blackoutf150

Hi I was wondering if anyone uses 10w-30 in their triton 5.4l or 4.6l 3v engines. I just put new VCT solenoids in my 2010 4.6l to get rid of the light acceleration knock (the new solenoids fixed it) and was wonderin about running the 10w-30 vs "recommended" 5w-20. Ive heard that 10w-30 will help produce better oil pressure and is easier on the VCT system.
Any thoughts? thanks

RLXXI

You can damage the engine if you use any weight oil other than recommended. These engines operate with very very fine tolerances, it's not like a small block chevy or Ford 302 from the 60's.
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blackoutf150

thanks for the input! im just unsure about if ford really recommends what is best for the longevity engine, or rather what gives the most power/fuel mileage ect...
Ive heard a lot of ppl say that 5w20 is cooking oil for those engines and some say the opposite.

Blackpony

I can tell you from hands on experience that the tolerances are no different then another engine. Oil galleys are huge, bearing clearances are setup just like any other engine etc. I have built multiple boss 302 engines, they recommend 5w-50 from the factory and the clearances are identical in every single way as a normal 5.0 in the Mustangs and trucks.

With that being said I have never run 5w-20 and will never run it. 5w-30 is the thinnest I will ever run and have never seen or heard of any ill effects from it. I'm not saying there is anything necessarily wrong with the thinner stuff, but I have never seen any ill effects to running the thicker stuff either. Just my experience and opinion.

yones12

Sorry to chime in. I just had my solenoids fixed under warranty and it didn't fix my issue. Thinking it's the phaser's now.

1994Vmax

This times 2. People really have no clue what they are talking about regarding "tight tolerances". All that has gotten "tighter" in the last 30 years is the tolerance for error.... not the actual recommended clearances themselves. So instead of allowing half a thou of error now they may only allow for a quarter of a thou.... that's all that means. Run whatever you want lol.

RLXXI

2013 5.0 Crank bearing tolerances.





You can listen to a bunch of arm chair mechanics or someone that's factory trained in Ford engine repair.

Stay with the weight oil the factory recommends.
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1994Vmax

Or he can listen to someone who doesn't build engines........ and troubleshoots...... No thanks. What you posted is absolutely no reason to run strictly 5W20 oil. They recommend it based on the best fuel economy while still providing adequate protection........

RLXXI

I can see explaining this is like pissing in the wind so I'll just leave a personal experience here for doubters to ponder.

We had a customer come in complaining of engine noise and was fit to be tied, he was still under warranty so we took a look at it, after several calls to Ford engineers they told us to ask the customer if he had the oil changed recently and if so what oil and filter did he use.

We posed the question and when he said he used a Motorcraft filter I thought ok and what oil did you use?

He replied (insert brand name) and it was 15w40 or some off the wall weight like that and we told him that Ford wanted us to put in the proper weight oil before testing any further, well the customer wouldn't have any part of it, hard headed old coot.

So he reluctantly told us to go ahead and change the oil per Ford recommendation and guess what happened? No more engine noise.

I get so tired of trying to explain this to a bunch of know-it-nothing hard heads, I have no idea why I even bother, it's not my engine that's going to burn up so go ahead and listen to the peanut gallery, I'm out.
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1994Vmax

And trust me...... the rest of this forum gets tired of you running everyone else into the ground because you are gods personal gift to Ford. You don't know what you are talking about..... so drop it.