So, almost a year and a half ago I was overly concerned about the 2.5 Duratec in my 2011 Fusion, through trying to stretch the OCI as far as possible. I needn't not have worried, as the MZR is an amazingly durable engine. So I had emailed Ryan Stark at Blackstone, and he sent me an Excel file with all of their samples taken with the 2.5 Duratec, which at the time consisted of a little over 9 years worth of data and 250 samples. I think dnewton (and anyone with statistical training) would agree, this is enough data to draw a "family" trend for the 2.5 Duratec. Here's what all that data boiled down to:
Average OCI: 7,711 miles
Avg Vis @ 100*C: 9.0
(All elements below are averages of the 250 samples)
Aluminum: 4 ppm
Chromium: 0
Iron: 11 ppm
Copper: 7 ppm
Lead: 0
Tin: 0
Molybdenum: 66 ppm
Nickel: 0
Manganese: 1 ppm
Silver: 0
Titanium: 2 ppm
Potassium: 2 ppm
Boron: 55 ppm
Silicon: 17 ppm
Sodium: 75 ppm
Calcium: 1918 ppm
Magnesium: 201 ppm
Phosphorous: 688 ppm
Zinc: 792 ppm
Barium: 2 ppm
So, over 250 samples, and certainly at least a couple failed engines in this set (there were multiple truly high samples, with iron readings as high as 132 ppm and copper as high as 108 ppm) this shows you how stable "wear" numbers for this engine really are. As dnewton points out, look at the wear trend.... even with the serious outliers that would normally be culled from most statistical calculations, this data set worked out to 1.4ppm Fe per 1k miles... or essentially nothing. Looking at the sodium and magnesium readings, there was most certainly a good representation of both Valvoline and Mobil 1, and I'm willing to bet a majority of these samples were likely quick-change so probably VWB or similar. My personal 2.5 Duratec went as far as 17k on an OCI, but with zero makeup oil it started to show that in my usage, the oil was starting to show strain.
Between Ford's OCI recommendation, Blackstone's data, and dnewton's experience, I would just about 100% guarantee you can use ANY oil that meets Ford's spec, conventional or synthetic, for 10k miles without ever doing a UOA, and your engine will still outlast the vehicle. If you're interested in the excel file to check out the data, PM me and I'll send it over.