Can I use 5W30 instead of 5W20?

[LeakySeals]

Originally Posted By: JOD
Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
That new Ford Fiesta sees thicker than 5w-30 in Europe. Does just fine with thicker oil too.


what exactly does that prove, and who said his car wouldn't do fine on the thicker oil? We don't live in Europe and we have more options for oils.


Questioning everything offering nothing adds no value to this thread.

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: TFB1
Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
I have heard that drain holes in Ford engines have been smaller within the last decade...

More I-net wives tales, if drain holes were a issue how could there be proper flow when oil is cold and 20x(or more) times thicker than when hot???


Then they're Ford "wise-tales," because they came from my brother's training to deal with the 5W-20 paranoids when he was a service manager at one of Florida's larger dealerships as FMC went to 5W-20 in most of their line-up...

If you read my whole response, I said it probably doesn't make much difference unless we're talking much thicker oils being used....

Quote:
Possibly voiding the warranty would be the only issue, though a guy over on the Crown Vic board bought a '08 Police Interceptor with unknown history from ebay that turned out to have a bad engine, his dealer warrantied it...


"Voiding the warranty" might be an issue, but I doubt many dealerships would go through the possible legal haggling...

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Personally, I'd use 5W-20 for warranty reasons alone. I doubt there is any technical reason you can't use a 5W-30, though I have heard that drain holes in Ford engines have been smaller within the last decade...

Ha. Posts such as this are amusing. Smaller oil passages. Oh man that's hillarious


Almost as "hillarious" as your ability to spell...

 

[JOD]

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals


Questioning everything offering nothing adds no value to this thread.


Then stop making comments that aren't true.

 

[LeakySeals]

Originally Posted By: JOD
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals


Questioning everything offering nothing adds no value to this thread.


Then stop making comments that aren't true.


Ok but don't tell ur mom...

 

[JOD]

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
Originally Posted By: JOD
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals


Questioning everything offering nothing adds no value to this thread.


Then stop making comments that aren't true.


Ok but don't tell ur mom...


My mom's passed away, so there's not much worry of that...

 

[Y_K]

A cabby friend just decommissioned his MGM with over 700K miles on it: 5W-40 throughout all its life since new. He had to do this as the vehicle age was pushing 10 years, and he would lose some lucrative contracts with insurance Cos, hospitals, City, etc. They stipulate: no older than 10 years and no salvage title, as well as an inspection after any accident. The lot super bought it for $500 from him right away for his personal use, as he knows the car condition pretty well. Thin oil could prolly achieve the same, but I have no knowledge in my area at least of any drive for hire operator doing it. We had leaky seals on modulars after 220k when we tried it for the fuel economy. Possibly coincidental. I don't really know. May be in your area DFHT operators are brave enough? I would like to hear.

 

[TFB1]

Originally Posted By: Y_K
A cabby friend just decommissioned his MGM with over 700K miles on it: 5W-40 throughout all its life since new.


OMG!!! A Ford mod motor run on 5W-40??? The 5W-20 crowd is no doubt convulsing and calling their therapist...

 

[rjacket]

Clearly, while every other facet of our world is innovating at an incredible rate - scientists talking about being able to grow replacement parts for humans, private space flights, oled technology promising paper thin displays better and bigger than anything we have now, IBM researchers getting a transistor size to 10 atoms across - ONLY in the oil industry in the last 15 years have scientists not learnt to create a thinner oil with enough strength and resilience. And, all that work on synthetic is just marketing and it's really no better than dino. All those new detergents don't really clean anything either. Oil has always had that characteristic.

And the car manufacturers, with all their new engines with high compression, direct and port injection, the average family car getting over 30mpg highway and 200+hp from 4 cylinder engines, they went to all their suppliers and researchers and improved performance and reliability, but in the realm of oil weight, nothing has improved.

I have a phone more powerful than my computer of 10 years ago. I have a tv with 6 times the defintion and more than 2 times the diagonal for less than half the price of 10 years ago. And I'm pretty certain I have oil with better protective characteristics than 10 years ago.

 

[CATERHAM]

The answer is you can't, it's just one of those basic rules.
Take the remaining 5W-30 oil you have back to where you bought it and exchange it for some 5W-20.

 

[telecat]

Originally Posted By: Spazdog
Let me tell you what happened when I used my stash of $1.79 5W30 Trop-Artic Semi-syn in my 5W20 spec'd Duratec30/MZI.


Nothing.

I didn't even see any significant change in fuel economy when I ran out of my stash and switched to 5W20.
Thank you. Internet fora are infested with people who go bananas if you stray in the slightest from the "manufacturer's recommendation," even though marketing and planned obsolescence are built into said recommendations.

 

[telecat]

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals


Its come to using fear tactics to push thin oil? seriously?
So it would seem. Same thing with filters. There are times I wonder how many members here are shills for various corporations without the integrity to announce it.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

Use it with no worries.........except for one; The BITOG 5W20 GESTAPO!
They will tell you all of the evil stories about how using a 5W30 oil instead of a 5W20 oil will blow your engine up, make your engine fall out, cause your gas mileage to drop by double digits, etc.

 

[telecat]

Originally Posted By: BlueOvalFitter
Use it with no worries.........except for one; The BITOG 5W20 GESTAPO!
They will tell you all of the evil stories about how using a 5W30 oil instead of a 5W20 oil will blow your engine up, make your engine fall out, cause your gas mileage to drop by double digits, etc.

 

[cb_13]

I use 5w30 or 5w20 either one if I find it on sale for my 2.0 zetec and 5.4 3 valve both of which call for 5w20. I can't tell any difference between the 2.
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
The answer is you can't, it's just one of those basic rules.
Take the remaining 5W-30 oil you have back to where you bought it and exchange it for some 5W-20.


Are you serious? You're trolling us, right?

 

[edhackett]

Originally Posted By: cb_13

Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
The answer is you can't, it's just one of those basic rules.
Take the remaining 5W-30 oil you have back to where you bought it and exchange it for some 5W-20.


Are you serious? You're trolling us, right?


No, he's not trolling you. That is exactly what the CAFE regulations require the auto manufacturer to make you believe.

Ed

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: telecat
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
Let me tell you what happened when I used my stash of $1.79 5W30 Trop-Artic Semi-syn in my 5W20 spec'd Duratec30/MZI.


Nothing.

I didn't even see any significant change in fuel economy when I ran out of my stash and switched to 5W20.
Thank you. Internet fora are infested with people who go bananas if you stray in the slightest from the "manufacturer's recommendation," even though marketing and planned obsolescence are built into said recommendations.


Planned obsolescence....absolutely without integrity on the part of the manufacturer. I don't update my cellphone at all, for anything, and it's still good to go after almost 3 years.


Originally Posted By: BlueOvalFitter
Use it with no worries.........except for one; The BITOG 5W20 GESTAPO!
They will tell you all of the evil stories about how using a 5W30 oil instead of a 5W20 oil will blow your engine up, make your engine fall out, cause your gas mileage to drop by double digits, etc.

Some folks seem to forget that the identical engine found here in the US is specified for a much heavier oil overseas.

 

[Whimsey]

For the "warmish" 6 month weather period May till Nov ~8,000 mile OCI for my wife's Explorer I'm using Castrol Edge Syntec 10W-30. I got it dirt cheap. Her vehicle calls for 5W-20. In the warmer weather it runs just fine with the 10W-30. She hasn't said anything about lower mpg or loss of butt power feel. I didn't tell her I put in 10W-30 instead of 5W-20. Though for the winter 6 month OCI I'll go back to a 0/5W-20 oil. Then next spring I have some Castrol Edge Syntec 5W-30 for her Explorer, got it cheap again

.

Whimsey

 

[cookiemonster]

Yep, did the same for my car.

US manual specs 0w-20 as recommended year-round, but I'm running 10w-30 right now thru the summer, and loving it.

Will change back to 5w-30 for the winter.

 

[ElastoHydro]

Originally Posted By: Whimsey
For the "warmish" 6 month weather period May till Nov ~8,000 mile OCI for my wife's Explorer I'm using Castrol Edge Syntec 10W-30. I got it dirt cheap. Her vehicle calls for 5W-20. In the warmer weather it runs just fine with the 10W-30. She hasn't said anything about lower mpg or loss of butt power feel. I didn't tell her I put in 10W-30 instead of 5W-20. Though for the winter 6 month OCI I'll go back to a 0/5W-20 oil. Then next spring I have some Castrol Edge Syntec 5W-30 for her Explorer, got it cheap again

.

Whimsey


Thats a good strategy if you live in a climate that gets at least cold enough (say 20's) in the winter. Change oil at every equinox! ... KV100 for a 0w-20 is about 8, and 0w-30 about 10, not much difference. HTHS visc runs about 2.6 vs. 3, again not a huge difference. A 0w-30 will give you a thicker journal bearing oil film, some call this "extra protection", although it hard to tell if an engine really needs the slightly extra thickness. Rings too, although studies I've seen in SAE papers did indicate they thought a 20 oil had lower wear on rings, maybe due to higher mass flow rates near rings with lighter oil.