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When to start with synthetic oil

JerryP

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I am going to change my oil before November. I should have about 600 miles on her. Is this too early for synthetic oil?
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Big Blue

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I am going to change my oil before November. I should have about 600 miles on her. Is this too early for synthetic oil?
Just my opinion, but I'm not sure it is ever too early to go full synthetic. Just wondering why you want to change it at 600 miles? Unless you ment 6,000 miles. At 600 you're not really broken in yet.
 
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JerryP

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It is 600 miles. i do not drive much and want to start my usual change routine Which includes synthetic. I change based on time not mileage.
 

Michel Jeanneau

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Are we to assume that our Rangers are not shipped from the factory with synthetic oil? (not even the motorcraft blend?)
 

PierreD

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Are we to assume that our Rangers are not shipped from the factory with synthetic oil? (not even the motorcraft blend?)
I asked the question last week to the parts manager at my dealership. Can be different at others.
From him: the truck comes with regular oil.
The oil changes they offer are in 3 stages:
Regular (cheapest). Oil from drums in the garage.
Better (still regular oil). But from a bottle. Slightly better quality.
Best (blend). Again from a bottle. Regular and synthetic blend.
They do not have a full synthetic option...

I have already bought my own oil. Full synthetic., and oil filters. Got them at half price at a big store...
 


Big Blue

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I asked the question last week to the parts manager at my dealership. Can be different at others.
From him: the truck comes with regular oil.
The oil changes they offer are in 3 stages:
Regular (cheapest). Oil from drums in the garage.
Better (still regular oil). But from a bottle. Slightly better quality.
Best (blend). Again from a bottle. Regular and synthetic blend.
They do not have a full synthetic option...

I have already bought my own oil. Full synthetic., and oil filters. Got them at half price at a big store...
Why would Ford ship a vehicle with regular dinosaur oil and recommend a synthetic blend, and not tell you to do the first change early. Not sure I would want that dealer to service my truck.

I would recommend adding a drain valve too. It will make changes easier and cleaner. I have the ValvoMax and like it a lot.
 

slowmachine

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I changed my oil at 600 and 2100 miles, motivated mostly by reports of significant amounts of gasoline in the oil pan. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be an issue for my truck. I’ll do the next one at 5000, and every 5000 after that. Mobil 1 0W-30 and Motorcraft filter.
 

Frenchy

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The nice thing about these trucks and how far technology has come from the dark ages you can run full synthetic oil right away with no problem. Also to add Ford does not have a break in procedure on their vehicles any more. If anything they may say dont do any towing until 500 miles or such but other than that you are ok. I have changed the oil every 5,000 since new and it does just fine. Mind you I am close to 30,000 already and I'm just a month shy of having it for 1 year.
 

Frenchy

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Are we to assume that our Rangers are not shipped from the factory with synthetic oil? (not even the motorcraft blend?)
Ford send the trucks out with the synthetic blend. In the manual it states you only need to run full synthetic if you are in temperatures below -20°F. Now dont get me wrong. It is still a good idea to run full synthetic for temperature protection and the oil temperature can come down by a few degrees(can being the key word).
 

rltriumph

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The explorers come with the synthetic blend from the factory. Tied the lines in during the retool. No reason ford would spec oil for one vehicle different from the others.
 

Shadowdraxx

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My main dealer here in Austin does full synthetic and I’ll be using those reward points for it. The last 3 dealers did full synthetic for the mustang so I’d ask another dealer?.

ill do my first change at 3k and then every 6k thereafter
 

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Never too early. Many vehicles come from the factory with synthetic.
 

PierreD

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Why would Ford ship a vehicle with regular dinosaur oil and recommend a synthetic blend, and not tell you to do the first change early. Not sure I would want that dealer to service my truck.

I would recommend adding a drain valve too. It will make changes easier and cleaner. I have the ValvoMax and like it a lot.
That ValvoMax is very cool.
Thanks for that!
 

Langwilliams

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I did the first change at 3500 miles an went to full synthetic. Being old school I wanted the piston rings to have a chance to wear in to the cylinder walls. I had a gas smell at first an wanted to make sure the rings broke in in case that was causing it. I did a second change at 8500 an I'm coming up on 10K an the gas smell seems to have gone away.
 

Mustang2Ranger

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600 is too early IMO, waste of money unless the oil has been in there over a year. That is barely three tanks of gas!

I waited until 3500 to do the first change and convert to full synthetic and now I do it when the oil monitor is around 20%

There is a recommended break-in procedure, and someone has posted a screenshot. Go with that rather than the others who didn't read their owners manual

However you can switch to the full synthetic whenever you want. It comes with synthetic blend from the factory and changing it early doesn't hurt

As others recommended, if you have the Fx4 or just in general to make it easier to get the Fumoto valve with the nipple and drain hose kit
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