How do YOU know your 6.2L has enough oil?

[FishFreak]

Seems so simple and obvious, yet I'm struggling answering this: How do YOU know you have enough oil in your 6.2 L Ford Raptor? Truth is, I DON'T honestly know....

Do you rely on your dipstick? Do you count quarts (drain/fill) when you change the oil? How about your oil gauge when running? How can we be sure? What's your trick?

Here's my oil gauge, driving about 2,500 rpm, 40 mph:



This is only my second oil change at 139k miles, bought my screw with 132k mi two years ago. When I bought it the oil was very clean looking, but I changed it anyways just to be sure. At 139k the oil still looked clean on the stick. Changed it again anyways. This last change I used that Pennzoil Ultra Platinum natural gas synthetic oil (10w-30) in 5 qt jugs, and it's so dang clear you can hardly see it on your dipstick. Not to mention our dipsticks are all twisted up like a Cheeto Spiral cheese chip, so much so you wipe it clean, put it all the way in, pull it out, and there's oil all up and down the stick, I can't tell if it's 3 quarts over or a few low!! I think I put in about 8 qts this change, new oil filter too.

Love this truck but it's kinda annoying me for sure....

 

[Roush2568]

The 6.2 calls for 7qts with filter change.

 

[FishFreak]

The 6.2 calls for 7qts with filter change.

Thank you Roush2568. Can you read your oil level on your dipstick? Is it just mine twisted like a Cheeto?

 

[Mad Zeus]

Just did mine this morning and definitely have to look close for the wet spot on the dipstick always 7 with filter . I’m using 5-20 you might want to double check the viscosity recommendation. I know there has been a change in 2016? To 5-30 for 6.2 but I still use the 20 .

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

there are marks on the dipstick to check the oil. the guage on the dash is oil pressure. not oil level. best to let the truck run (if it wasnt running) and then let sit for about 5-10 min before checking the level. gives time to get an accurate reading. sometimes one side of the dipstick will scrape along the tube wall and you may not get any kind of measurement on that side because it scraped the oil off. but yes, 7qts is correct

 

[Roush2568]

I have a Gen2 and my dipstick has no twist in it. Much easier to read for sure.

 

[Jhollowell]

I've always wondered what the minimum oil volume before catastrophic failure is. There is always margin built into everything so i'm curious what the engineers built into motors. You have to assume people will mess up or go too long between changes so i'm curious, will it run on 2 quarts? 4? 5?

 

[Mad Zeus]

One of the reasons I like to do my own oil is because once a tech forgot to check the level after a change . I got about four miles truck was only about six month old smoked it .

 

[EricM]

I have a Gen2 and my dipstick has no twist in it. Much easier to read for sure.

The worst are the cable style with the cast metal end. It's like pushing a rope.

 

[EricM]

I've always wondered what the minimum oil volume before catastrophic failure is. There is always margin built into everything so i'm curious what the engineers built into motors. You have to assume people will mess up or go too long between changes so i'm curious, will it run on 2 quarts? 4? 5?

I'm sure it'd run on 5 before it became an issue.

I watched well over 2 quarts go into an '81 5.0 engine before we got anything to even show up on the dipstick. It ran a LOT better with over 3 quarts added.

You could likely overfill the crap out of the oil pan in a 6.2L engine without issue given it's mod motor heritage. The crank sits way up high in the block compared to the old school pushrod V8s where it half of the main journal was hanging out of the bottom of the pan rail.