5-20 to 5-30 oil switching

Hi Everyone,

I've been waiting for the past year to see how is the 5-30 oil working out for everybody who switched from the recommended 5-20?

My 1500 2013 hemi 60k miles is due for oil change, and I wanted to get an updated feedback about 5-30 oil in case anybody heard anyone having issues with it. Mds etc...

I've been using 5-20 oil forever in my truck, and all is working well. Quiet, no ties anymore - they went away around 30k.

Issue I'm having is that my engine seems to burn about 1 quart of oil every 3k miles, and oil dip stick seems to never stay on Full territory for more than a couple weeks. It's always at medium and I keep adding to full. Mechanic at local mods shop said that it's normal for hemi engines.

Would 5-30 oil help me with my oil burning issue? I'm of mindset to not change anything if it's not broken, but my hands are itchy at 5-30

You had ticks? Then they went away? What brands were you using? More history needed.

The main thing about moving up to 5w30 is load. If you are heavy on throttle, tow, carry loads? There aren't any issues moving to 5w30, I'm pretty sure even the last of the hold outs in the Syn thread have moved over. Maybe one or two still on 5w20, in fact, many of them are graduating up from 5w30.

That is why you use a qrt of oil, every engine uses oil to some extent. My favorite vehicle of all time used 1 qrt every 3k miles for 11 years. Never a problem. That is also why those catch cans are always full, you might want to "catch" all of that oil before re-burning it like you are currently doing.

If you had a problem like your engine "burning" oil, and not using it like the PCV allows you to do, you would have blue smoke out of the tail pipe 100% of the time.

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I use both weights. 5w20 in the winter and 5w30 in the summer. Seems to work out quite well for me.

Been using a combo of 0W-40 / 5W-30 since the 10K mile mark! Never an issue or malfunction within the MDS system itself. (Nor did I Ever Expect Any).

No oil Ever used between my 8K mile OCI.

I think my next change I'm switching to 5-30 as well

Been using 5w30 for a year now with no issues except a smooth, quiet hemi.

Burla said:

That is why you use a qrt of oil, every engine uses oil to some extent. My favorite vehicle of all time used 1 qrt every 3k miles for 11 years. Never a problem. That is also why those catch cans are always full, you might want to "catch" all of that oil before re-burning it like you are currently doing.

If you had a problem like your engine "burning" oil, and not using it like the PCV allows you to do, you would have blue smoke out of the tail pipe 100% of the time.

.

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I don't tow, but I do keep all my tools in the truck, about 800lb at all times, and I do drive a lot. Change oil every 9k, did Blackstone test and they said to try 11k change interval but I don't see a reason..

I've been using redline 5-20 and RP filter since 5k. I did have bunch of noises and tiks in my engine, manifold bolts replaced, lifter, rocker arm assembly around 25k, noises and tiks remained until about 45k, then it seemed that my engine eventually "evened out all of its quirks", finally broke in, and now it has been running very smoothly for the past 25k... So I'm not sure if I would personally call redline a Silver bullet, but I want to believe that it's one of the best choices, primarily due to your explanations on why it's better than other oils, Burla.

So to answer your question if redline helped me or made my engine smoother, I don't know. Maybe 20% quieter initially, but didn't get rid of all the noises until engine finally broke in around 45k

I'm not sure how I like to constantly add the redline oil, about a quart every couple months. Seems a bit odd. Every time I fill oil to the Full mark, it seems to go back to Medium mark within 3-4 months, and I refill I will be again.

Does everybody else always ensure their oil dipstick always at the top Full mark, and add oil in case it shows in the Middle range?

I always had catch can, and it doesn't get full that often. Definitely not a quart of oil every 2 months! Maybe 0.5-0.75 quart per year. So not sure where all that oil goes

I guess since nobody reported any issues with the 5-30, then I'll give it a shot this time.

Mine has always been at the top of the dipstick running many different 5w20 oils and so far after 4000 miles of 5w30. Also my catch can fills up quite quickly most of the time and I'm always at the top of the dipstick.

Can't remember if you said you checked this or not but have you checked the oil filter to make sure it's not leaking? This is a common problem and I didn't think Hemi's are really known for consuming oil...

Hemi395 said:

Mine has always been at the top of the dipstick running many different 5w20 oils and so far after 4000 miles of 5w30. Also my catch can fills up quite quickly most of the time and I'm always at the top of the dipstick.

Can't remember if you said you checked this or not but have you checked the oil filter to make sure it's not leaking? This is a common problem and I didn't think Hemi's are really known for consuming oil...

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Thanks, yes I'm pretty sure that oil filter was checked as I kept complaining about this issue to all techs, always, and they never could find anything. So not sure where the oil goes!

The fuller the crankcase the more oil mist generated as the crank spins through the oil. More mist means more oil sucked into the pcv system and consequently your catch can. Try running it for a full oil change interval and see if the oil comsumption dimishes when it's got a few miles on the oil change. Keeping it right at the full level in my opinion seems to make an engine look like it's consuming more oil then it actually is.

I run a relocated oil filter on mine,and with 5-20 Redline I noticed i'd lost a about 2 to 3 psi at idle and highway speeds,due to the fact i'm probably running a bigger filter plus the extra lines involved with the relocated filter,switching to 5W-30 Redline brought the pressures almost back to where they were before I relocated the filter and was running 5W-20 Redline,plus it seems a little happier on starts now. Another thing I noticed with the relocated filter that hangs off the front frame rail and puts the filter out in the open to where more air flows around it,my oil temps dropped by a good 5 degrees,which doesn't hurt my feelings any,lol

Did you use a kit to relocate? If so which one.

Kap1 said:

Does everybody else always ensure their oil dipstick always at the top Full mark, and add oil in case it shows in the Middle range?

I guess since nobody reported any issues with the 5-30, then I'll give it a shot this time.

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Something weird with my truck is it takes 8 quarts to get to the full line on the dip, so I have always added 8 qrts to get it to the line. I know I should have looked into it, but I just took the risk and it has worked for 6 years so I don't ask questions on it. Something else that is weird, I never added any oil, I am into month 13 on current oil and the level line has not budged. I use 5w30, and to be honest I forgot if I added any when I was using 5w20. If you don't see any blue smoke, I think what you are seeing is normal, but I'm interested to see if moving to 5w30 helps. Please update is in Syn thread after you find that answer. I know exactly how you feel, it took a long time to except my Bronco was eating that much oil, but 11 years of abuse and I sold that thing and it was still running strong.

Burla said:

Did you use a kit to relocate? If so which one.

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I did Burla, i'm good friends with Charonblk, and after Kurtis relocated his filter I copied his set-up,lol . It's a Transdapt relocation kit,i upgraded my lines feeding the filter kit to -10 (5/8") lines though. Kurtis has posted the kit number several times,and it's also in his build thread,as I forget the exact number on the kit now,it's been a year since it went on. This is the first oil change where i'm trying 5W-30 Redline instead of 5W-20 though,you guys talked me into it,lol. One thing I really like about the relocated filter is changing the filter,i hated doing oil changes with the stock set-up,as it was a pain to get the filter off,and then it'd take a bunch of cleaning with rags to tidy up the electric steering rack and crossmember,as no matter what I tried from plastic bottles with top cut-off to using grocery bags around the filter I always ended up with a hell'va mess to clean up,and then even cleaned up,it'd still drip oil on the concrete for a day afterwards,and that used to pee me off,lol.