The Mud Pit > Wrenching

Oil issues

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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

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