Anti foaming additive

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I recently had my local Ford dealership change the oil on my 1999 F350 diesel dually manual…they charged me for an anti foaming additive.

They said this would prevent the oil from foaming when it got hot???

(Maybe it will be the customer who will be ‘foaming’ with nonsense (?) like this?

Please comment.

2

I cannot imagine that an oil meeting Ford’s specs for diesels would have any need for an ‘anti-foaming’ additive. How much $$?

3

Here’s some info on the subject. http://www.intellidog.com/dieselmann/powers~1.htm

Tester

4

Yep: “The only oil recommended for the PowerStroke by Ford is Motorcraft Super Duty 15W40, 10W30. Each of these has the proper additives in them for use in a diesel engine including the anti-foaming agents.”

Given this, I’d be concerned that too much additive might cause, rather than cure, a problem, assuming the dealer was using the correct Motorcraft oil.

5

All good motor oils have anti-foaming additives of some sorts already in them. This one seems to be more of the “salami” tactics or “invoice creep” in getting more out of the customer.

If your oil was really foaming, you likely have significant piston blowby or a coolant leak and the water in the crankcase is whipped up into a creamy emulsion. A can of additive will not cure that.

6

I would suggest avoiding dealers and quick oil change places for normal services like oil changes.

7

How much did the stealership charge for this wonderful juice?

8

“If your oil was really foaming, you likely have significant piston blowby or a coolant leak and the water in the crankcase is whipped up into a creamy emulsion. A can of additive will not cure that”.

If it was foaming he would never be able to get it to go very fast. That year power stroke had oil actuated injectors. Before foaming agents were part of HDEO’s, you could get about 3000 miles into a fresh oil change and then the engine would start carrying on like a gas engine “breaking up” with spark scatter. The owner would then change the oil and see the symptom disappear. They then added a anti-foaming spec to Ford OEM approvals to assure enough foam resistance was blended in to last a good margin over the recommended interval(s).

Every HDEO now should have enough, or so I’d reason. Maybe they had some complaints and have made it SOP for those PS of that design.