5-20 or 5-30 vulcan

[robl]

Have a Taurus (vulcan) calls for 5w20. The older vulcans used to call for the 5w30. I am running the Motorcraft 5w20 currently with Napa Gold or Motorcraft oil filter. Would it be best to run a 5w30 in this engine? Does this engine really handle the w20 that great? I know ford has gone to 5w20 now, but I know this engine has been around awhile. Other than .005 gas mileage, would it be best off to run a 5w20 in there like I am doing, or would it better to run a 5w30 in there, like a Pennzoil Plat or some other decent 5-30

 

[rshaw125]

If you search under the UOA section I think you'll find that where 5W20 has been used it has performed very well. The PP 5W20 has had a good number of impressive UOAs.

 

[mark pruett]

Then again, it probably doesn't really matter much at all with the 3.0L Vulcans.

I ran my old Ranger's Vulcan up to 200k without any oil consumption between changes on 5w-30. A friend who used to do engine rebuilding work for a Ford contractor said that his shop rarely saw the Vulcans in for rebuilds- they're just that durable.

I suspect that you could probably run straight 30HD and get long life out of a Vulcan.

 

[Gary Allan]

5w-20 works well in the Vulcan. I insist on putting it in my daughter's 91 Vulcan. The engine could care less about visc ..either higher or lower.

 

[RF Overlord]

^^^what mark and Gary said^^^

I have 2 Spock-motor Tauri in my extended family, a '96 and a '99. I use MC 5W-20 in both. I also maintain 2 newer Ford products that specify 5W-20, so it's easier to just use the same oil in all, since Ford allows the use of 5W-20 in both of the older Tauri.

 

[gedcruise]

We have this engine in our Aerostar.
It is happy with anything.
In 127K, it had a lot of miles on M1 0W-30 in its youth, it had one run of GC (I ran out of the M1, I had no idea what GC was, but was a 0W-30 at on sale at AZ), it has done many miles on M1 5W-30, Syntec 5W-30, and several runs on RTS 5W-40. It did one run over the summer on the old QS syn 5W-50. It is now on Meijer's house brand syn. I will do two more runs of this oil, and then maybe a UOA, out of curiosity.
My point is that the 3.0 doesn't seem to care what you put in it. It runs economically, with low consumption (I never have to add oil between the 4K changes I do on the van).

 

[Bill in Utah]

Except for my 99 Vulcan needing head gaskets @ 61k and then again at 108k my UOAs were great (per Terry) using Pennzoil conventional 5w-30 @4-5k OCis.

The car just passed 160k and is doing great with its new owner with the same. He does go 5k for OCIs.

Never tried 5w-20 so can not comment. MPG was in the high 20s to 32.

Take care, bill