5w20 or 5w30

[Tom Powers]

5w-30 doesn't affect MDS very often if at all, however it does affect the VVT on my 16 on the first cold start.
So, I can't run even a partial crankcase of 5w-30. 5w-20 seems a bit thin when towing @ 70 mph to Florida in heat of July and August. 0w-30 mixed with 5w-20 works perfect for my uses

Side note, dealers just in the past couple of years started using 5w-20 BLEND on their oil changes, prior to that it was conventional 5w-20.
However, I wouldn't go 10k miles on conventional if you plan on keeping the truck for the long haul.

I

How is vvt affected on cold start?

It calls for 5w40 full synthetic and I change around 5000 miles.

 

[Burla]

Anybody here use Motorkote hyper-lube additive? Popular with truckers.

www.motorkote.com

I have been using it in all my engines for at least 10 years... I am a believer.

It is a chlorinated product, which means it is very lubricious. Clearly it has worked for you for ten years, but the knock on chlorinated products are that they can be corrosive. Since their hayday when these products where mainstream they have largely fell out of favor for that single fact. Prolong is the perfect example, once a household name with race car drivers in their pocket, then the bottom fell out and now that and all of these products are in the shadows. They use Chlorine to suspend solid particles, as I said nothing better then solids between metal if you can keep them there. But there are risks with this technology and I will leave it there for you to decide. Why Moly is discussed a lot here, same thing solid that can plate in between metal, the difference is they use sulfur to bond and not chlorinated products, so next to zero risk with those products, especially if they are oil soluble moly.

 

[rsdata]

It is a chlorinated product, which means it is very lubricious. Clearly it has worked for you for ten years, but the knock on chlorinated products are that they can be corrosive. Since their hayday when these products where mainstream they have largely fell out of favor for that single fact. Prolong is the perfect example, once a household name with race car drivers in their pocket, then the bottom fell out and now that and all of these products are in the shadows. They use Chlorine to suspend solid particles, as I said nothing better then solids between metal if you can keep them there. But there are risks with this technology and I will leave it there for you to decide. Why Moly is discussed a lot here, same thing solid that can plate in between metal, the difference is they use sulfur to bond and not chlorinated products, so next to zero risk with those products, especially if they are oil soluble moly.

Thanks for your valuable contribution.
I had never heard of Prolong... thought that was a men's ****** product...LOL

A quick search of amazon for Prolong shows that all of their products have 4.5 to 5 stars... so apparently many people are satisfied with it. I will stick with my Motorkote... as I mentioned it has a strong following with truckers and I have had good luck with it including a Toyota engine that I ran (accidently) with no oil for 16 miles in stop and go traffic without a problem.
I haave 89K on my 14 hemi and no lifter noise yet.

 

[Burla]

Thanks for your valuable contribution.
I had never heard of Prolong... thought that was a men's ****** product...LOL

A quick search of amazon for Prolong shows that all of their products have 4.5 to 5 stars... so apparently many people are satisfied with it. I will stick with my Motorkote... as I mentioned it has a strong following with truckers and I have had good luck with it including a Toyota engine that I ran (accidently) with no oil for 16 miles in stop and go traffic without a problem.
I haave 89K on my 14 hemi and no lifter noise yet.

Yes they have 5 stars because like I said, they work better then anything at lubricity, better then even moly. You pour it in the engine and it instantly smooths out, I have done it myself before I knew what was in it way back in the 90's. I'm just saying everything you put that in your engine, you are also dumping chlorine in there. Just passing on what the fact is. Maybe no corrosion is happening, dunno, but I know there is an implied risk with that type of product.

 

[JayLeonard]

My manual specifies 5w-20 conventional or synthetic. For all models with the 5.7 in all climates.
Will something else work? Apparently it does.
But why wouldn't I go with what the design engineers recommend? I'm sure they've tested thousands of engines both complete and in sub assemblies.

 

[crackerjack1957]

They also designed the failing cam/lifters along with all the recalls.........LoL

 

[Wild one]

My manual specifies 5w-20 conventional or synthetic. For all models with the 5.7 in all climates.
Will something else work? Apparently it does.
But why wouldn't I go with what the design engineers recommend? I'm sure they've tested thousands of engines both complete and in sub assemblies.

In my bigger printed manual for my 2014 ,it says 5W-30 meeting Mopar specs is acceptable if 5W-20 isn't available. Somebody said they dropped that recommendation after 17,but the engines are the same engine,so if it was acceptable up till 2017 I can't see it not being acceptable for the later trucks.

 

[TomB 1269]

I have trouble with the statements that 5W20 is any different thickness / viscosity then a 5W30 at cold startup. Help me understand why what I learned about oils is wrong. It is my understanding that 5W## means its a multi weight oil and has modifiers to make it a thicker viscosity when it heats up i.e. XX, 20, 30, 40. It is my understanding that 5 is the viscosity reference for the oil at cold start. There for the difference in a 5W20 and a 5W30 is once the engine is heated up, and that 20 is thinner than 30.

I agree that bearing tolerance can be a problem when an oil is to viscous as it will not flow thru the small spaces well and therefore does not help or increase lubrication or cooling.

I know for a fact, from personal experience that on my F150 %.4 Triton 3V Variable Cam Timing motor that 5W20 was spec'd, but the engine ran quieter and better with 5W30 once at temperature. Which is exactly as I would have expected with my understanding of multi weight oils.

So in the end I would agree with those that switch to 5W30, adn may look to do so in the future as well. However, I am trying to ascertain if the 10-15 second lifter tick on my 2019 5.7 is due to the fact that the dealer uses a 0W20 synthetic as the standard oil for oil changes. Therefore the upcoming oil change will be a 5W20 semi synthetic.

My belief is that the 0W20 is too thin for cold start short trip and then a shutdown and fully cooled off, and that it is actual draining the oil out of the lifter when a small amount should remain as would be the case with a thinker oil, i.e. the 20 when heated. I have been able to consistently get the truck to tick at start each time by starting cold, moving a very short distance (under 1/2 mile and no extra idle time) and then an extended shut down to cool, i.e. move truck from one parking spot to another at lunch, come out to go home and it ticks on start up. In addition, with the colder weather arriving I have been able to have it happen more often.

One of my counters for this problem is to make sure and let the engine idle a little to assure some heat has built up in the oil. If have yet to track the oil temp in order to establish a specific oil temp range in which it needs to attain so as not to tick, but summer is much more difficult to reproduce, so my assumption is that the minimum temp to stock the short run tick issue as to be in the 90 to 100* F range. As it takes no time together in the summer but can and will take a few minutes to get the oil over 100*F on a cold upstate NY day.

 

[Polarisman]

0w40 t6 rotella synthetic I buy it in 20 liter pails at Canadian tire when it is on sale

 

[Burla]

I have trouble with the statements that 5W20 is any different thickness / viscosity then a 5W30 at cold startup. Help me understand why what I learned about oils is wrong. It is my understanding that 5W## means its a multi weight oil and has modifiers to make it a thicker viscosity when it heats up i.e. XX, 20, 30, 40. It is my understanding that 5 is the viscosity reference for the oil at cold start. There for the difference in a 5W20 and a 5W30 is once the engine is heated up, and that 20 is thinner than 30.

I agree that bearing tolerance can be a problem when an oil is to viscous as it will not flow thru the small spaces well and therefore does not help or increase lubrication or cooling.

I know for a fact, from personal experience that on my F150 %.4 Triton 3V Variable Cam Timing motor that 5W20 was spec'd, but the engine ran quieter and better with 5W30 once at temperature. Which is exactly as I would have expected with my understanding of multi weight oils.

So in the end I would agree with those that switch to 5W30, adn may look to do so in the future as well. However, I am trying to ascertain if the 10-15 second lifter tick on my 2019 5.7 is due to the fact that the dealer uses a 0W20 synthetic as the standard oil for oil changes. Therefore the upcoming oil change will be a 5W20 semi synthetic.

My belief is that the 0W20 is too thin for cold start short trip and then a shutdown and fully cooled off, and that it is actual draining the oil out of the lifter when a small amount should remain as would be the case with a thinker oil, i.e. the 20 when heated. I have been able to consistently get the truck to tick at start each time by starting cold, moving a very short distance (under 1/2 mile and no extra idle time) and then an extended shut down to cool, i.e. move truck from one parking spot to another at lunch, come out to go home and it ticks on start up. In addition, with the colder weather arriving I have been able to have it happen more often.

One of my counters for this problem is to make sure and let the engine idle a little to assure some heat has built up in the oil. If have yet to track the oil temp in order to establish a specific oil temp range in which it needs to attain so as not to tick, but summer is much more difficult to reproduce, so my assumption is that the minimum temp to stock the short run tick issue as to be in the 90 to 100* F range. As it takes no time together in the summer but can and will take a few minutes to get the oil over 100*F on a cold upstate NY day.

So winter ratings mean the oil is approved for use for vehicles spec'd that weight oil down to xyz temperature, not that they flow the same. It's like this, we spec'd 40 weight for this vehicle but we know you are gonna need something thinner to start that 40 weight, what do you do? Spec a different weight oil for different times of the year? Then at operating temp the engine is not protected. So what they did was make the 40 weight as good as they can to accommodate cold starts, they made them on the line of 30/40 weight oils and put them full of vii's and pour depressants and in many cases pao base socks. So they didn't make the oil flow like a 20 weight, but they made it flow much better in the cold then all the other 40 weight options.

0w40 wont flow the same as 0w20 in the cold, viscosity holds true from the hottest temps to the coldest. If an oil is thicker, generally it will be thicker at all temps. When an engine is warm, these differences are small, but when it's cold these differences are large. Look at the chart, even at 100F/40c look at the difference between 5w20 and 5w30. Now when it's cold, that chart keeps going, the difference in viscosity can be near 2000 difference when you get near freezing. Even at the lowest cold start of the year the difference can be 500 viscosity between the two.

 

[kurek]

My manual specifies 5w-20 conventional or synthetic. For all models with the 5.7 in all climates.
Will something else work? Apparently it does.
But why wouldn't I go with what the design engineers recommend? I'm sure they've tested thousands of engines both complete and in sub assemblies.

No man it's a government conspiracy to force you to get better gas mileage. But the MAN can't stop me I'm gonna fill my crankcase with straight up 140w gear oil because apparently lubricity is a product of viscosity alone and I won't let THE GOVERNMENT tell engineers and automakers who sell lifetime warranties they are accountable for, how to lubricate!

 

[McBroom]

5w30

Blue Mule

 

[MRFREEZE57]

one would think that with the length of the warranty's they are giving these days they would recommend to run the oil that would make the motor last the longest.

 

[Burla]

Between the gov't who makes money when you buy a vehicle to the tune of thousands of dollars, and the auto manu that makes money to the tune of thousands of dollars when you buy a vehicle, and you who loose money when you buy a vehicle, which one wants your car to last as long as possible? A better question, why would either the gov't or the manu want that vehicle to last long? Yeah, kinda of simple, nobody but you has a financial interest in making a vehicle last as long as possible, the other two could care less, and in fact likely would prefer you buy a vehicle as many times as possible throughout your lifetime, then they make a windfall.

 

[kurek]

Why are you salty that the government "makes money" don't they pay you?

 

[Gero]

You can speculate all day on which is bettern(5w20 or 5w30) on the hemi but uoa reveals the truth.


Here in Canada, at -20c, i haven't experienced any piston slap or knock at cold starts. Will continue with pup5w30. I dont drive enough miles in a year to swap 5w20 in the winter and 5w30 in the summer.

 

[slickracer]

I'm running what the manual says and sleep well. WAY too much overthinking on this topic.

 

[Ludville1]

I also ran Synthetic in my bikes as well. Mobile 1 MX4T because of the wet clutch ! Added it to my lawn mower and will use it in the generator when I use up the regular oil.. My buddy;s HD he went full synthetic for everything and ran better and drive train quieter !

I am a Mobil 1 guy in everything other than my truck. The Hemi gets 5w30 Redline. Mobil 1 5w20 in my Jeep Compass, Mobil 1 MX4T 10w40 in my Hayabusa, Mobil 1 V-Twin 20w50 in my Harley, Mobil 1 Extended Performance 10w30 in my Mercury 4 stroke outboard and John Deere lawn tractor, and Mobil 1 5w30 in the snowblower. All of my past cars/trucks had Mobil 1 in them as well. This system has worked great for me. BTW, both bikes have been sold. For the first time in over 50 years I don't have a motorcycle, and I am OK with that.

 

[chrisbh17]

I have 3 vehicles and I prefer different oils for each It would be nice to standardize on a brand/weight but the engines I have are just too "finicky" to use one grade and one brand.

2011 G37 with the 3.7 liter "high output" V6. Known to be very hard on oil (especially if you drive it like its meant to be). Only Pennzoil Ultra 5W-30 (the pre-GTL stuff, which seems more robust than the current PUP 5-30)

2015 Lexus ES350 - the engine itself is easy on oil, but Toyota specs a 10K mile OCI. So its either genuine Toyota 0W-20 or Mobil1 Extended Performance 0W-20 (the M1 stuff is high in PAO)

2017 RAM 1500 w/Hemi - well, you all know the drill on that one.....

 

[Rado]

I am a Mobil 1 guy in everything other than my truck. The Hemi gets 5w30 Redline. Mobil 1 5w20 in my Jeep Compass, Mobil 1 MX4T 10w40 in my Hayabusa, Mobil 1 V-Twin 20w50 in my Harley, Mobil 1 Extended Performance 10w30 in my Mercury 4 stroke outboard and John Deere lawn tractor, and Mobil 1 5w30 in the snowblower. All of my past cars/trucks had Mobil 1 in them as well. This system has worked great for me. BTW, both bikes have been sold. For the first time in over 50 years I don't have a motorcycle, and I am OK with that.

I have been a Mobile 1 fan for years, Started with my F150 in the 90's, Then my cars, my Honda's, and Kawasaki's etc. and some buddies with HD'S loved Mobile 1 in their bikes , I have been riding since 71, and been bike less now about 5 years :O Miss it but with back issues and minor nerve damage left leg no a good mix for a bike :O Man over 40 years of riding bike :O
My RAM the dealer does mine and is 100% Synthetic as well