Why are some 5W20 oils thicker than others?

[bigalw]

I stopped by the honda dealership and looked at a bottle of Honda 5W20 oil. It is made by Exxon/Mobil. I guess it's close to Mobil's Drive Clean. $3.84/qt. Where can you find the best deal on Drive Clean 5000? Does closeout mean its being discontinued?

 

[slipperysam]

Mobil Clean 5000 is not being discontinued and the best pricing I have found is at Wal mart. Get the 5 qt jug for $8.97.
My Hondas runs well on either 5w30 or 5w-20. I change it at 5k miles with a Purolator filter also. Closeout just means you can buy it cheaply, but don't think it isn't a great oil.

SS

2000 Honda Accord 3.0L
2004 Honda Pilot 3.5L

 

[posty]

Originally Posted By: gonesurfing
Originally Posted By: Loogie

As a related side-note, I am getting conflicting info on whether 5w30 can be used in the Honda. I cannot understand why there would be an issue, but I did find some info stating that the thicker oil goofed up the engine management sensors on certain Honda engines (as an ex-master mechanic, I find this hard to believe).


Some engines use hydraulic pressure to control cam timing. I've read that some of these engines are sensitive to oil viscosity, and too thick of an oil can adversely affect operation.


The 5w-20 would be thicker on a cold start than a 5w30 would be warmed up so why would there be an issue.

 

[MGregoir]

I think it might be an issue because maybe the cam phasing control is not switched on until a certain oil temperature is reached, so the oil may be thicker at that temperature than the system would like. I would think this would be a bigger issue if someone were using 15w40 or 20W-50 in place of a 5W-20 for example.

 

[drivewaytech]

Due to the issue of hydraulic cam timing, I use the manufacture spec'd 5w-20. I have never ran straight 5w30, but have run a 60/40 mix of the two grades. I later developed what seemed to be an intermittent lifter tick. I'm not certain the two events are correlated or coincidence. I do not have a Honda, so I'm sure this issue would apply.

 

[BarkerMan]

5w-20 means that any oil that falls in the range is a 5w-20. Two oils could be a little bit different in given specs and still fit.

 

[slipperysam]

My 2000 Accord 3.0 V6 VTEC was originally spec'd for 5w30.
It was later back spec'd for 5w-20.
I've seen no noticeable economy or performance variation
using one versus the other. The engine is in excellent condition
at 132k miles, doesn't use or leak any oil between 5k OCI.
I'm not sure but I think when this engine first came out it was spec'd for 10w30. My owners manual says to use 5w30 for all temps or 10w30 over 20F. Because of the miles, I use the original 5w30 and not the lighter 5w-20 although I realize that they are close in actual viscosity. Honda VTEC is the camshaft
phasing incorporated into some honda engines and I think it does not kick in until the engine reaches a certain temp, and is known to not work well with higher vis oils (over 30w). The higher vis oils would cause a higher operating oil pressure there by causing the VTEC to operate prematurely at a lower RPM This is temp dependent also. Once a certain temp is reached allowing the system to operate it then is pressure dependent. Higher RPM's
giving higher oil pressure there by activating the VTEC.If there was no temp requirement the engine would be in VTEC mode upon start up due to the thicker oil giving higher pressure and this would really kill fuel economy.

SS

 

[Scout1]

The VTEC system in my Accord is electronically controlled with a solenoid triggering oil to the cam mechanism under certain engine speed and load conditions. I'm sure engine temp may also be a factor. However I can't see how higher oil pressure caused by a heavier weight oil would make any difference. The system is either engaged or it's not. There would be no early engagement based on a higher oil pressure.

 

[06VtecV6]

Originally Posted By: slipperysam
Mobil Clean 5000 is not being discontinued and the best pricing I have found is at Wal mart. Get the 5 qt jug for $8.97.
My Hondas runs well on either 5w30 or 5w-20. I change it at 5k miles with a Purolator filter also. Closeout just means you can buy it cheaply, but don't think it isn't a great oil.

SS

2000 Honda Accord 3.0L
2004 Honda Pilot 3.5L


Yeah, I got a 3.0 liter V6 too and love the booger. I used the DC 5000 for one OCI after the FF until around 10,000 on the ODO and then moved on to the DC 7500 for 2 OCIS until 21,500 miles when I jumped on some Motorcraft! I got good power from the Drive Clean series in my 2006 Accord V6 sedan. I even staved off an S2000 with my hefty sedan. A sedan, mind you and I was on Drive Clean(I believe it was the DC 7500 at the time). I would use DC 5000 tho for after break-in as in your case. Btw, the MC is what I would use after you 'train' your Honda with the DriveClean series for atleast 20k. *wink*

 

[06VtecV6]

Originally Posted By: slipperysam
My 2000 Accord 3.0 V6 VTEC was originally spec'd for 5w30.
It was later back spec'd for 5w-20.
I've seen no noticeable economy or performance variation
using one versus the other. The engine is in excellent condition
at 132k miles, doesn't use or leak any oil between 5k OCI.
I'm not sure but I think when this engine first came out it was spec'd for 10w30. My owners manual says to use 5w30 for all temps or 10w30 over 20F. Because of the miles, I use the original 5w30 and not the lighter 5w-20 although I realize that they are close in actual viscosity. Honda VTEC is the camshaft
phasing incorporated into some honda engines and I think it does not kick in until the engine reaches a certain temp, and is known to not work well with higher vis oils (over 30w). The higher vis oils would cause a higher operating oil pressure there by causing the VTEC to operate prematurely at a lower RPM This is temp dependent also. Once a certain temp is reached allowing the system to operate it then is pressure dependent. Higher RPM's
giving higher oil pressure there by activating the VTEC.If there was no temp requirement the engine would be in VTEC mode upon start up due to the thicker oil giving higher pressure and this would really kill fuel economy.

SS


Killer post. I got a 7th gen 3.0 myself. Is this the reason that I got lesser gas mileage using a thicker 'full synthetic' like the time I tried Pennzoil Platinum 5w-20 and Mobil 1 5w-20 and noticed I was only getting 250 to 270 miles per tank. I use a MC clone synthetic blend in 5w-20 now and get more like 330 miles per tank. I noticed that it was more responsive on the low end right when you would take off from a stop and it felt like my car was heavier or gained some weight at the lower end of the RPMs? Whether it be because it is thinner or just slicker, wouldn't that be what the additional FE can be attributed to? What would be the thinnest, slickest what have you, oil that I can use with 5w-20 that would give me the best FE??