types of oil to use.
 

Hey everyone,

I am going to be changing my oil in the next week or so and was wondering something.

I know the car is recommended to use 5w20. My question is, My truck runs 5w30 and I am switching it over to Synthetic as well. Can the stang run fine on 5w30 so I am buying 1 type of oil or should i be staying with 5w20?

If I do switch will there be anything that can happen to the car or will it respond differently or anything like that?

Or do I switch my truck to 5w20? most people told me to keep the truck at 5w30.

Thanks for all of your inputs lol.

For warranty purposes, I would keep using 5W20 and keep the reciepts on the oil and filters you buy. I know some manufactures and some engines are picky about what grade oil is used due to certain oil activated solenoids in the engine (my experiences with certain Dodge engines like the newer 5.7L hemi engines and their MDS systems), not sure if the 3.7 V6s would fall into that same category.

I always use what the manufacturer recommends.

I had my dealer start putting 5-30 in my stang instead of the 5-20 that it came with. I asked them if it would effect the warranty and they said no. But I'd ask your dealer first.
There was a thread on here about it and someone said that the Ford switched to 5-20 from 30 on there vehicles a few years back to get better mileage. Its only a .1% gain in mileage for one car but since they are judged by there total fleet mileage with the CAFE standards it makes a difference with that many vehicles.
The first few years of theS197 Stangs ran 5-30 but where then changed for the above reasons. 5-30 is better if you rev your engine up high all the time as it does something better than the 20, I dont recall the reason but do a search through the threads on here and you should find it.

All that being said I know nothing of what your dealer is like with warrenty or what the new V6's are like so I'd look into it more, since the new 6's dont make power untill the high revs I'd think the 5-30 would be better.

Hope that makes some sense!

I would stay with the recommended oil weighting from the manufacturer. Most Newer engines have tighter oil clearances on the main and rod bearings, and also come equiped with variable valve timing modules which are controlled with engine oil pressure. As a Technician I've seen driveability issues show up from using a heavier oil due to the fact that the engine control module uses calculated oil flow rates for a specific oil temperature for a specific oil weighting (5w20). Another point to stick with the 5w20 would be that on a cold canadian winter morning, the time it takes for proper oil flow to the top end (Valvetrain) of the engine can be as long as 4 minutes (depending on the engine, oil weight, and temp when tested). So if the car is your daily driver, switch to a premium synthetic after 10,000Km's and stick to the manufacturers specs

K thanks everyone.... I will stick with the 5-20 and going to go royal purple or mobile 1 synthetic i think....

1 more question. Do you all stay with Ford filters or something else?

is your truck eating any oil in between changes? I wont run 5W20 in my modfox, oil is too thin.

In my opinion Ford filters are much better than the aftermarket ones. We have cut open purolator, Fram, etc and they don't have near as much filter material in them as Motorcraft. I believe Wix makes Motorcraft filters but to Ford's specs.

Thanks Chad,

Will stay with the ford filters then.

If it does, it uses very little and not enough to notice.. It is new.