****! Used 5W-20 instead of 5W-30 what now?

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Just changed the oil on '97 Saab (non-turbo 4). Thought I was pouring in 5W-30 Motorcraft semi, but as I was cleaning up noticed 2 of the 4 bottles were 5W-20 MC semi I must have grabbed by mistake.

What now? Still some hot weather left and Saabs don't like 20. Do I:
-leave it in an don't worry, but maybe change it a bit early.
- consider it a flush an leave it in for a few days but drain it before the next long trip.
- instantly drain it, flush the engine, and replace the filter again.
 
Well if you had the 100% MC it would shear down to about 8.8 cSt. anyway. And the 20 wt won't shear at all. Unless this vehicle is known to cause problems with 20 wt oil..I wouldn't wory about it. If you are paranoid ..drain out a quart or so and dump a quart of 10W-40 in there.
 
Go buy 2 quarts of 10w-30. Drain 1 quart plus out and top off with the 10w-30. 1 quart of 10w-40 would be OK also.
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Caution, your car will blow up. RED ALERT! RED ALERT! How do we attain the much strived for grace under pressure? Between the wheels you will notice a smooshed rabbit.

Ahem...

Presto! NOTHING will happen to your barchetta. Nothing. 5w-20's from Motorcraft and Pennzoil are arguably better than most dino's on the market. Use with confidence. UOA to prove to yourself that nothing happened to give you peace of mind.
 
Using the Shell Baseoils viscosity calculator, a 50/50 mix of 5W-20 & 5W-30 Motorcraft is 9.7 cSt @ 100C.

Take a look at some Motorcraft 5W-30 UOA's and I think you'll find that after 3K to 5K, it is shearing down to the 9.7 cSt, 58.2 SUS level, or below.

So I suggest option #1, leave it in & run a shorter OCI.
 
You may just get your best UOA ever!

I honestly wouldn't sweat it too much, knowing what I know now
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FWIW 5+ years ago I would have been sweating BB's, screaming etc......

SIDE NOTE: This not the first time I have read this happening here on BiTOG. It makes you wonder how much it happens and people never even notice!
 
I suggest option #1, (modified). Leave it in & run it for your normal OCI ...which is probably way shorter than it has to be.
 
I used Valvoline 5W20(that a friend had given to me), in my daughters 1988, yes 1988 Honda Accord, 330,000 miles . It's now gone over 4000 miles during the hottest most humid summer that I can remember in a long long time. Engine ran great! Burned a 1/2 qt, and now it's ready for a change. I may stick with 5W20 although I will try Havoline.
 
Does the MC 5W20 have the same additive chemistry as the 5W30?
I seem to recall that the 5W20 in several brands uses fancy-pants additives while the other brands use the more conventional Zinc-Calcium-based kinda' formula.
 
quote:

Originally posted by kyle morley:
Just changed the oil on '97 Saab (non-turbo 4). Thought I was pouring in 5W-30 Motorcraft semi, but as I was cleaning up noticed 2 of the 4 bottles were 5W-20 MC semi I must have grabbed by mistake.

IMHO, you should not be putting low-HTHS 5W-30 oil in an engine that calls for minimum ACEA A3. Meaning HTHS of 3.5 or higher. 5W-20 adds insult to injury.

Look for oil with ACEA A3 rating on the bottle. If you prefer 5W-30, then use Valvoline Maxlife Synthetic -- it is widely available. There are many other choices.
 
Put in a bottle of VSOT (Valvoline Synpower Oil Treatment. One 15 oz gray bottle made hardly no difference in my dipstick reading. It will raise viscosity a whole number -- plus add all kinds of goodies already found in your MC... plus lots more moly & boron.

Sleep tight after that... you are good-to-go for 5K-easy.
 
I seriously dont like oil treatmets you are just looking for problems.
For that sabb motor I would put a full synthetic 5-40 in that motor. I think this is what the owners manual recomends. Also with the heat of the turbo it will break down that 5/20 very quickly.
 
forcedtalon its non-turbo. My 2 cents is just keep the oil for a normal OCI your oil is not that much less viscous then normal this lighter oil would be almost perfect if your doing a lot of short trip driving where your oil temps are not getting to normal operating range.
 
quote:

Originally posted by dave1251:
forcedtalon its non-turbo.

All the more reason to use better oil. The non-turbo engine in the NG900 is actually much more hard on oil due to upper piston ring design and high compression. It is more more prone to having sludge problems then the turbo 2.0l. If you read info on saabnet.com, you will understand.
 
Just a brief postscript: I left the oil in, and was intrested to note that the gas mileage is, according to the MPG thingee (which is erratic enough that we don't put a huge amount of faith in it) up by about 1-1/2 mpg over the old stuff. Whatever that might have been - it was the first OC for us on a used car.
 
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