Just wondering if anyone went opposite and put a 20 weight in a 30 weight engine. i have a bunch of chevys, 4.3 and 5.7 and have run lots of Xw30 and 15w40 oils that did well. I hear alot about these engines being a little loose so i was always nervous about going with a 20 weight. I do tow with them sometimes but usually they are ran pretty easy and in NC we get several months where it is 50F or less and was thinking that maybe the lights oils would be good for those months.h
anyone Xw20 in an Xw30 engine,4.3 or 5.7
- Thread starter jstutz
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I ran 5w20 in 00 Silverado w/ the 5.3 for the last 3yrs, in the Fla heat& humidity w/ a constant load of tools in the bed w/ no problems! It had 5w20 in the sump when i sold it a month ago!It reved faster, ran smother and got a little better MPG's w/ the 5w20.Give it a try i think you will like the results.I am a firm believer that you can go up or down a grade of oil from what it is speced for w/ no problems.
joe
joe
My '00 MB E430 is running with M1 0W20, the spec'ed oil is M1 0W40 or a thick A3/B3 syn oils. It is much quieter with thinner oil, it had PP 5W20 last year and it still performs well after July trip to Vegas with temperature reached 120+ at Death Valley. I went to Vegas again last week with M1 0W20, the car was running very smooth and the coolant temperature seems to be about 2-5 degree C lower with thinner oil.
And I can offer the "reverse" perspective. I drive a car that's spec-ed for xw-20 oils (but which has a clause in the O/M which permits use of thicker oils). Having tried a fill of the 12+cSt German Castrol, I switched back to PP 0w-20 (about 8.5 cSt) about 10 days ago. My mileage is back up to what it had been on previous 20 wt oils, and yes, it actually sounds smoother and quieter on the PP 0w-20 than it did on the 0w-30. Use 20 if your UOA suggest you can.
I thought about doing the same thing 0w20 M1 AFE im my '99 5.7
Pennzoil 5W20 yellow bottle ran just fine in my 97 Saturn 1.9 (140,000 miles) last summer. Good stuff I believe.
Originally Posted By: ekpolk
And I can offer the "reverse" perspective. I drive a car that's spec-ed for xw-20 oils (but which has a clause in the O/M which permits use of thicker oils). Having tried a fill of the 12+cSt German Castrol, I switched back to PP 0w-20 (about 8.5 cSt) about 10 days ago. My mileage is back up to what it had been on previous 20 wt oils, and yes, it actually sounds smoother and quieter on the PP 0w-20 than it did on the 0w-30. Use 20 if your UOA suggest you can.
But that was in a hybrid where even I would not go heavier. By chance, does it have an oil temp readout? I'm curious how the oil temp is managed in those cars if at all.
And I can offer the "reverse" perspective. I drive a car that's spec-ed for xw-20 oils (but which has a clause in the O/M which permits use of thicker oils). Having tried a fill of the 12+cSt German Castrol, I switched back to PP 0w-20 (about 8.5 cSt) about 10 days ago. My mileage is back up to what it had been on previous 20 wt oils, and yes, it actually sounds smoother and quieter on the PP 0w-20 than it did on the 0w-30. Use 20 if your UOA suggest you can.
But that was in a hybrid where even I would not go heavier. By chance, does it have an oil temp readout? I'm curious how the oil temp is managed in those cars if at all.
Originally Posted By: jstutz
Just wondering if anyone went opposite and put a 20 weight in a 30 weight engine. i have a bunch of chevys, 4.3 and 5.7 and have run lots of Xw30 and 15w40 oils that did well. I hear alot about these engines being a little loose so i was always nervous about going with a 20 weight. I do tow with them sometimes but usually they are ran pretty easy and in NC we get several months where it is 50F or less and was thinking that maybe the lights oils would be good for those months.h
I'm not sure why you would choose to do this but if you do, you might give Redline 5w-20 a shot since it has a fairly high HTHS. Do you have an oil pressure guage?
Just wondering if anyone went opposite and put a 20 weight in a 30 weight engine. i have a bunch of chevys, 4.3 and 5.7 and have run lots of Xw30 and 15w40 oils that did well. I hear alot about these engines being a little loose so i was always nervous about going with a 20 weight. I do tow with them sometimes but usually they are ran pretty easy and in NC we get several months where it is 50F or less and was thinking that maybe the lights oils would be good for those months.h
I'm not sure why you would choose to do this but if you do, you might give Redline 5w-20 a shot since it has a fairly high HTHS. Do you have an oil pressure guage?
Originally Posted By: jstutz
Has anyone who has tried this, noticed consumption to up? One of my trucks burns about a qt every 3k miles and i think i would be worried about trying a thinner oil.
Its very probable that consumption will increase. I tried 5w-20 in a ford 1.9L escort that was back spec'd by ford to run 20wts. It had very low consumption over a 5k mile oil change on 30wts, but with 20wt it was consuming half a quart in less then 3k miles. I went back to 5w30 and the consumption went back to normal. You could go the entire 5k oci and be in the middle of the dipstick at the end.
Has anyone who has tried this, noticed consumption to up? One of my trucks burns about a qt every 3k miles and i think i would be worried about trying a thinner oil.
Its very probable that consumption will increase. I tried 5w-20 in a ford 1.9L escort that was back spec'd by ford to run 20wts. It had very low consumption over a 5k mile oil change on 30wts, but with 20wt it was consuming half a quart in less then 3k miles. I went back to 5w30 and the consumption went back to normal. You could go the entire 5k oci and be in the middle of the dipstick at the end.
Yes, i have an OPG. The blazer and my pickup idle hot at 20 to 25 and running about 40 to 45. As to why i would try it, i read an article stating you should run the lightest oils you can to maintain adequate oil pressure. I was just thinking about this in two of my vehicles becuase they get mostly short trips that are very easy, flat roads, not mountains or anything and just putting aroud town. I fell like maybe the xw20 would be better for this application as they see no full throttle and rarely anything over 3k rpms. They dont tow anything other than some light duty stuff. I have about four years of oil in my shed so ill probably run the 5w30 that i have, but was just thinking about trying it in one of these to see if i could tell a differance. I have ran 15w40 many times and have convinced myself that it is pointless to do that. the engines are a little more sluggish and i get worse gas mileage. Like i said i do alot of short trips.
Originally Posted By: jstutz
Yes, i have an OPG. The blazer and my pickup idle hot at 20 to 25 and running about 40 to 45. As to why i would try it, i read an article stating you should run the lightest oils you can to maintain adequate oil pressure. I was just thinking about this in two of my vehicles becuase they get mostly short trips that are very easy, flat roads, not mountains or anything and just putting aroud town. I fell like maybe the xw20 would be better for this application as they see no full throttle and rarely anything over 3k rpms. They dont tow anything other than some light duty stuff. I have about four years of oil in my shed so ill probably run the 5w30 that i have, but was just thinking about trying it in one of these to see if i could tell a differance. I have ran 15w40 many times and have convinced myself that it is pointless to do that. the engines are a little more sluggish and i get worse gas mileage. Like i said i do alot of short trips.
IMO i will take flow over anything else as long as i don't go below 10psi per 1k rpm. I believe you can go up or down a viscosity grade from what is speced buy the manufacture with out any problems!So if the vehicle is speced for Xw30 you can run a Xw20 or Xw40 with out any trouble! Now if the truck was constantly towing in the mountains of Carolina i say use the Xw40. Just driving around town, lots of cold starts run Xw20. Give the Xw20 a try what have you got to lose 5qrt's of oil, and what a hour of your time changing the oil. You won't know until you try it your self!
joe
Yes, i have an OPG. The blazer and my pickup idle hot at 20 to 25 and running about 40 to 45. As to why i would try it, i read an article stating you should run the lightest oils you can to maintain adequate oil pressure. I was just thinking about this in two of my vehicles becuase they get mostly short trips that are very easy, flat roads, not mountains or anything and just putting aroud town. I fell like maybe the xw20 would be better for this application as they see no full throttle and rarely anything over 3k rpms. They dont tow anything other than some light duty stuff. I have about four years of oil in my shed so ill probably run the 5w30 that i have, but was just thinking about trying it in one of these to see if i could tell a differance. I have ran 15w40 many times and have convinced myself that it is pointless to do that. the engines are a little more sluggish and i get worse gas mileage. Like i said i do alot of short trips.
IMO i will take flow over anything else as long as i don't go below 10psi per 1k rpm. I believe you can go up or down a viscosity grade from what is speced buy the manufacture with out any problems!So if the vehicle is speced for Xw30 you can run a Xw20 or Xw40 with out any trouble! Now if the truck was constantly towing in the mountains of Carolina i say use the Xw40. Just driving around town, lots of cold starts run Xw20. Give the Xw20 a try what have you got to lose 5qrt's of oil, and what a hour of your time changing the oil. You won't know until you try it your self!
joe
Just to update, my 4.3 blazer is due for its oil change now, I figured it would be in Nov but we ended up taking a few long trips on it. My wife got a new job that is 7 miles from the house. Basically you pull out of my driveway and shoot up a small grade for a few hundred feet, then it pretty much levels off to a coast the rest of the way to work. I think im going to try the PP 5w20 becuase winter is comming up and she will be doing nothing but 7 miles trips back and forth to work and some basic running around town. Seems like this should be no issue. ill post back sometime this winter and report oil consumption ect. I have been on 7500 mile OCIs with pp5w30, any reason i should shorten it with the 5w20
GM's 4.3L V-6 is a darn good engine. I had an old Chevy with over 221K miles on it when I traded it in, and a friend of mine had a GMC S-15 with over 200K on his 4.3 also. Excellent motors. Those were both older pre-vortex motors that ran TBI. Other than the lousy gas mileage I miss that motor. Ran like a champ.
Originally Posted By: BuickGN
Originally Posted By: jstutz
Just wondering if anyone went opposite and put a 20 weight in a 30 weight engine. i have a bunch of chevys, 4.3 and 5.7 and have run lots of Xw30 and 15w40 oils that did well. I hear alot about these engines being a little loose so i was always nervous about going with a 20 weight. I do tow with them sometimes but usually they are ran pretty easy and in NC we get several months where it is 50F or less and was thinking that maybe the lights oils would be good for those months.h
I'm not sure why you would choose to do this but if you do, you might give Redline 5w-20 a shot since it has a fairly high HTHS. Do you have an oil pressure guage?
Did somebody say Redline? LOL Good advice!
Originally Posted By: jstutz
Just wondering if anyone went opposite and put a 20 weight in a 30 weight engine. i have a bunch of chevys, 4.3 and 5.7 and have run lots of Xw30 and 15w40 oils that did well. I hear alot about these engines being a little loose so i was always nervous about going with a 20 weight. I do tow with them sometimes but usually they are ran pretty easy and in NC we get several months where it is 50F or less and was thinking that maybe the lights oils would be good for those months.h
I'm not sure why you would choose to do this but if you do, you might give Redline 5w-20 a shot since it has a fairly high HTHS. Do you have an oil pressure guage?
Did somebody say Redline? LOL Good advice!
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