of testing your oil till reading your post.

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[CajunMick]

Where can you get your oil tested? The Maverick I have on order will be the first car I’ve owned that’s less than 5 years old and I’d never heard of testing your oil till reading your post.

I use Blackstone. Been using them for many years. Sampled my F250 diesel, wife’s Escape, and now the Mav.

I purchased a brake bleeder kit, and use a poly flow plastic tube to insert into the dipstick tube. Able to suck oil out topside. Easier if want to see what the oil is sampling, not changing oil right away. No point in changing if sample results are good, could go extra mileage.

Asking them, Blackstone will send few sample bottles, with paperwork, and shipping bottles to mail via USPS. I created a folder in this PC to file any sample results for records, of our vehicles.

Good luck!

 

[Decayed]

Where can you get your oil tested? The Maverick I have on order will be the first car I’ve owned that’s less than 5 years old and I’d never heard of testing your oil till reading your post.

You can test; it's interesting and you might learn stuff which is always good. You could also just do 5k changes as standard and go full synthetic and not worry too much about it.

Turbo engines blow fuel into the oil due to higher pressures. You need to drive like 30 minutes for it to get hot enough to evaporate out. Even though they say 10k is the recommended interval, if you do a lot of short hop driving you don't evaporate all the fuel out. Frequent stop and go, short hop driving counts as "severe".

5k oil changes will never harm your engine but going too long certainly can.

 

[Gonzo chris]

True, most of our drives are under 5 miles stop and go. Which is why we change our oil every 2,000 miles or less. Don't really have to do that, but I like taking care of things. Having worked at an oil change place as my first job, seeing all the terrible things people did to their cars pushed me hard in the other direction of obsessively maintaining things. We'll see if it works out for me or not.

Wow, pretty frequent. Doesn't the hybrid engine not run as much under those conditions? Idk my car is pretty stop and go but I do a full synthetic approximately every 6,000 miles

 

[surfstar]

Where can you get your oil tested? The Maverick I have on order will be the first car I’ve owned that’s less than 5 years old and I’d never heard of testing your oil till reading your post.

Don't bother.
It's really a hobby. You won't learn anything that's all that useful.
Stick to the oil change interval the truck tells ya, with synthetic (required for hybrid) and worry about more important things.

 

[Guv]

Maybe I wasn’t too observant but I can’t remember a tech or engineer ever sending off a oil sample from their personal vehicle for analysis. I’m sure some might have but if they did they were pretty quite about it.
Seems like a newly adopted practice/requirement/Hobby

 

[Guv]

Was a time when out of spec fuel systems (carburetor, automatic chokes, leaking internally, into the crankcase fuel pumps) were the biggest threat to proper engine lubrication, other than neglect.
Today, these items are so much more reliable, most people don’t give them a second thought.

 

[rlhdweman]

Wonder how much of a difference there is with semi synthetic instead of conventional oil.
Do any new cars nowadays even call for using conventional oil instead of synthetic ?

I doubt it, my Ford dealer has semi or full synthetic for choices. I tried both, the oil life monitor on either oil was about the same & I check the oil by how dark it's getting, the semi was about 3500 & the synthetic was about 3900 miles, I went back to semi, since the cost is 50% less. With my last Ford I did the same thing, checking the oil for darkness, at one point the oil stayed light colored for 1000 miles more than it used to, when I inquired about it I found out they had switched from conventional to semi in that time, & the cost was about the same.

 

[Guv]

The oil gets it’s color from how many deposits it has cleaned from the internal surfaces and the amount of blowby in the crankcase.
If your oil looks like the day you put it in 3,000 miles later you already had a very clean engine or your oil doesn’t have very strong detergent.

 

[The Real Maverick]

They did this type of tests 50 years ago and never changed the oil for 200k miles only filters and no problems all highway mileage.

Ever listen to "Road Dog" trucking radio on SiriusXM? I used to back when I had SiriusXM.

They routinely talked about how oils don't "wear out" but they do get dirty.
Also the base (anti-acid) additives can get neutralized.

Basically they said in the big rigs, assuming they burned or leaked 1 quart a month, they could drive indefinitely by just adding a quart (or two) a month. Adding a little oil added more base each month and kept the truck topped off. 100,000 to 200,000 miles between full drains was OK if you added a little each month.

 

[ndmiller]

500K will take 20 years @ 25k per year and while the engine may or not last the rest of the Maverick would be long gone in that time period. It wasn't designed for this service life like a Land Cruiser and the safety features would be obsolete and WAY behind after 5-10 years.

Pragmatically as long as you're changing your oil regularly with correct spec oil the difference isn't worth worrying about. As they said in the reveal, wear looked good on both engines, just a difference in varnish.

Too much other important stuff in life to worry about 20 years from now in an essentially disposable vehicle.

 

[Blitz-Hacker]

500K will take 20 years @ 25k per year and while the engine may or not last the rest of the Maverick would be long gone in that time period. It wasn't designed for this service life like a Land Cruiser and the safety features would be obsolete and WAY behind after 5-10 years.

Pragmatically as long as you're changing your oil regularly with correct spec oil the difference isn't worth worrying about. As they said in the reveal, wear looked good on both engines, just a difference in varnish.

Too much other important stuff in life to worry about 20 years from now in an essentially disposable vehicle.

What about guys like the person who owned this truck? Maybe if he used full synthetic and changed every 5K he would be able to keep that truck another 5 years? I am guessing if the dealer wants $22K then they gave him max $16K and he probably paid $32K for it so it cost him $5200.00 a year in depreciation so keeping it 5 more years he would use another $26,000 in depreciation which is more than he just got on trade.

 

[surfstar]

What about guys like the person who owned this truck? Maybe if he used full synthetic and changed every 5K he would be able to keep that truck another 5 years? I am guessing if the dealer wants $22K then they gave him max $16K and he probably paid $32K for it so it cost him $5200.00 a year in depreciation so keeping it 5 more years he would use another $26,000 in depreciation which is more than he just got on trade.

I think you're being facetious / sarcastic?

That many miles in that short a time - syn vs semi won't matter one bit. Those are very likely easy hwy miles (or even lots of around town sales stuff and few cold starts) and changing the oil at 5k would be a waste of time and money.

 

[Tiger Dude]

I changed mine with the blended synthetic so my results would be in the middle I guess, lol.

 

[Blitz-Hacker]

I think you're being facetious / sarcastic?

That many miles in that short a time - syn vs semi won't matter one bit. Those are very likely easy hwy miles (or even lots of around town sales stuff and few cold starts) and changing the oil at 5k would be a waste of time and money.

I think you would be right with an old school engine (No turbos, no direct inject) but I think you are fooling yourself if you think you can have long term reliability with Dino oil and long oil change intervals on a EcoBoost engine. I will be happy to waste my money on full synthetic and 5k oil changes on my Ecoboost engine. If you watch the video you will see all the piston rings are seized on the conventional oil motor. Sometimes it's more than the color of the oil on the dipstick.

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