Ford engine failures in HOT ambient with 5W20

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Originally Posted By: EyesofThunder
My sister in law is a fleet manager and they are seeing 5-6 engine failures a year, only in Ford 4.6 and 5.4L engines (Expeditions mainly). GM and Toyota vehicles are not seeing failures.

We believe they are running the 5W20 petroleum oil and where these are at, they idle 24/7 and see ambient temps in the summer of 130-150F.


I had no idea it was that hot in north Illinois!
 
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Does the ambient temperature really matter when the oil at operating temperature is way hotter than that?


Of course! The cooling system has a more difficult time transferring heat as temps rise. Most manufacturers do a very good job of providing ample cooling capacity, for high loads and high temps. But they generally don't test in typical Middle East temperatures.

On temperate days, oil can remain well within reasonable temps, while on extremely hot days, oil temps can climb markedly. My turbocharged car has temp and pressure senders for it's stand alone computer. It's interesting to see the seasonal difference in oil temps. And, as you would expect, hot days and heavy loads rapidly result in temps "above limits".

Remember, most vehicles have no way to manage oil temps. Other than to expect the oil will shed some heat into the cooling system.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Chevy Vegas survived the desert in a 1975 "test" run,and those engines were fragile as all get out.Must have used 20w50 oil....

I don't think those Vega engines were fragile. If the cooling system was full, they were tough, and thats how they made it.

To the original poster here: 5 failures out of how many vehicles? More details like that please.
 
Maybe its the filters?
What oil exactly, upload a picture if possible of the oil and the filter, OCI?
Motorcraft synblend 5w20 is good stuff.
Thanks.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Theres a zillion Ford Powered motorhomes rolling around and running on a 5w20 oil with out failure.


I've never used 5w20 in my Ford V-10 Class A motorhome, and neither did the guy I bought it from.
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Theres a zillion Ford Powered motorhomes rolling around and running on a 5w20 oil with out failure.


I've never used 5w20 in my Ford V-10 Class A motorhome, and neither did the guy I bought it from.


That's only 1 out of a zillion.
 
Originally Posted By: Leo99
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Originally Posted By: Ramblejam
5-6 failures a year?

This is an issue for corporate, not a bunch of people on a forum that are going on nothing more than guesswork and theory.

Call Ford. Period. 1-800-34-Fleet

Completely agree.


You mean the "experts" on here shouldn't pontificate about viscosity issues without even knowing what types of engine failures were experienced or if the engines even had the same type of failure? Considering the ambient temperatures aren't even accurate and we have no other information to rely on.

I know it hurts to reserve commentary for when we actually know what we're talking about, but that's one bitter pill that has to be swallowed!
 
Originally Posted By: Leo99
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Theres a zillion Ford Powered motorhomes rolling around and running on a 5w20 oil with out failure.


I've never used 5w20 in my Ford V-10 Class A motorhome, and neither did the guy I bought it from.


That's only 1 out of a zillion.


crackmeup2.gif
 
Is this another "seagull" post? Where a poster flies in and drops some "bombs" in a post with little to no information contained within and does not return to follow up? There is nothing of substance here and anything that we post in rebuttal is meaningless...
 
Originally Posted By: Kawiguy454
I don't think its ambient air temp but ambient temp a foot over the hot pavement. My 4.6 loves 15-50 in phoenix 115 degree heat. 5W-anything is not the nectar of the gods some would like to believe it is here.


congratulations on destroying your 4.6
 
Originally Posted By: KingCake
Originally Posted By: Kawiguy454
I don't think its ambient air temp but ambient temp a foot over the hot pavement. My 4.6 loves 15-50 in phoenix 115 degree heat. 5W-anything is not the nectar of the gods some would like to believe it is here.


congratulations on destroying your 4.6


I guess you didn't see the post I put on here with the Ford F-150 4.6 with 367,000+ miles on 20w50. Idles all day and spends half of its life off-road. Don't always try to make sense out of what seems logical.
 
I have always noticed that extreme hot or cold weather brings the most cars left broke down on the side of the road. It seems either extreme places extra stress on cars causing them to break more often.
 
Originally Posted By: lubricatosaurus
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Chevy Vegas survived the desert in a 1975 "test" run,and those engines were fragile as all get out.Must have used 20w50 oil....

I don't think those Vega engines were fragile. If the cooling system was full, they were tough, and thats how they made it.

To the original poster here: 5 failures out of how many vehicles? More details like that please.
When Generous Motors finally put iron liners in them perhaps they weren't fragile.
 
5 or 6 engine failures a year on the 4.6 and 5.4 that those are two of the best engines out there. All we do are engines and we see them also but usually after 300,000 miles on construction vehicles. Something is wrong there.. We see taxi fleets with 400,000 plus on those engines and police cars running very hard with high hours (We do a number of Police Departments and its usually the hemi's that are troublesome the Fords are pretty good overall and they use 5w20 also
 
Sounds like your sister in law needs a new career choice. Not sure how big her operation is but losing 5-6 engines a year is quite an expense. And to say "we believe they are running 5W-20" as if she isnt sure, yikes....

If the 5.4's have the 3v setup i can understand some issues with those, they have issues with the cam phasers that can eventually take out the engine.

The 4.6 to my knowledge has been pretty dang reliable tho after they corrected spark plug threads in the head.
 
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