When my Mercury Marauder hit 15,000 miles I put Auto-Rx in and changed the oil again at 20,000 miles, I remember the oil was a little dark and the oil filter was a little heavy at 20,000 miles, now at 15,000 miles I added a Maintenance Dose, and did the same thing at 20,000 miles. I went to change the oil today at 25,000 miles and the oil came out darker than before and the oil filter felt like a brick. I bought the car with 10,000 miles and changed the oil right away even though the previous owner had changed it at 8000 miles, he did his 1st oil change at 3000 miles. Obviously a new engine should be clean, this proves to me that junk is building up inside new engines in a relatively short mileage time, I love reading posts on another board which I will not name where individuals say " My engine only has ( 50,000 , 75,000) miles so it is clean." I changed the air filter at 10,000 miles and again at 20,000 miles and both times the air filter was hardly dirty, I also changed the fuel filter at 20,000 miles, so it is not like the only thing that has been done is oil and filter changes.
Brent, I sincerely believe in what you are saying. I think what happens is that new motors generate alot of heat during the break in period. There is alot of friction occuring as rings seat themselves into the cylinder wall surfaces. The same is true with bushings and bearings, as well as lobes and lifters. The heat generated during the previous owners second OCI of 8000 miles was way too long. In hind site your vehicle was already in need of a full blown cleaning and rinse at the time you bought it. I am impressed at what you were able to accomplish with running the maintenance dose over two oil changes. Was it 3 fluid ounces that you ran for these two OCI's in the maintenance dose mode?
Richone, he did oil changes at 3000 miles and again at 8000 miles, so 2 oil changes, then I got the car at 10,000 miles and did an oil change. At 3000 miles he put in Amsoil XL-5W-20 which is a Group III hydrocracked oil like Pennzoil Platinum and is rated for 6 months or 7500 miles. In the owner's manual it says to change the oil every 5000 miles. Again Richone, when the previous owner changed the oil at 8000 miles he had already changed it at 3000 miles so it was a 5000 mile interval after the 1st oil change. When I changed the oil at 10,000 miles I put in the Amsoil 5W-20 and ran it for 5000 miles at which time I then went to Auto-Rx at the next oil change of 15,000 miles. He also used NAPA Gold Oil Filters both times.
The reason why most people think that engines that have 30k or 50k are "new" is because although there might be dirt in the engine, its not enough to notice while driving. This is something that I have experienced with older cars(100k and up). Whenever I would get an oil change done, the car would run great, real smooth. But after driving it for a week or so, it would go back to its own self, and I believe the reason for this is the amount of dirt/gunk in the engine it self. Do you plan on doing a clean/rinse phase on the Marauder?
I might when I run out of this Group IV Amsoil 100% synthetic, I have 18 quarts left, I bought a case but there were some leaks in the box so they sent me another case. So at 45,000 miles I will be going back to Amsoil XL 5W-20 which is a Group III oil, at that time I may do a Clean and Rinse, will have to talk to Frank about it and see how things go on the next few oil changes and then correspond with Frank as to whether I should stay with the Maintenance Dose or do a Clean and Rinse, time will only tell.
I wanted to clarify something about the air filters that I forgot to mention, at 22,000 miles I put on an AFE Pro Dry Air Filter, the reasoning for this was because the air filter is reuseable for the life of the vehicle, I can either vacuum it or clean it with soap and water, it cost me about $40.00, whereas the paper filters go for $22.00 and they have to be replaced. I will be taking the car up this weekend to Long Island so when I get back I will post some fuel mileage numbers and let everyone know how the car ran. I wonder how many cars on the New Jersey Turnpike will have Auto-Rx in them when I go up.
Brent, I just bought an 03 Mach 1 with the same exact engine as your Marauder. I just changed the oil with Mobil 1 synthetic.The car right now has 23K miles on it.I don't drive it alot,maybe about 500 miles a month. When it comes down to changing the oil again I plan on using ARX. What oil and filters are you using on your Marauder. As far as what cars on the NJT have ARX,if you see an older red Camry,which are a dime a dozen, and my 06 Kia Sedona both have ARX in them.
I am right now in the beautiful state of New Jersey, I am not going to give any mileage numbers until my return trip back, got caught in a backup and to make up for time I was doing 80 m.p.h. the rest of the way. Jared I use the Amsoil EaO-11 oil filter which has a synthetic media and is rated down to 15 microns, as far as the oil I am using Amsoil OW-20 100% Synthetic Oil, but I think that when this stash of oil is used up I will be using Amsoil XL-5W-20 which is a Group III oil. But if my milage numbers are better with the OW-20 I may stick with it, time will only tell. Sorry that I was not looking for Camry's or Sedona's, I was concentrating on the unmarked cop cars.
