When Did 5W/30 Become Mainstream in The US

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I believe 5W/30 was used in the winter in the US for many years but was changed in the summer to something heavier say 10W/40 as it would shear after a while.

At what time did the oil technology improve to allow it to be used year round.

In the UK there was little use of 5W/30 prior to say 1995 or later.
 
The UK was very much 20W/50 based from the mid 1960's through to around late 70's and well into the early 1980's.

When the high tech guys started using 10W/40. Apart from Ford in the UK a lot of the manufacturers were still using the same machinery to machine their engine blocks to sell cars well into the late 70's with engines basically designed in the late 1950's.
 
If I remember correctly when I started driving in the 1960s and well into the 1980s the oil that went into most cars was 10W-40. That was about all you could get at a gas station.
 
Originally Posted by Patman
IIRC the big push towards 5w30 oils came about sometime in the mid 1980s.

Correct and it was a year-round oil. Not just for Winter. Around the same time (actually a little earlier) 10w-40 got a bad rap for significant shearing and sludging.
 
mid-80s is when I think we started to see it phase in. that was a weird time. 10-40 had been the norm, then 10-30 briefly followed by a wave of 5-30, but at the same time 20-50 also hit the market both for a few vehicles that needed it (VW?) and its adoption by many 10-40 drivers with older engines who wanted to reduce consumption. We had a GM, a german, and a couple of japanese makes so our closet held 10-40, 20-50, 10-30, and 5-30.
 
Originally Posted by ka9mnx
10w-40 got a bad rap for significant shearing and sludging.

The actual problem with the 10W-40 oils of the day was the piston rings sticking . I worked at a shop that repaired many stuck ring engines.
 
Originally Posted by EddieCairns
At what time did the oil technology improve to allow it to be used year round.
The very first 10w30 multi-viscosity oils were introduced in the U.S. in 1953 (Amailie, Kendall, Phillips oil). Prior to that, engine makers said to put in 10% kerosene in the winter to thin a straight grade.

I had thought people used very thick oil back in the 1920's thru 1960-ish. I think I was mostly wrong. Owner's Manuals were in the SAE 20 to 30 viscosity range for many years. Sure, people who had hot rods often knew to put in a 40 or 50 weight, due to cam lobe forces and how the greater torque and RPM would stress out crank bearings, etc.

Also, recently I found out that, in WWII, when U.S. Packard was making Merlin engines for P-51 fighters, they said to use SAE 50 for that high powered engine.

From a recent post.
Originally Posted by oil_film_movies
Originally Posted by K20FA5
Remember not all that long ago when the manufactures started specing 5W-30 and everyone said that was too thin?
smile.gif

Guessing people just freak out over the "5w" part because they don't understand its just a cold temperature rating. ... I heard an autoparts counter guy complain that German Castrol 0w30 was "like water" because of the "0w" rating (year: 2003), just silly.

Wonder what people have done with SAE viscosity grades over many years? If we go back further in time,
1980: 10w30 or Xw40: mobiloil.com goes as far back as 1980 on oil recommendations.
1978: the new Mobil 1 5w-20 was introduced
1957: SAE 20 or 30 ... http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/manuals/Chevy/1957/Owners/pages/25_jpg.htm
1950: SAE 20 ... http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/chevyowner/50om22.htm
1940: SAE 20 ... http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/chevyowner/40om44.htm
1934: SAE 30 ... http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/chevyowner/34om52.htm
.. and ZDDP wasn't there for most of the oils during the early time. It wasn't invented until 1941, and the industry got used to it years later, when they "discovered" it reduced wear greatly, in the 1950's.

At some point, if you ran a hot cam, stiff springs, you ran a 50 or 60 weight.
Yet most normal driving it was 20 or 30 weight for many years.


From 1934:



oldoil1.JPG


oldoil2.JPG
 
Originally Posted by javacontour
Just for giggles, I started entering cars we've owned in the Mobil recommendation website and my mom's old 1982 Cavalier called for 5W30.

https://mobiloil.com/en/product-selector

That's an interesting project but inaccurate. If I put my 1993 F150 it shows 5w-20. It clearly states on the emission sticker (and the manual) 10w-30.
 
As I recall, 10w40 and SAE30 were the go to oils for the sixties and seventies. Then the news about 10w40 being a bad oil hit and 5w30 came on the scene. 5w30 is the original "thin oil".
 
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