As a mechanic I can tell you throw the dealers recomendations out the window. My owners manual says every 6 thousand miles do an oil change. I don't know about anyone else but at 3000 miles the oil is acidic, why would you leave it in for another 3000 miles.

Switch to full synthetic (I use Valvoline SynTech 10w30) and dump the 5w20.

Do not buy the cheap Walmart brand oil filters and use a name brand like Fram Tough Gaurd

I dont know about others, but Dodge uses a rather cheap NGK sparkplug in the 3.7's (I'd imagine it to be the same in the 4.7) and at 30,000 miles found they couldnt handle the heat. So I use Bosch double platinum. I would try the spitfire plugs but I dont want to take that chance I could burn a piston, Thoughts from anyone on the Diomand E3 plugs would be nice.

Flush the coolant every spring, have it winteryzed every fall.

Do A visual inspection, Your eyes can spot things the computer hasn't, If you have a CAI, pull it from the throttle body periodically to check the butterfly valve. If you see dirt on the valve body, its time to check your intake for leaks/broken filter. If you do find that dirt was on the tb, get an oil sample to check for dirt in your oil.

Driving habbits determin the rest, If you baby the vehicle it will last forever, Beat it hard and it could brake tommorrow!

 

I dunno where you get your information from, but EVERY independent test I've ever read rates FRAM as the single worst oil filter on the market and since 1984 the Wal-Mart branded oil filters were made EXCLUSIVELY by the parent company of Fram!!!


Example #1:

Fram Extra Guard - PH4967 - $4.99 Base-plate: 10 hole openings. Thickness of the plate approx. 0.12". The gasket that goes against the engine is squared. Gasket is held in place by 6 pressed lips.
Case: Thickness approx. 0.021", thickest of the group.
Anti-drainback valve: Black rubber. It seemed really thin and flimsy. Thickness of 0.054". Total width of 2.12". Hole in center of 1.0".
The by-pass valve is a plastic piece that is snapped into a coil spring that is attached to the inside case spring that resides at the far end of the paper filter element opposite the base plate (Whew!). There doesn't appear to be any gasket on this valve, just plastic against the metal of the spring creating the seal as best I can tell.
Filter element: Paper - thickness 0.036". 39 pleats of width 0.48". Filter element height of approx. 1.85". 69.26 sq. in. of filtering surface area. The seam of the filtering element was nicely put together with a metal clasp (just like the Purolator). Cardboard end caps are glued to each end of the filter element. Metal support structure inside element to prevent collapse.
General observations: The anti-drainback valve rubber was the thinnest and flimsiest of all the filters. Pretty good glue job on attaching filter element to the cardboard end caps. This filter has the grip area on the outside of the canister which makes it easier to tighten the filter by hand when putting it on the car, the only down-side I've experienced with this grip area is trying to get a filter removal tool cap over it, a really tight fit. This filter appears to be the lowest quality of the group. But it is one of the most expensive of the group too, I guess marketing costs are pretty high here. The cardboard end-caps for the filter element, the cheap plastic by-pass valve and the flimsy anti-drainback valve will make me stay away from this filter. This filter is made in Canada. I can't tell what standards it meets (J806 or J1858).


Example #2:

Fram PH3583A Review

Cheap stamped cap, still has many sharp burs on the threads, poorly constructed, relitively thin metal. The Super Tech Wal-Mart (which so far has been one of my Favorites) has approx double the thickness of this one.

Inside, you see the rubber gasget, with the innards their. Rubber gasget was HARD AS A ROCK! Even had trouble sliceing it with a razor blade. I've had filters on the shelf for 5-10 years and are still soft, this one was on shelf for 1 year, and hard as a rock.

Inside, rather thing inner-wall of the filter. Not very many holes as you can see, to let the oil through, and their not very big as well. Not impressed.

End cap, is.... You guessed it, CARDBOARD! Not just that, but IT CRUMBLED AS I PULLED THE FILTER OUT OF THE CAN! The Glue was stronger then the filter! This should be METAL! METAL METAL METAL! Not flimsy cardboard!
Now, the filter medium. It sucks....
That as well crumbled just by holding the filter. At this point, I was suriously scared that a chunk of cardboard was stuck somewhere in my engine!


Also, a "babied" engine lets carbon build up, it's always good to give an engine hell once in a while to blow the carbon out of it!!!

Example #3:

While Fram has been around since 1934, Honeywell (formerly Allied-Signal, formerly Bendix) has been manufacturing Fram filters since they bought-out the company in 1967. Other filters made by Honeywell in the Fram plant include Pennziol, Quaker State and Wal-Mart branded filters.
This filter cartridge has a small outside diameter with a rather low filter element surface area (193 sqin), and features cardboard end caps that are bonded in place using a thermal adhesive. The rubber anti-drainback valve seals the rough metal backplate to the cardboard end cap. In practice these seem to leak, causing dirty oil to drain back into the pan. If you use this filter and have a noisy valve train at startup, the filter is likely the cause. The bypass valves are plastic and are sometimes not molded correctly, which allows them to leak when they should be closed. The backplate has smaller and fewer oil inlet holes, which will restrict flow.

'Nuff said...

 

I have used fram for years, the problem with supertech, think thats the name , is the seal on top of the filter. It tends to leak. And I have read up on all this stuff. The regular fram filter is junk but the tough guard line is rated better than oe, for 7 bucks you cant go wrong.

 

Ain't a performance shop I've ever been in for the past 15 years (and I've been in a bunch, half my family works in some), the first brand of filter EVERY one of them recommends is Wix...

 

old post but...one of our work trucks is a 2004 4.7 auto

odometer shows 190K (but stopped working last year) should have 220K on it, only thing we have ever done to the truck was a waterpump (this summer) and a transmission last year.