Ford engine failures in HOT ambient with 5W20

[SatinSilver]

Originally Posted By: ShotGun429
Bought a 2006 Cvpi with 100,000 hard miles and over 6500 idle hours last month and runs better than any used car I have ever bought. Im a beliver. (It had been fleet serviced with 15w40) Guess i will stick to that oil grade.


Usually fleet service calls for 5w20 in those and not 15w40.

Originally Posted By: ShotGun429
I use My shops bulk Fleet 15w40 oil with no problems down to -20 F below in every vehicle i own....all have lived a VERY LONG life. and Even a longer life after I sold them.... your 10w30 is fine down to very low temps. USE IT.

 

[shiny]

Originally Posted By: RISUPERCREWMAN
I managed a fleet of Ford CVPI's and Expedition 5.4 3v's over a 24 year career as a LEO. I've only had one 4.6 blow up due to a Police Car being cold started at 10 degrees, & being brought up to 100 MPH going to an Officer calling for immediate assistance at a car stop. Had a couple of transmission failures however that was due to abuse from people not letting the car come to a complete stop while changing gears from reverse to drive. Over all I can easily say that the CVPI 4.6's are very reliable. We took the patrol cars off of the road and auctioned them off to cab companies who often put a couple hundred more thousand miles of reliable service on them. I often got calls from these companies thanking us for how well we kept up our fleet!

Sounds like you did a great job. Just out of curiosity, in what part of the country was your fleet, what years were the cars, what oil did you run in them and how long was the OCI?

 

[RISUPERCREWMAN]

Originally Posted By: shiny
Originally Posted By: RISUPERCREWMAN
I managed a fleet of Ford CVPI's and Expedition 5.4 3v's over a 24 year career as a LEO. I've only had one 4.6 blow up due to a Police Car being cold started at 10 degrees, & being brought up to 100 MPH going to an Officer calling for immediate assistance at a car stop. Had a couple of transmission failures however that was due to abuse from people not letting the car come to a complete stop while changing gears from reverse to drive. Over all I can easily say that the CVPI 4.6's are very reliable. We took the patrol cars off of the road and auctioned them off to cab companies who often put a couple hundred more thousand miles of reliable service on them. I often got calls from these companies thanking us for how well we kept up our fleet!

Sounds like you did a great job. Just out of curiosity, in what part of the country was your fleet, what years were the cars, what oil did you run in them and how long was the OCI?


The Fleet I took care of is located in Rhode Island which can experience extremely cold winters as well as very hot summers. The CVPI's were from 2005-2011's. Cruisers were taken out of service as front line patrol units at 90K miles and were either auctioned off or relegated to 'Detail Cars" for use on road construction details. Oil used was bulk Motorcraft 5W-20, cars went in for service every 3K miles or three weeks due to idle time. They were great cars & sad to see them gone. My personal daily driver 2011 LX sees a steady diet of Mobil 1 every 4-5K miles.

 

[Gokhan]

Engine failures can be caused by different things, improper oil level and improper coolant level being the biggest reasons. It could even be improper air-filter installation.

Unless there is proof that it was caused by oil not thick enough, take this with a grain of salt to say the least.

The OEM minimum-viscosity specification (5W-20 in this case) should be OK as long as the vehicle isn't operated at extreme speeds or loads or abused in some other way. Thicker oil (higher viscosity than the minimum required by the OEM) will help in such cases but we don't really know if that's what happened in this fleet.

 

[QuietPortage]

I helped manage a fleet in Arizona that included CVPIs. At 120F, they'd overheat if idling on the road with a/c on. We put louvers in the hood to help with cooling, and that fixed the problem. They were just holes cut into the hood with a cutoff wheel, and louvered pieces of metal riveted over the holes.

Even then, bulk 5w-20 wasn't causing problems.

 

[bunnspecial]

I don't have "fleet level" experience but I've tended to a handful of the modular 4.6Ls over the years in family members' vehicles. The last was my mom's last Town Car that she traded off in February(I miss that car still).

I ran 5W-20 in all of them all year round, and we are known to get temperatures well below 0ºF and well above 100º F. My mom's TC was driven regularly on a lot of short trips, as well as being driven occasionally on vacations. It got Mobil 1 changed at 5K due to the short trips. My dad's last Continental was driven infrequently but usually on longish trips(50-200 miles) so got Motorcraft blend changed annually.

Both engines were running great when the cars were sold, as were their same-model predecessors.

 

[shiny]

Originally Posted By: RISUPERCREWMAN
Originally Posted By: shiny
Originally Posted By: RISUPERCREWMAN
I managed a fleet of Ford CVPI's and Expedition 5.4 3v's over a 24 year career as a LEO. I've only had one 4.6 blow up due to a Police Car being cold started at 10 degrees, & being brought up to 100 MPH going to an Officer calling for immediate assistance at a car stop. Had a couple of transmission failures however that was due to abuse from people not letting the car come to a complete stop while changing gears from reverse to drive. Over all I can easily say that the CVPI 4.6's are very reliable. We took the patrol cars off of the road and auctioned them off to cab companies who often put a couple hundred more thousand miles of reliable service on them. I often got calls from these companies thanking us for how well we kept up our fleet!

Sounds like you did a great job. Just out of curiosity, in what part of the country was your fleet, what years were the cars, what oil did you run in them and how long was the OCI?


The Fleet I took care of is located in Rhode Island which can experience extremely cold winters as well as very hot summers. The CVPI's were from 2005-2011's. Cruisers were taken out of service as front line patrol units at 90K miles and were either auctioned off or relegated to 'Detail Cars" for use on road construction details. Oil used was bulk Motorcraft 5W-20, cars went in for service every 3K miles or three weeks due to idle time. They were great cars & sad to see them gone. My personal daily driver 2011 LX sees a steady diet of Mobil 1 every 4-5K miles.

Thanks RISUPERCREWMAN, Bandito440, bunnspecial for sharing your experiences with the 4.6L Panthers.