5w20 Safe or UnSafe

Pennzoil motor oil
Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted By: fsskier

Now for some anecdotal evidence: My 1994 lumina APV, 3.1 Litre V6 is now at 239 k, and tows a 4880 lb trailer on a commercial basis. I use only Mobil 1 0W20, and change every 20 K. The engine burns no oil and has had o repairs.
No, I have never run an oil analysis, and see little reason to do so. The days of running tar (30,40,50 weights) in your engine are gone!!


Wait, your towing a trailer with a Lumina
LOL.gif
 
Originally Posted By: TaterandNoodles
Originally Posted By: fsskier

Now for some anecdotal evidence: My 1994 lumina APV, 3.1 Litre V6 is now at 239 k, and tows a 4880 lb trailer on a commercial basis. I use only Mobil 1 0W20, and change every 20 K. The engine burns no oil and has had o repairs.
No, I have never run an oil analysis, and see little reason to do so. The days of running tar (30,40,50 weights) in your engine are gone!!


Wait, your towing a trailer with a Lumina
LOL.gif



It is a Minivan. They do tow with those...

Look
 
I missed the APV part, thats only a slight improvement. Its hard to even find one of those running. Correct me if I'm wrong but those are not rated for 5k lbs.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Originally Posted By: TaterandNoodles
I missed the APV part, thats only a slight improvement. Its hard to even find one of those running.


Here are 21 for sale.

aol car sales

Plenty of them made and they are still out there. Esp the ones with the 3.8l V6.
 
Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
Oils are much different now, Frank. Before, you had 3 or 4 typical choices that were offered to the public for gasoline engines.

HD SAE 30 ..labeled "GOOD"
10w-30 ..labeled "Better"
10w-40 ..labeled "Best"


Gary

I can remember going to the Gulf filling station with my Dad in his 1953 Pontiac. They would ask if he wanted the 30 cent, 35 cent or 40 cent oil. I can barely remember getting an oil change but I can remember paying with a $5.00 bill. I can remember the $5.00 bill because I worried that I might never have a car if I had to pay $5.00 for an oil change and 20 cents for a gallon of gasoline! I can remember putting oil in the air cleaner but I cannot remember the oil filter.
 
Originally Posted By: 06VtecV6
Originally Posted By: FrankN4
I found this in a Google search on viscosity. I agree completely.

"Thinner motor oils such as 5W-20 or even 0W-20 are becoming more popular these days and are even specified by some OEM's (FORD & HONDA)

Although these oils are promoted as "energy conserving" they generally trade a gain of less than 0.1 MPG in Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) for shorter useful engine life.

FORD which has previously designed cars to have 10 year or 150,000 miles life has reduced the mileage life expectation to "beyond 100,000 miles" on vehicles that are operated on SAE 5W-20 Motor Oil.

HONDA only claims "useful life" as 7-years or 70,000 miles in EPA certifications for their CIVIC which uses SAE 5W-20 Motor Oil, while the previous model that utilized SAE 5w30 Motor Oil was certified for 10 year or 100,000 mile durability.

By contrast Mercedes-Benz recommends use of ONLY Synthetic Motor Oil that is at least SAE 5W-40! This is a recent increase in recommended viscosity from SAE 5w30. Apparently customer research indicated that engine longevity is more important to typical MB customer than fuel economy."



I can speak from experience with my car:

Year 2005( Year 2006(>=) to current SAE 5w-20

I can (almost) guarantee you my car will last the requisite 250-300,000 miles and I will make this promulgation right now, right here and guarantee it. If someone wants to print this out and put it in a capsule and bury it until this inevitably becomes true, that would be fine.

(I am just as curious as you and this is the only way to know)


That sounds great and is the kind of "stuff" that I believe really answers the question. I hope I am around when you reach the 250,000 miles.

I only do two tests. I use a mechanics stethascope and listen for noise to either appear or change. I use a simple compression tester where you remove a sparkplug and screw it in. After 300,000 miles my Toyota sounds good and is within spec for compression. There may be enough room to walk between the mains and the journal but no indication of such.
 
Last edited:
I wonder if you could sell "dehydrated oil": Just add water. Think of the convenience. A garden hose and a pint of special powder. Might just be able to sell it if it comes with a Fram filter.
 
(discussion of site bashing ligher oils)

I will look again tonight - I think I bookmarked it at home.
It did have a lot of interesting viscosity charts, etc but it was mostly about pumping their own brand of oil - was it a "lifetime oil"? Do you also remember the pages to all have maroon background??
I may have been doing websearches just using 0W20 or 5W20 as a search word.

fsskier
 
OK, as for the questions on the Lumina APV towing 4880 lbs.

The Lumina APV weighs 3890 lbs, the boat on the trailer weighs 4880, both weights came from the Iowa DOT scale at about MM 55 on I-380.

No, it is not rated to tow that much. It is rated for 3500 lbs with the 3.8 motor, and I have the 3.1 litre. Nonethless, it gets up into high gear, the transmission hits lockup and it tows down the interstate at 65 mph with no difficulty at all.
Yes, it does slow down to 55 on steep hills and drops to second gear.
The Transmission fluid never discolors, and the engine and transmission are both factory stock and have never been repaired-except for the converter lockup switch, which is an external item.

Yes, the trailer has brakes, and handles and stops very well. The boat has 3 150 hp engines on the back, making it a very tailwaggy boat when pulled with a high center of gravity vehicle like suburbans, explorers and yukons, but is very stable behind the minivan. I towed it 704 miles this last weekend just for one show. We do 25 shows a summer with this boat, often pulling 30 or more skiers in a giant pyramid.
pictures of the boat, and ski acts at http://www.5sst.com
Yes, anyone can easily verify my story, about 100,000 people see our watershows each year!!! And, counting ESPN and OLN national televison coverage maybe another couple of million people.

Anyway, to all that are worrying about 0W20 for towing, all I can say is the motor still seems like new. Except the [censored] dipstick broke off last week - or at least the plastic handle.
Maybe, 20w50 would have kept it stuck on, LOL.
 
Originally Posted By: fsskier
(discussion of site bashing ligher oils)

I will look again tonight - I think I bookmarked it at home.
It did have a lot of interesting viscosity charts, etc but it was mostly about pumping their own brand of oil - was it a "lifetime oil"? Do you also remember the pages to all have maroon background??
I may have been doing websearches just using 0W20 or 5W20 as a search word.

fsskier


Sounds like Sylube. Just turn your speakers up and let the music sooth the money from your pockets.
LOL.gif
 
Fssker, as Gary pointed out I was thinking of the sedan pulling this big trailer which would be really funny at least to me.

Obviously it has been doing the job so
cheers3.gif
 
Originally Posted By: BuickGN
Engineers care that the car makes it out of the warranty period with no problems which it probably would with a 0-10.


I must take exception to the notion that the engineers' interest in concern over the life of the engine ends with the warranty. Virtually everyone expects car engines to last long beyond the warranty period with little or no problems. An automaker whose cars fail shortly after the warranty runs out isn't going to be a car company for very long. At least not these days.
 
You know this year is the 10th anniversary for Ford(and Motorcraft) 5w-20. I remember seeing a 2001 Mustang GT with 5w-20 stamped oil fill cap at a car show in 2000, and saying what is that!

Well, 2011 Mustang and F-150 v8 engines are still spec'd for 5w-20 so I'd say it has passed the test of time.

5w20 = Safe
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: jorton

Well, 2011 Mustang and F-150 v8 engines are still spec'd for 5w-20 so I'd say it has passed the test of time.


Is 5w30 optional ?
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: jorton

Well, 2011 Mustang and F-150 v8 engines are still spec'd for 5w-20 so I'd say it has passed the test of time.


Is 5w30 optional ?


It is at my house, but I tend to run my stuff harder than 99% of the average joe's...
 
Is 5w30 optional ?

Originally Posted By: TFB1

It is at my house...


Good one!
laugh.gif


Actually, it maybe should be more like "It's mandatory at my house!"
 
Which Ford is it that specs 5W50? Why doesn`t Ford recommend 5W20 for that one as well? If I`m not mistaken,it`s supercharged,right? Does said supercharger have it`s own oil reserviour,or does it run off of the engine`s motor oil?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

A
  • Locked
0w30 versus 5w20
2
Replies
36
Views
8K
androbot2084
S
  • Locked
Schaeffers supreme 5w30 for a 5w20 engine?
Replies
9
Views
2K
MNgopher
Patman
  • Locked
Can a 20 weight oil protect as well as a 30 weight?
2
Replies
24
Views
16K
aquariuscsm
M
  • Locked
Is 5W20 a CAFE oil or better technology?
2 3 4
Replies
78
Views
29K
mf150
A
  • Locked
5w20 vs 5w30
4 5 6
Replies
107
Views
33K
KzMitch
Back
Top Bottom