Epiphany
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
I've driven the car just once and amassed a bit over 1,000 miles when I made the jaunt from the dealer in Missouri to my home in NY. With the bellypan off the front and the car up in the air, now was the perfect time to change the oil. Today was also the warmest we've see since fall of 2019 at just over 55* too which is always a good excuse to do car stuff outside.
With almost a dozen quarts I wasn't going to screw around with a horizontal drain pan and went straight to a 5 gallon bucket under the oil drain plug. If you look close you can see the oil level above the mid point of the bucket. I had run the car for 10 minutes or so to warm the oil to get it to flow quickly to the drain/sump.
Drain bolt head size is 13mm.
Once all the oil was gone from the sump I reinstalled the drain plug and removed the oil filter canister and filter. Socket size for the canister is 27mm. The extension I show allows a free swing of the ratchet as the filter is in somewhat of a tight space.
I preferred the old style filter but with the somewhat shaky GT350 (
) Ford went to a canister with replaceable media and I honestly like it from a service perspective.
The filter fits inside the housing and seats on a stamped and perforated register. Fully seated, it projects out as such...
The inside of the housing, showing the register where the filter slides over and seats once pushed in to a stop.
The case of oil and filter I purchased to service my GT500. Note the filter includes a pair of O-rings. They replace the existing O-rings.
However you choose to remove/install the O-rings, be sure you don't pierce or tear them. I really like the redundancy here that Ford chose to go with.
Make sure the filter you have is correct and not just by looking at the number on the box (shown above). It should have a perforated inner core that adds strength over previous versions of the filter that Ford used elsewhere.
Fake dinosaur juice with the consistency of water is just what the doctor ordered...
But first, the filter needs to go on.
You can do this a couple of different ways. I like to seat the filter in the engine first. It is an interference fit up inside so it'll stay there on its own.
Always a good idea to have some oil in the housing at startup. Most here will have the bellypan in place which is a bit restrictive. I did a couple of dry runs to see what the install angle needed to be and was then able to fill the housing with a bit of oil, maneuver it into place at the filter and start threading in.
Note the white witness marks I put on before removing the filter. Surprisingly, torquing the housing led me back to the original clocked position. Looks like they torqued it after all at the Niche plant.;)
All buttoned up, time to move back up top. Of note, our GT500's have what has to be the tiniest fill cap in existence.
This oil flows so well you don't have to worry about it backing up the filler neck and leaking onto the valve covers. I added 11.5 quarts. Do yourself a favor and get a funnel that matches the tiny neck at the cover.
Looks like I could have gone with a full 12 quarts but for now I'll follow the factory spec.
I then got in the car and reset the oil life back to 100%. Ford made it really simple to do. You simply hold ok once in the proper menu and it resets.
I finished by dissecting the original filter media to get an idea of what has been lurking within.
Of course I wish there was nothing in the pleats but oil. Given what I've see in other engines I've had (including my '16 GT350) I'd say this isn't bad at all.
And just a suggestion - stick with the factory filters here. I threw everything in a pile after I cut it up. This thing was really tight and harder to get apart then even the old-style metal canisters. Tolerances looked to be right on a very robust piece. I'm much more impressed after taking it apart then I was just by holding it in my hand and looking at it.
With almost a dozen quarts I wasn't going to screw around with a horizontal drain pan and went straight to a 5 gallon bucket under the oil drain plug. If you look close you can see the oil level above the mid point of the bucket. I had run the car for 10 minutes or so to warm the oil to get it to flow quickly to the drain/sump.
Drain bolt head size is 13mm.
Once all the oil was gone from the sump I reinstalled the drain plug and removed the oil filter canister and filter. Socket size for the canister is 27mm. The extension I show allows a free swing of the ratchet as the filter is in somewhat of a tight space.
I preferred the old style filter but with the somewhat shaky GT350 (
) Ford went to a canister with replaceable media and I honestly like it from a service perspective.
The filter fits inside the housing and seats on a stamped and perforated register. Fully seated, it projects out as such...
The inside of the housing, showing the register where the filter slides over and seats once pushed in to a stop.
The case of oil and filter I purchased to service my GT500. Note the filter includes a pair of O-rings. They replace the existing O-rings.
However you choose to remove/install the O-rings, be sure you don't pierce or tear them. I really like the redundancy here that Ford chose to go with.
Make sure the filter you have is correct and not just by looking at the number on the box (shown above). It should have a perforated inner core that adds strength over previous versions of the filter that Ford used elsewhere.
Fake dinosaur juice with the consistency of water is just what the doctor ordered...
But first, the filter needs to go on.
You can do this a couple of different ways. I like to seat the filter in the engine first. It is an interference fit up inside so it'll stay there on its own.
Always a good idea to have some oil in the housing at startup. Most here will have the bellypan in place which is a bit restrictive. I did a couple of dry runs to see what the install angle needed to be and was then able to fill the housing with a bit of oil, maneuver it into place at the filter and start threading in.
Note the white witness marks I put on before removing the filter. Surprisingly, torquing the housing led me back to the original clocked position. Looks like they torqued it after all at the Niche plant.;)
All buttoned up, time to move back up top. Of note, our GT500's have what has to be the tiniest fill cap in existence.
This oil flows so well you don't have to worry about it backing up the filler neck and leaking onto the valve covers. I added 11.5 quarts. Do yourself a favor and get a funnel that matches the tiny neck at the cover.
Looks like I could have gone with a full 12 quarts but for now I'll follow the factory spec.
I then got in the car and reset the oil life back to 100%. Ford made it really simple to do. You simply hold ok once in the proper menu and it resets.
I finished by dissecting the original filter media to get an idea of what has been lurking within.
Of course I wish there was nothing in the pleats but oil. Given what I've see in other engines I've had (including my '16 GT350) I'd say this isn't bad at all.
And just a suggestion - stick with the factory filters here. I threw everything in a pile after I cut it up. This thing was really tight and harder to get apart then even the old-style metal canisters. Tolerances looked to be right on a very robust piece. I'm much more impressed after taking it apart then I was just by holding it in my hand and looking at it.
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