A little education on SAE

[JLTD]

Plus a whole lot more, including some speculation by the author. The middle's his opinions, but the facts about oil nomenclature are interesting; at least I found them to be:

http://www.paladinmicro.com/pmicro.php#

Apologies, the link does not copy and takes you to the main page. To see the article, follow the links on the left margin for:
Tech Info/Opinion
Miscellaneous
5w-20 Nyet for me

To me, this article sheds some light on the 30 vs 20 debate, even though it's an old (2011) article.

 

[Ducked]

No quarrel with the basic tradeoff described, but I'd have liked to see a source for that 30% greater engine wear statement.

Might have missed it but it seemed to be pulled out of.... .the air.

 

[bbhero]

A bit strange how many vehicles on the road today with well over 200k miles on them running 5w20 or 0w20. The idea of 100k miles and 70k miles on cars and trucks is laughable.

Having said that... There are times where a bump up in operating viscosity is a good idea. Ford found this out with their Ecoboost motors. 5w30 was needed to offset what those motors were doing while in operation. I believe other turbo boosted motors and GDI motors should be run with a 30 operating viscosity as well.

But the Ford 3.0 duratec motors that are port injected can run for a super long time on 5w20 or 0w20.

It's all dependent upon the motor set up and fuel set up.

 

[JLTD]

Originally Posted By: Ducked
No quarrel with the basic tradeoff described, but I'd have liked to see a source for that 30% greater engine wear statement.

Might have missed it but it seemed to be pulled out of.... .the air.


Yep...basic premise, good. Flat opinion statements without any evidence, bad.

 

[Silverado12]

That and there are H-D trucks that run on less than 40 weight oil (10W-30 Rotella T5).

 

[andyd]

I prefer thicker oils because in old heaps stuff happens. Fuel contamination, over heats, coolant, etc. Using 0w20 in the Camrys gives me the willies. There is no margin for stuff happening. I will go to a 5w30 just cuz when the warranty expires.