0w-20 Man-O-Man Thats Lite

[CarbDude]

I understand why it is that GM recommends this lite weight viscosity (tight manufacturing clearances; less drag; helps cafe' ratings; etc, etc).
But man-o-man that's some light stuff. Like cooking oil.

Is anybody using a slighly heavier viscosity oil, say even 5w-30?

And if so, what could it harm?

And what are the actual results or differences you've seen from using the 0w-20 ( good or bad ).

Thank You


2019 Tahoe - 5.3 - 6L80 - 3:42 gear

 

[JoelB]

Hundreds of thousands of these trucks out there running 0w20 already. I wouldn't fret using the recommended viscosity.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Carbie
Listen to what your Owners Manual states - then check back with others here that have your engine. They have past experience with using different viscosities.

 

[PimTac]

It's not just GM carbs, everyone is recommending 0w20 and even 0w16 now. You are late to the party.

Millions upon millions of vehicles are running on these oils with no problems. Your fears are totally unfounded.

 

[UncleDave]

It is light - but the base stocks are typically very high quality. Much more so than the 30 grades of yesteryear

Think back to eth carb days when a rich running engine would net you something that would bleed down from 30 to the 10 likely and how long a life you could still get out of say a 2 bbl small block.

A 20 that stays a 20 throughout the OCI in a passenger automobile is just fine.

Now.... in a truck with heavy shear and fuel fouling its a bit different, and the OCI should reflect that.

UD

 

[CR94]

Originally Posted by CarbDude
... But man-o-man that's some light stuff. Like cooking oil.
Why is a reduction of less than 11% in HTHS viscosity versus XW-30 so shocking?

 

[Patman]

I don't have a problem with 0w20 in most lightly driven passenger cars. For me I think it's going to be a problem now that they are starting to use it in direct injected turbo applications (like new BMWs for instance) Owners of those cars that drive them hard on hot days are the most at risk IMO.

 

[NO2]

Most wear happens on cold starts, so 0w-20 may actually reduce wear in typical modern auto engine applications.

 

[AZjeff]

I was surprised to learn the oil spec on the 2018 Titan 5.6 DI is 0W-20. This engine prior to DI was 5W-30. Very curious if the entire engine was re-spec'd and retooled for the lighter oil or if Nissan just decided it will be fine. Of course they probably ran these engines 1 million miles with 0W-20 to prove it....

The 0 I'm fine with it's going from 30 to 20 I wonder about. This is a 32 valve V8 with 50 feet of chains inside.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Originally Posted by CarbDude
I understand why it is that GM recommends this lite weight viscosity (tight manufacturing clearances; less drag; helps cafe' ratings; etc, etc).
But man-o-man that's some light stuff. Like cooking oil.






2019 Tahoe - 5.3 - 6L80 - 3:42 gear



This is a popular myth. If you look at a salad oil such as olive oil it looks pretty thin. Then when you heat is up in a pan it gets even thinner. At 100 C the kinematic viscosity of olive oil is 43 cSt. And yes 0W20 is thinner, at about 6 cSt, but 5w30 is about 9 cSt and 0W40 is about 14 cSt. At the operating temp of 100 c they are all thinner than salad oil. The fact that most people look at the oil at room temperature exaggerates the apparent viscosity differences.

 

[Tdog02]

0W-20 is really very well engineered and if you look at most new vehicles today they are spec-ed for that oil. The newer Toyotas and Hondas have a 16 weight oil. It seems crazy but its what they want in the sump. I suspect it is mostly for the cafe numbers and because of that all the oil manufacturers have made a great product capable of performing well.

That said, if you wanted to run a 5W-30 in your new Tahoe the world would not stop turning and no kittens would die. It's possible you might see a drop in mileage but I doubt it would be noticeable. It won't hurt your engine in any way, just like the 0W-20 won't hurt it either.

Just so I'm not blowing hot air on you, I run 5W-30 in a Toyota Venza spec-ed for 0W-20. It is perfectly happy with the heavier weight and still gets 28 mpg on the highway.

 

[UncleDave]

Originally Posted by AZjeff
I was surprised to learn the oil spec on the 2018 Titan 5.6 DI is 0W-20. This engine prior to DI was 5W-30. Very curious if the entire engine was re-spec'd and retooled for the lighter oil or if Nissan just decided it will be fine. Of course they probably ran these engines 1 million miles with 0W-20 to prove it....

The 0 I'm fine with it's going from 30 to 20 I wonder about. This is a 32 valve V8 with 50 feet of chains inside.


The OCI on Titan has fallen to a hard 5K from 7500 prior - its a shear beast.

My 04 has almost 100K of pure tow miles on it.

UD

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by Snagglefoot
Originally Posted by CarbDude
I understand why it is that GM recommends this lite weight viscosity (tight manufacturing clearances; less drag; helps cafe' ratings; etc, etc).
But man-o-man that's some light stuff. Like cooking oil.






2019 Tahoe - 5.3 - 6L80 - 3:42 gear



This is a popular myth. If you look at a salad oil such as olive oil it looks pretty thin. Then when you heat is up in a pan it gets even thinner. At 100 C the kinematic viscosity of olive oil is 43 cSt. And yes 0W20 is thinner, at about 6 cSt, but 5w30 is about 9 cSt and 0W40 is about 14 cSt. At the operating temp of 100 c they are all thinner than salad oil. The fact that most people look at the oil at room temperature exaggerates the apparent viscosity differences.

I don't think that's correct. Looking at this doc:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10942912.2017.1360905

The 100C visc for common household oils are as follows (mPa, same as cSt):
Soybean - 8.3
Canola - 8.2
Peanut - 8.8
Olive - 9.6
Corn - 9.0

 

[Ded Mazai]

Originally Posted by NO2
Most wear happens on cold starts, so 0w-20 may actually reduce wear in typical modern auto engine applications.


Logic tells me that if a cold engine wears out at a higher rate the oil should be thicker when the engine is cold to protect the engine.

 

[AZjeff]

Originally Posted by Ded Mazai


Logic tells me that if a cold engine wears out at a higher rate the oil should be thicker when the engine is cold to protect the engine.


All hot oil drains to the sump. Thin oil pumps up into the engine quicker and fills the bearings sooner. They say.

 

[Ded Mazai]

Originally Posted by AZjeff
Originally Posted by Ded Mazai


Logic tells me that if a cold engine wears out at a higher rate the oil should be thicker when the engine is cold to protect the engine.


All hot oil drains to the sump. Thin oil pumps up into the engine quicker and fills the bearings sooner. They say.


This is another myth I guess. The oil pressure builds up almost immediately after the engine starts on any oil. Unless the oil is solid.

 

[K20FA5]

Originally Posted by CarbDude
2019 Tahoe - 5.3 - 6L80 - 3:42 gear


I have the exact same setup in my Silverado. I've often wondered about going to a 0W-30 or a 5W-30, heck, even a 5W-20, but I haven't. At least while I'm under warranty I'm planning to stick with the 0W-20. It seems to run fine on it. No oil burning so far that I can tell. I'm closing in on 10,000 total miles and my OLM is at 63% today(~2,600 miles on this OCI). I've done a couple early changes on it just to get all the manufacturing crud out (more to make my feel better than anything else

). I plan on doing an UOA on this sample when the OLM tells me to. Depending on what I see from it (and others on here tell me

), that will help me decide if the 0W-20 is doing well in there or not. From the UOAs I've seen on these engines running the 0W-20, I think everything will be OK.

 

[UncleDave]

Originally Posted by NO2
Most wear happens on cold starts, so 0w-20 may actually reduce wear in typical modern auto engine applications.



Sort of -

It's more accurate to say that a cold start causes as much wear as the next several hours of continuous running.

UD

 

[benjy]

its the government + CAFE not closer tolerances, same engines same clearances in europe its 5-40 go figure that!!!!

 

[IndyFan]

Originally Posted by UncleDave
Originally Posted by NO2
Most wear happens on cold starts, so 0w-20 may actually reduce wear in typical modern auto engine applications.



Sort of -

It's more accurate to say that a cold start causes as much wear as the next several hours of continuous running.

UD





And where did you find that information?