Why did Ford go from 5W20 to 5W30?

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I recall in the early aughts they were one of the first, or few, car companies that required 5W20 for their cars. Now they seem to have gone to where most everyone has always been, namely 5W30.

Anyone know why the change?
 
If you're referring to the Ecoboost engines, it's because they're prone to fuel in the oil, causing viscosity losses. Otherwise, I hadn't heard their regular non-EB gas engines were changing. 5W20 is an EPA invention anyway.
 
Yes for the most part turbo and direct injection are tough on oil.

Ford have also gone to 5w30 in the NA 6.2L V8 in the SuperDuty...apparently 5w20 wasn't up to heavy duty use.
 
Originally Posted By: zorobabel
Ecoboost


I was gonna guess that, too. Some models that had/have natural aspirated engines specified 5W20 and the new turbo direct injection engines use a 5W30?
 
To my knowledge, they are still recommending 5w-20 on most cars built in 1990's and early 2000's. They back specced engines that were designed for 30 grade....down to 20 grade back around 2001. The modular motors - especially the 4.6L are the most obvious.

Ford Oil Specs

Yet I look at this chart linked above and I can't make sense of it. For my 2002 Lincoln (4.6L 4v DOHC) it appears to say recommended 5w-20 up to 2004. Then blank. So what do I use now? LOL. The back spec went into effect in 2001. My 2002 calls for 5w-20 on the filler cap and owner's manual. My 1997 4.6L DOHC with the identical engine was specced for 5w-30. In the past 1-2 yrs I'm sure I saw Ford Oil charts that still had the 4.6L engines on 5w-20....unless they forward specced the charts again to hide the evidence of the goof from 2001...lol.
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
What would make the 5W-20 oil better?


Nothing. 5W-20 sux.
 
The thinnies posted that 5W30 is too thick for modern engines with tight clearances.
I know, they opened up the clearances to allow the thick 5w30 oil to flow through.
 
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
To my knowledge, they are still recommending 5w-20 on most cars built in 1990's and early 2000's. They back specced engines that were designed for 30 grade....down to 20 grade back around 2001. The modular motors - especially the 4.6L are the most obvious.

Ford Oil Specs

Yet I look at this chart linked above and I can't make sense of it. For my 2002 Lincoln (4.6L 4v DOHC) it appears to say recommended 5w-20 up to 2004. Then blank. So what do I use now? LOL. The back spec went into effect in 2001. My 2002 calls for 5w-20 on the filler cap and owner's manual. My 1997 4.6L DOHC with the identical engine was specced for 5w-30. In the past 1-2 yrs I'm sure I saw Ford Oil charts that still had the 4.6L engines on 5w-20....unless they forward specced the charts again to hide the evidence of the goof from 2001...lol.


The only reason they are "recommending" 5W-20 is because the EPA has a gun pointed to their head.
 
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
Yet I look at this chart linked above and I can't make sense of it. For my 2002 Lincoln (4.6L 4v DOHC) it appears to say recommended 5w-20 up to 2004. Then blank. So what do I use now? LOL.


It is blank because they stopped using that engine.

The 1.6L Ecoboost gets 5W20 while the 2.3L Ecoboost in the Focus RS gets 5W50 while the one in the Mustang gets 5W30. My Mustang calls for 5W50 along with the GT500s and new GT350/R. The 4.0L SOHC never took 5W20. Tons of different specs for all the engines. Its had to keep track of.
 
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Yes for the most part turbo and direct injection are tough on oil.

Ford have also gone to 5w30 in the NA 6.2L V8 in the SuperDuty...apparently 5w20 wasn't up to heavy duty use.


True, for the first year of the Ecoboost 3.5 (2010) they spec'ed 5W20 in it. In 2011 they switched them all to 5w30 with no back spec'ing the 2010 to 5w30. Odd. Mine was fed a diet of 5w20 and is going good at 116k so I dono why other than they also went to 10k oil changes (from 7.5k)?

The NA 6.2L is also odd that they went to 5w30 after 5 years. And yet all the V10's (which see probably worse duties than the 6.2) are still 5w20.
 
Originally Posted By: AnarchyX
I recall in the early aughts they were one of the first, or few, car companies that required 5W20 for their cars. Now they seem to have gone to where most everyone has always been, namely 5W30.

Anyone know why the change?


The explanations I have seen cite fuel dilution in the direct injection turbo engines as the primary driver.

On the V8 I would think that they got some engines back with excessive wear or some other problem that increased viscosity corrects. The V10 mentioned has a robust oil cooler I think so the 5w-20 doesn't thin out of grade. I don't know if the V8 has a cooler or not but I'm guessing that is the difference

I run 10w-30 in everything here in FL. If I had an ecoboost I would run 10w-30 in it also
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
Yet I look at this chart linked above and I can't make sense of it. For my 2002 Lincoln (4.6L 4v DOHC) it appears to say recommended 5w-20 up to 2004. Then blank. So what do I use now? LOL.


It is blank because they stopped using that engine....


Now why didn't I think of that! Thanks bdcardinal. I'll keep on using the 5w-30 though....esp since some of their in-house experts say to.

Ford engine development engineer's view
 
My expedition was specced for 5w30 in 1999.

I wonder if pp 10w30 would outperform most 1999 5w30 oil ?

Have ccs and mrv requirements changed since that time ?
 
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