Oil life not accurate?

[Montana]

I have to be honest that in 27 years of working on my own vehicles and as an engineer I only know the term heat soak as one thing and it has more to do with degraded engine performance while operating rather than some kind of maintenance procedure so maybe you can elaborate. My first Focust ST that had the 2.0 I tried using CRC GDI intake valve cleaner before every oil change (3-5k) for the first 30k miles and it did nothing at all to seemingly clean the valves. I pulled the intake manifold at 30k just to see what was going on and they were very badly caked up. I stopped using the CRC GDI cleaner and when I pulled the intake again at 60k miles the valves seemed no worse off. I would say that as long as you figure out what oil change interval works best for you and your driving style and geo location and oil that you prefer you should be fine with just checking the valves at 30k and cleaning if needed. It's pretty easy to pull the intake manifold off on the 2.0 and I like how much room there is in the front of the engine bay compared to my Focus and Escape. Other than that I wouldn't really bother with any crazy or special kinds of maintenance.

On a separate note, one thing to consider on the AWD system is regularly replacing your PTU fluid, Ford only recently updated the PTU to be serviceable after they saw a ton of failures and the fluid in the PTU sees a lot of abuse and is cheap and relatively easy to replace. Unfortunately when they go it tends to be a catastrophic failure and often they take out other expensive components when they fail.

Yep I'll be doing my PTU every 20k especially since it's only about half a quart. Already did it once and it was bleh... same with the RDU.

Good to know on the heat soak stuff. I was referring to the seafoam treatment that get's sprayed directly into the throttle body while running around 2-3k rpm range for the duration of the can, allowing it to soak with the engine off, then driving like you stole it and throwing white smoke off any poor soul behind you lol. I've only done it once and that was for a crappy 5.4L 3V around 130k and it didn't seem to do much.

I have read the service manual on pulling the manifold off so I'll likely be doing the same. It is actually surprising how much room is in this engine bay.

I meant to send my first sample to Blackstone on the first oil change I did (I did buy the Maverick used at 11k) but I totally spaced it. Laid out the sample kit on the work bench, got distracted around the house, came back, drained, stood up and it was staring me in the face lol. So... next oil change. I suspect 3-4k for my driving and location. It's been that on pretty much every other vehicle anyways regardless of what their "suggestions" say.

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[GPSMan]

Ever notice this...
Someone asks a question about the stereo or electronics and it's "RTFM".
Someone asks a question about towing capacities and it's "RTFM".
Someone asks a question about the transmission and it's "RTFM".
Someone asks a question about oil and it's "The manual is wrong.You can't trust Ford."

It's because some people are superstitious and some people are super technical and some people are super nuts, and only the person who posts right after you do can tell you what kind of person you are.

 

[NoVaJimmy]

Ever notice this...
Someone asks a question about the stereo or electronics and it's "RTFM".
Someone asks a question about towing capacities and it's "RTFM".
Someone asks a question about the transmission and it's "RTFM".
Someone asks a question about oil and it's "The manual is wrong.You can't trust Ford."

This is a pretty weak example, especially the static example of radio operation. How you operate the radio doesn't change based on temperature, humidity, environment, driving habits, etc so sure, RTFM to find out how your radio operates. How your oil performs with all of the variables I mentioned is anything but static and even Ford acknowledges that by saying that service intervals should be based on operating conditions, ie, normal, severe, etc. What they don't and cannot say is what specific driving conditions for each individual to include temperatures, driving style, oil brand and type and so on dictates what service category any given vehicle falls under and unless the oil percentage meter is going to also tell me what the lab tested viscosity, pour point and flashpoint are instead of some fairly arbitrary percentage then it may as well not be there. I don't understand what is so hard to comprehend about people like me suggesting that owners of ecoboost engines perform a used oil analysis in order to determine an appropriate oil change interval rather than just blindly (and incorrectly) following the "normal" service intervals of 10k oil changes that Ford recommends and people like you enjoy ignorantly parroting. Especially with plenty of well documented 3 and 4 cylinder ecoboost engine teardowns showing how extended oil changes have lead to seized piston rings and engine failure. Also, I would say that very few ecoboost owners actually fall into the normal operation category and I have submitted lab results showing how poorly my factory spec full synthetic oil was performing at 5k miles but apparently I should just ignore lab data and just run my oil out to 10k miles like a good fanboy.

 

[Skyline]

I suspect 3-4k for my driving and location. It's been that on pretty much every other vehicle anyways regardless of what their "suggestions" say.

That had been my oil change schedule even for organic oil. Since by now, I drive my truck 3 - 4K miles per year, my schedule changed to once a year with Mobil 1 Annual Protection and/or over 4K miles, whichever comes first...

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