Oil issues

[Flex]

Hey guys its been a long time since I have been on here probably 3 years but I got a question for ya.

I have a 2005 F-150 5.4 with 225,000 miles. I drive a little under 1000 miles a week with my current job so doing an oil change every 3000 miles isn’t really reasonable, at least I didn’t think it was. While driving I started having some struggling while going up hills on the interstate maybe it was misfiring, it never gave a check engine light so I’m not certain.  So I stopped and checked the oil after letting the truck sit for about 10 mins to ensure all the oil went back into the pan so I could get a good reading. So I read the dip stick and it has got nothing on it. This is odd to me, my truck has never burned oil before and I’m not leaking oil. So I add 1 quart and check it again still nothing so I add an additional quart, still no reading on the dip stick. So it has been about 9,000 miles since my last oil change (2 months) so I figure I will just do an oil change to see if I can figure out what’s going on. When I drain the pan I get 4 quarts of oil out, the truck calls for 6.5 quarts per oil change. This is alarming to me since I just put 2 quarts into it which means I was running the truck with only 2 quarts of oil! However I never got a low oil pressure alert. So I did a detailed inspection of the oil. I did find very small amount of metal flake in the oil. I had to use a light to get them to reflect. So my question is, how toast is my engine? The way I see it I’m driving a ticking time bomb and the last thing I need is to break down 300 miles from home. My follow on question is how long should I expect this engine to continue to go for? The rest of the truck is in good enough shape, it would make a great farm truck if I kept it even if I have to add a quart of oil every 500-1000 miles, assuming the engine will last another 30k. Before everyone gets started with “wow you’re an idiot, who lets there oil get that low” I would like to acknowledge that this was a huge mistake on my part so now we can move on. So lets here your thoughts. I plan on checking the oil level every tank fill up until I can determine how much oil I’m going through, also so I can keep it topped off. Also I have been getting around 14.5 mpg highway so I’m going to keep an eye on that to see if it goes up or not. Anyone have any non-evasive ways that I could attempt to determine engine damage or to determine how much life this thing has in it. I’d love to hear your comments.

[toreadorranger]

You never get all the oil out when you do an oil change, Ive heard anywhere from .5-1.5 quarts depending on the motor.  Any strange noises coming from the motor?  Is it still struggling after refilling the oil?  I would run it with clean oil for a little bit and do another oil change and see if the oil still looks like it has flakes in it.  But otherwise if its not making noise or having issues Id run it.  and keep better track of the oil it burns.

[Flex]

There was a slight wear noise just prior to adding the oil, sounded a lot like a pulley going out, but then after the oil change its gone. In fact after the oil change the truck is running strong and making no weird noise or producing any unusual responses (ie sputtering, missing etc.)

[toreadorranger]

Id drain the oil and check it after running it for short amount of time just to double check how it looks.  If its not doing anything weird Id run it.  Since its not making any more noises, There is really no way to tell if you did any real permanent damage short of tearing down the motor and looking at cylinder walls and bearings. 

[calvynandhobbs]

Nate,
Good to hear from you. I can tell you that in my F250 with the same 5.4L engine I put 1qt of oil in between oil changes. Has done this from when I bought it with 65k on it. The amount of oil has not changed between that time and at the 117k miles it currently has. I've heard that due to the nature of the engine oil disappears and adding some between oil changes is not uncommon.

As far as missing, mine does that every now and then, but I can usually feel it lurching. It has never thrown a code light before, but if I hook up my reader it will tell me which cylinder the miss is in. The coil packs on these trucks tend to be a little finicky. Did you ever get a chance to pull the spark plugs. I remember when you were here the truck had upwards of 150k plus and you had never changed the plugs in it.

I would keep driving and checking the oil if I were you. If you haven't changed plugs or coil packs I would try to get that done also.

Roger

[Flex]

Hey Roger,
Yea the plugs and coil packs have been replaced within the last 20K miles so I'm hoping they will last till end of life. I also had the lurching feeling I was guessing it was due to a miss fire.

So what do you guys think about driving a truck with only 2 quarts of oil in it, I mean being that I never got a low pressure alarm does this mean I shouldn't have catastrophic engine damage.

I will say my biggest concern with this is if I know its going to fail soon I can get ride of it while it still worth something (ie. trade it in for something else) however if u think its still got some life than ill keep racking up the miles on it, or at least until I can more easily afford another car.
Thanks
Nate

[Big Chuck]

Flex, If it were me and I didn't have any ticking in the engine, maybe try a heavy synthetic oil. Rotella stuff works great for me and my father who currently has a 6 cyl ford ranger with 320K and nothing other than regular oil changes every 7000 miles. Do you have an oil pressure gauge? If so what are your readings on it?
Chuck

[calvynandhobbs]

At 1000 miles a week you should probably be thinking gas mizer beater car anyway and then save the truck for projects at the house. If you're getting missing after the plug and coil pack change put a code reader on them. I've had a couple now that I heard snap back into position and a few months down the road I get a miss and the spark plug has spit the wire off and it isn't fully seated anymore.

[Flex]

Flex, If it were me and I didn't have any ticking in the engine, maybe try a heavy synthetic oil. Rotella stuff works great for me and my father who currently has a 6 cyl ford ranger with 320K and nothing other than regular oil changes every 7000 miles. Do you have an oil pressure gauge? If so what are your readings on it?
Chuck

No oil pressure gauge I just get a warning if the pressure is below a certain point.

At 1000 miles a week you should probably be thinking gas mizer beater car anyway and then save the truck for projects at the house. If you're getting missing after the plug and coil pack change put a code reader on them. I've had a couple now that I heard snap back into position and a few months down the road I get a miss and the spark plug has spit the wire off and it isn't fully seated anymore.

Yea I would really like to get another car with as much driving as I'm doing, I just need something reliable which means I can't go with anything that is to much of a beater. What I would really is a TDI just try to keep my eye open for the right deal.

[Mr Rock]

good to hear from you Nate, tell Jade I said Hi!

as for the low oil light... they don't call them idiot lights for nothing... don't rely on them!

like has already been said, if it's not making any noise then you may have avoided major damage, I would keep an eye on the antifreeze as well as just to make sure you didnt ruin the head gasket

[kirksjeep]

Hey Nate- Shipmate,
        I'd check around really good for a leak.  Our Jeep Liberty was leaking oil at the back of the valve cover gaskets, but it only leaked when running, so no marks in the driveway.  I was going through a quart every 1K until I found the problem.  The Liberty was Jess' before I took it over as a beater, and I am sure she ran it low on oil once or twice.  I have always used Mobil 1 full synthetic since new and added Lucas Oil Stabilizer at every oil change after 100K.  At 231K she is still running great.  The 5.4L Ford Engine is a lot better engine than the 3.7L Dodge motor, so I think you'll be fine.  Give the Lucas Oil Stabilizer a try, it cuts down on burning oil...I run it in my Harley which burned oil since new and now it is only down ~1/4 of a quart every 5K miles. 

Kirk

[DirtyJeep92]

From my experience working on these motors I wouldn't be surprised if there is a bad coil even that new. They are stupid common for not throwing a code until it legitimate skips repeatedly. As far as the oil goes. I wouldn't worry about it running that low I had a 5.9 Cummins come back to the shop and I had noticed it was leaking as they parked it. I ending up having to add 9qts to it and they only hold roughly 12 or 13q. Seems to be running fine ever since. I would recommend  using a thicker oil such as 15w-40. Rotella is highly recommended like Chuck had said. It has lots of zinc in it helps keep it from breaking down under high heat situations giving the amount of miles you rack up.

[skibum]

If engine sounds good then just run it. Check oil every 1000 miles and change every 3000. It calls for 5W20 but dont recomend over 5W30. I recomend at next oil change to drain oil slowly through paint strainer to see if any bearing material is in there. Yes coils are very common but since misfire counts are not high enough to set a code then dought that would cause oil consumption.
If driving that truck almost 1000 a wk then finding a reliable gas saver for under 5k would be in your best interest. You will get that back in gas savings in less than 2 yrs.

[Flex]

Want to say thanks for all the great response. So the consensus is i should get a good MPG car, heres my problem with that, I want to get a TDI for ultimate MPG however i having a hard time finding one is good mechanical/reliable shape in my approx. 5k price range so heres my next question. If you had 5K to spend on a car to get the best MPG and have something that was very reliable what would you buy. Go

From my experience working on these motors...

So im thinking the same thing probably a bad coil or even just a bad connection. Ill read the ECM and figure out which cylinder it was and put some dielectric grease between the plug and the coil. On a side note it was raining incredibly hard when i was getting the lurching/ misfire and it hasn't come back since. So Im thinking it wasn't oil level related but probably a electrical issue. Either way thanks for ur post.

If engine sounds good then just run it...

So right now I'm checking oil level every fill up at the pump. I plan on doing this until i get a good idea of how much oil I'm burning. I will also continue to check for wear products every oil change. I will say i feel pretty strongly about not changing the oil every 3K miles. Thats a change every 3 weeks for me. I just cant afford it. Call me crazy but I've done a lot of looking into stretching oil changes and I feel safe going out to 10K as long as i keep my oil topped off.

Hey Nate- Shipmate...

Good to hear from ya Kirk. I really like the idea of lucas oil stabilizer i plan on adding some once i get a handle on what my oil consumption rate is. Then when I add it i will know how well it worked. I just don't want to throw it in now since i don't have a initial value.