Fellow 3.5 Ecoboost owner here.
2010 Taurus SHO, have been using 5w20 since day one, and at 90k miles I switched to 0w20. Car has 110k miles, and it’s still going strong. 5,000 miles oil change intervals, and it’s all good. No cam phaser issues, never had to change those out, timing chain is also original. I do a lot of short trips and city driving by the way.
People often like to say 0w20 is too thin, but the question I always ask is “what makes you think 0w20 is too thin?” Most people can’t answer this question. If someone is “knowledgeable enough” and have spent enough time on Bitog, they would bring up “if HTHS is below 2.6 engine damage will occur”, but that’s not exactly true.
Millions of engines are running on 0w20, and as long as oil change intervals are kept at a reasonable interval, and all other scheduled maintenances are done in a preventative manner, engines will last at least 300k Miles, maybe longer. I don’t see why we all spend so much time trying to make 0w20 look bad, without showing any scientific evidence. Every single “0w20 is too thin and will destroy my engine” thread begins with an “I think”.