I thought I had heard the same thing. However, the 3.5 liter engines seem to have a serious problem with worn valve guides/seals, and I would assume that our engines would have the same seal material? No? It seems like some trucks get it worse than others. I wonder what contributes to the problem. I have used synthetic oil for most of the life of my truck, but I change only at 7.5k miles. I have not noticed much smoke from my car but I do have a bit of oil consumption. How much oil does your car consume over one oil change? What kind/weight of oil do you use.