JMD

Looks like someone was not using Castrol....

66JameStang

Don't forget to think with your dipstick or your gonna get a rude awakening...

HGC

Actually a number of highly respected companies recommend a change of oil and filter every 3,000 miles or 3 months. Lets see - there's Jiffy Lube, Speedy Lube, Quik Lube and others. No conflict of interest there at all.
When they took the lead out of gas they took out one of the most damaging components there was. Changing oil every 3000 in the sixties made sense. Not any more. Leaded fuel contaminated and rotted everything. Exhaust parts lasted maybe 30,000 at best. Spark plugs, 15,000. Oil, 3000.
The only people who still want you to change your oil every 3000 miles are the people who make money when you do it.

tx65coupe

Personally I think that the oil should be changed more often than many people do it. I don't know if 3000 miles is the magic number or not. I do think that the 10 or 15 thousand mile oil changes than some are talking about is not the thing to do. However, if you feel comfortable doing that then go ahead and do it that way.

I change mine every 3k or so on my daily driver F150 as well as on the Stang.

I also think that an older motor should have the oil changed often to help keep it clean.

I use conventional oil in the F150 and will be switching to Mobile 1 in the Mustang fairly soon. I'm running clean 5000 in it right now until it has a few thousand miles on its new 302.

I think the synthetic oils can last longer but there is still moisture and dirt in the air that gets in the motor.

I always recycle my oil as should everyone else.

Carlos Pineiro

If you have a freeway car and you constantly drive in hot temps at sustained high speeds, it might be best to change oil more frequently than a city car. Oil is either dirty or it's not. It should be changed before it gets really bad, and most v8s won't do that in 3000 miles.

CP

fakesnakes

I change my oil in the summer cars once a year or every 6,000 miles. My Mercedes ML63 AMG requires a change every 12,000 and it runs Mobile 1 synthetic. I think they have it down.

rmodel65

right now in my 5.0 i think im up to about 20k since my last oil change between having a messed up back and no disposable income its gonna have to wait

tx65coupe

Do you guys that go 10+ thousand miles between oil changes change the filter more often than the oil or do you leave the filter that long too?

Norm Peterson

Lots of driving that fits into the "extreme service" category ("Special Operating Conditions", or whatever they call it) calls for shorter change intervals. Dusty environment, lots of idling and stop/go, trailer towing, driving off-road, lots of high-rpm activity tend to subject the additive package to disproportionate rates of use.

The '08 gives you 7500 miles under "normal" driving, which is really a poor description for driving that assumes that you fully warm the engine up for more than brief periods of time and do so on a regular basis. Lots of extreme service (SOC) drops that to 5000 miles. Use those as optomistic starting points.


One other thing with the older flat-tappet pushrod engines - the zinc and other extreme pressure additives are not nearly as concentrated as they used to be. I can't say for sure that this means you should be changing the oil at relatively short intervals in these engines --- but I wouldn't want to chance it by pushing it too much unless you know for absolute fact that your specific oil choice has sufficiently strong EP content.


Norm

JMD

My first vehicle I changed the oil at about 1,500 miles, by my 4th or 5th (the 90 mentioned earlier) I had decided that it might be cheaper to NOT change the oil and put in a new engine at 100,000 miles,,, well I broke and changed it at 87,000 miles, then every 10,000 or 20,000 thereafter.

Since then I have evened up a bit and change the oil about every 8,000 to 12,000 miles.

Frankly, the ones I have taken care of last about the same as the ones I don't, 200,000 miles give or take a little... (most become "company vehicles" after about 100,000... )

All of mine end up in "extreme duty"... and to boot, I drove the living **** out of that 90.... Lots and lots of hard fast trips...