How Long Has 5w20 Been Around?

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

I never even heard of 5w20 until my Ford dealer starting pushing it down the customers throat somewhere around 2002...I don't ever recall seeing 5w20 on store shelves until 2002...The Ford dealer put pictures of the 5w20 everywhere in the service area and even handed everyone that came in to the service area a little booklet explaining how great the 5w20 oil was back when they first starting pushing it...So I assumed it was a brand new oil on the market.

I never ever heard of anyone using 5w20 in the 60's,70's 80's or even in the 90's..I don't think any quick lubes or dealers even had it in stock at that time as 5w30 was as low as you could go...In most places in South Florida 10w30 was as low as could go until somewhere in the 90's...Back in 99 when I had my 99 Grand Marquis a gas station made me pay extra to use 5w30.

 

[addyguy]

Was one of the first multi-viscosity oils ever developed. Came out in 1954 or so....I think royal Triton might have been the first one out. 10w30 came out at that time, too.

Got a sort-of 'rebirth' in the early 1970's - the first Mobil 1, from about 1974-1979, was only a 5W-20 grade oil.

 

[ledslinger]

I had a hard time finding it the fall of 2000 for my wife's Honda Accord. Motorcraft or Honda oil was all I could find. Went to 5w30 when the warranty expired. 5W-20 in the winter and 5w30 in the summer now. The car has 185K on it now and it appears I am going to get another 100K out of it at least.

 

[Doug Hillary]

Hi,
it was probably a "sleeper" viscosity during the late 1980s. In the late 1990s Ford informed the Oil Industry that it would be FF with this product from 2001. It would be their service fill too

Ford research and testing in the 1990s enabled additional Seq testing as a parameter to be set for the Oil Industry

SAE20 lubricants were very common for many decades before the mid 1990s

 

[daves87rs]

Cool...I didn't realize it had been out so long...

 

[Jason2007]

I actually bought 5w20 for the 1st time on 9/11/01.

 

[ecotourist]

5W-20 was normal winter weight oil in western Canada in the '60s. It was the counterpart of 10w30 in the summer.

I got out of using it when 5w30 came along - which was a reasonable 4 season oil.

Ecotourist

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: ecotourist
5W-20 was normal winter weight oil in western Canada in the '60s. It was the counterpart of 10w30 in the summer.

I got out of using it when 5w30 came along - which was a reasonable 4 season oil.

Ecotourist


I was going to say ..I've never personally seen it until 2002 debute via Ford's bold step ...but I've seen references to it way back. I'm sure it wasn't the product it is today.

 

[JohnBrowning]

Well when I kid I recall 20W20 as what the Opel my Dad drove called for. Now he used Castrol 30R instead but it called for 20W20. When M1 ffirst came out it was a 5W20 and claimed it was good for 25,000 mile oil change interval and that was before Iwas born. One of the guys I aprenticed with was a Vietnam Vet and he had pictures of him with not only the Origanal Mobil 1 but with the Owner of Amsoil. My friend was inthe Airforce and he raced bracket drag raceing. He was one of my mentor. He ran both for a while then became an Amsoil dealer for about 25 years before I met him. He taught me alot about old detroit metal and raceing and even a bit about oils. Heliked to collect oil oil cans and other vintage racing gear!

 

[JTK]

My 2001 Windstar spec'd it right out of the box. I don't recall seeing 5w20 readily available in my area until ~2003. Prior to that, I never saw a 20wt variant on the shelf. Ow20 or even 0w30 are still basically non-existant in my area.

Joel

 

[Jim Allen]

I have a bunch of University of Nebraska tractor tests downloaded in which diesel tractors in the '50s and '60s used a SAE20 oil. Now that was a surprise.

 

[tig1]

After my bad experience with QS in the mid 60s I switched over to Valvoline straight 20 wt. in the winter and 30 wt in the summer.

 

[UNC038]

My dad has a MTD snow blower from the mid 70's which specs 5w20.

 

[Silber Igel]

Originally Posted By: Jim Allen
I have a bunch of University of Nebraska tractor tests downloaded in which diesel tractors in the '50s and '60s used a SAE20 oil. Now that was a surprise.


Yes, and they used 20Ws back in the 40s and probably even earlier in farm equipment. The Nebraska tests were pretty famous BTW.... brought about by mfg'rs outrageous claims as to draw bar horsepower. Sort of standardized tests to separate fact from advertising hype. Pretty amazing!!!

Say Jim.... don't you just love those old Rumley Oil Pulls and the steamers??? Somehow seeing a spinning 6' to 7' fly wheel just gets me way too excited....

 

[1314]

Hi-if I remember right wasn't the first mobil 1 a 5w20 oil, and the first delvac 1 was a 30w.

 

[addyguy]

I thought I read on here that Delvac 1 was a 5W-40 that came out around 1978, specifically for use in the Artic.

 

[Gary Allan]

Yes, the first M1 was 5w-20 ..but multivisc (5w) 20 weights were around in the 60's. I'm (convinced, anyway) sure of it. You never saw them (probably) outside of Frostbite Falls, ND or whatever.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

The Ford dealer didnt have any 20 when I came in for my 1st OCI when I bout my Bullit 'stang a few years ago. Was that '03?

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
The Ford dealer didnt have any 20 when I came in for my 1st OCI when I bout my Bullit 'stang a few years ago. Was that '03?


That sounds about right..My Ford dealer in Miami did not have any 5w20 until around 03.

Thanks all for comeback...I had no idea 5w20 was around so long.

 

[mechtech2]

20W20 or straight 20 was around since the 1930s.
It was about 10 years ago that Honda was talking about making engines that required a 5-20, and we couldn't believe that thin of an oil would work.