Again - they're defining a set of requirements and testing to those requirements. Their requirements may or may not correlate to long term engine longevity, which is what we actually care about. In this case, they don't really.

 

Right, the video had good info about oil in there if you don't already know it, but their testing may have well as been what power difference does thicker/thinner oil make.

 

Another thing to reiterate and always know understand how manufactures choose the oil that is specified for each vehicle. The engineers sadly do NOT ever get the final say in what oil is spec'd even though they designed the engine.

FoMoCo executives get the final say who spec the oils based on what is going to get absolutely the highest amount of miles per gallon and only give them adequate protection at least until the warranty expires. CAFE requirements on the manufacture's entire vehicle line up will undoubtedly effect each engine's oil spec.

I got the pleasure of speaking to one of the engineers who worked on the 4.6L 3V engine back in roughly ~2007. I was told that the 4.6L 3V was designed to run on 5w30 but the engineers were overruled and 5w20 was spec'd simply to improve mileage due to CAFE requirements at the time.

 

I was actually thinking about switching to 5W-30 because I run 20 now and it’s the second time I’ve had my 2013 f150 5.0 flex fuel Throw a low oil pressure warning for no reason. With no engine sounds or anything abnormal happening along with the warning light.
you think that would fix the problem possibly?

 

Potentially, yes, depends if your sensor and it's connector wiring is ok. This engine runs on a very low pressure with 5w20 in it, the idle pressure is a low 16psi IIRC.

 

Holy cow, what a thread!

FWIW, opting to stick with the spec'd 5W20, going so far as to keep oil and filter Motorcraft branded - the semi-synthetic oil and the FL500 filter.

Yeah, appreciate the noises about better oils and filters, WIX fan here myself, just getting beyond thinking my opinion is better than the OEM recommendations with their hopefully millions of dollars of research towards their specs.

Not far enough into longevity for a 'told ya so', but ~93K miles without noticeable dipstick changes between OLM flagged oil change intervals.

 

Yes, that would be a good assumption, until the CAFE standard happened, at which point, they saved money and fines by lessoning the viscosity on the oil.

 

Ive been running Rotella 5w40 T6 in my 5.4 for over a year. The new cam phasers didnt like anything of lower vecosity full time. It would intermittently oscillate at idle. 5w40 synthetic fixed that.

 

@wde3477
On the F150 version of the 5.0 specifically, the parts of the engine that would potentially "suffer" from using thicker oil (phasers, bearings, oil pump, etc) are identical to those used on 11-14 5.0 Mustangs with the track pack. The track pack mustangs are spec'd for 5w50. So there is zero possibility that higher viscosity oil alone is going to cause any sort of damage to the engine. I've been running 5w40 for a while now with zero issues and much less noise from the engine

 

I run Red line 5w20 in my 5.0 coyote with a k&n filter simply because I know how well it protects my engine. I've run OEM oil and filter and red line gives much better protection, lower engine temp and much longer life with no metal shavings found in the oil at any change. Red line also will take engine heat up to 600° before even starting to break down. I ran Red line in my 67 Camaro pro stock so I've some what familiar with the product. I also run red line in my 09 HD Fat boy in all three holes. Red line has a group of different performance chemicals that work fantastic. This is just my 2¢ worth but I guarantee you will like Red line products. That's all I run in my 2013 F-150 XLT super crew Texas Edition. She's got over 300k miles on her right and runs fantastic!
I just donated our 2003 Ford Windstar with over 126k miles on her and she runs great also had Red line running through her engine, radiator and transmission.
To me, Red line is GOLD.
Peace out brothers!