2.5L Hybrid - Change to 5W-30 oil

[inline_five]

So a rooftop solar panel (perhaps 180w) is enough current inverted to 120vac to produce consistent charging? A used EV with reduced battery capacity and range at that. Wow. I'm surprised. What's next, cars that run on love?

Rooftop as in home rooftop.

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[Cherokee]

It's unusual for a Ford dealer to use any oil other than what is called for. I've never heard of one even doing it by request. Very odd.

Back in the days of cast iron blocks and even before aluminum heads engines wore out well before 150,000 miles.
Mechanics often recommended going to a heavier weight oil because the sleeve bearings on the cranks, rod bearings and many other moving parts would wind up with more space between bearing surfaces as they wore down.
The thicker oil helped fill the larger spaces/voids. This was done to help transfer heat and help keep surfaces from making contact.

CNC machining brought fit and tolerances way down. Parts work much closer together.
Hence,
Thinner oil.

Guys putting thicker oil in and or diluting the oil with additional additives is just another reason I don’t buy used cars.
Remember a product called,’Slick 50’ ?
And all the horse shit it claimed to do ?
A bottle of that goes in and you have one less quart of oil in your engine and 20% less of the oil manufacturers additives that are actually needed.
These additive packages are the main reason I got past a half a million miles on one engine and well past 300,000 on several others.
I got 394,000 on a cast iron block and iron head engine designed in 1957.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

It's unusual for a Ford dealer to use any oil other than what is called for. I've never heard of one even doing it by request. Very odd.

Most people call and ask "How much is an oil change?" Dealership should quote multiple prices for say blend or full synthetic but most do not. Some dealers will place next oil change sticker on windshield of 5k miles for blend or 7-7.5k miles for full synthetic. Bottom line is be sure to ask for what you want.

 

[srfdude44]

This is the answer and OP is ignorant on hybrid drivetrains, well any drivetrain.

As others have said let him run syrup through his engine, ruin efficiency, tax it, and cause undue harm.

OP certain it’s a good idea though!!!

"OP is ignorant on hybrid........."
Wow, did you get your information from God, or maybe Ford himself? Very pejorative comment, there is enough in this forum already. HTHS is a function of oil, and consequently "thickness". Anyone who is educated in tribology will tell you that said "thickness" is a major factor in wear, metal-on-metal. XW-30 is always going to reduce wear, over a 20 weight, which is a requirement of EPA . New designs which use different bearing/driveshaft clearances, etc. can use 20 and get away with it. The Ford L5 Duratec, while optimized for hybrid use, is an old cast design and will benefit with 30 weight oil.

 

[srfdude44]

I will stay with the recommended oil. BUT this fallacy of newer engines and tighter tolerance is just that . A fallacy.

Built many engines over the years most at dealer some race engines too in my drag race days Tolerance were always very tight. And yes 4 valve over head cams existed then too. But the V-8's were still mostly pushrod.

Absolutely you are entitled to use whatever you prefer. As to "tolerances were always tight" well there is a world of difference between "tolerances" and clearances. Clearance is one spec, of several, that will determine the proper weight of an oil.

 

[Phimosis]

So a rooftop solar panel (perhaps 180w) is enough current inverted to 120vac to produce consistent charging? A used EV with reduced battery capacity and range at that. Wow. I'm surprised. What's next, cars that run on love?

I have a Tesla brand solar system. It is 36 panels x 400 watts each, 14.4 kw total system power. It has 2 inverters, 7,500 watts each, 240V AC. It makes up to 90 kWh per day in the summer and 40 kWh per day in the winter. The energy is generated during the day, when I am not home and all of that energy goes to the grid, essentially running my electricity meter in reverse. Then when I get home at night, I plug in my car and the meter goes forward again.

In 2.5 years, I’ve made 49.3 MWh, or 49,300 kWh. My cheapest night time electricity rate is $0.23 per kWh, which means my solar panels have returned $11,000 in that 2.5 years.

The price from Tesla was $33,600. I took the 30% solar tax credit and the final cost was $23,500. I’m am on track for a 5.3 year return on investment, then after 5 years, I’m just getting free electricity.

My ev has a 75 kWh (gross) battery, which means it was about 71 kWh net, when new. I purchased it when it was 4 years old and had 40 k miles on the odometer. It would hold about 65 kWh at that time on a 100% charge. Now, it is 7 years old, has 140k miles on the odometer and the battery only holds 60 kWh, so 15.5% battery degradation in 7 years.

The range from an older EV is lower, but it is still enough. And it still does 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds. With zero effort. And I use full throttle at least 10 times a day. Who would be willing to take an ICE vehicle with 140k miles and run it to the redline multiple times per day? I sure wouldn’t. But the EV doesn’t care. It doesn’t make any weird noises or gear whine or any indication that the drivetrain is showing its age/milage.

I know this is a long read, but hopefully it provides you, as well as others, here at MTC with useful information, to counter the rampant EV disinformation.

 

[710-oil-614]

"OP is ignorant on hybrid........."
Wow, did you get your information from God, or maybe Ford himself? Very pejorative comment, there is enough in this forum already. HTHS is a function of oil, and consequently "thickness". Anyone who is educated in tribology will tell you that said "thickness" is a major factor in wear, metal-on-metal. XW-30 is always going to reduce wear, over a 20 weight, which is a requirement of EPA . New designs which use different bearing/driveshaft clearances, etc. can use 20 and get away with it. The Ford L5 Duratec, while optimized for hybrid use, is an old cast design and will benefit with 30 weight oil.

Yep a 350 from Chevy still need to be running 10w50 too. LOL. Y’all are too much just switch to the 5w when winter hits. Lololol.

 

[Robot-Wrangler]

I have a Tesla brand solar system. It is 36 panels x 400 watts each, 14.4 kw total system power. It has 2 inverters, 7,500 watts each, 240V AC. It makes up to 90 kWh per day in the summer and 40 kWh per day in the winter. The energy is generated during the day, when I am not home and all of that energy goes to the grid, essentially running my electricity meter in reverse. Then when I get home at night, I plug in my car and the meter goes forward again.

In 2.5 years, I’ve made 49.3 MWh, or 49,300 kWh. My cheapest night time electricity rate is $0.23 per kWh, which means my solar panels have returned $11,000 in that 2.5 years.

The price from Tesla was $33,600. I took the 30% solar tax credit and the final cost was $23,500. I’m am on track for a 5.3 year return on investment, then after 5 years, I’m just getting free electricity.

My ev has a 75 kWh (gross) battery, which means it was about 71 kWh net, when new. I purchased it when it was 4 years old and had 40 k miles on the odometer. It would hold about 65 kWh at that time on a 100% charge. Now, it is 7 years old, has 140k miles on the odometer and the battery only holds 60 kWh, so 15.5% battery degradation in 7 years.

The range from an older EV is lower, but it is still enough. And it still does 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds. With zero effort. And I use full throttle at least 10 times a day. Who would be willing to take an ICE vehicle with 140k miles and run it to the redline multiple times per day? I sure wouldn’t. But the EV doesn’t care. It doesn’t make any weird noises or gear whine or any indication that the drivetrain is showing its age/milage.

I know this is a long read, but hopefully it provides you, as well as others, here at MTC with useful information, to counter the rampant EV disinformation.

Oh, I thought you meant the roof of your car. I couldn't imagine more than about 200watts of solar surface area on the roof of an older EV.

I didn't realize that you dropped tens of thousands of dollars for "free" electricity. My bad.

 

[NeedForSteve]

The only thing that is used from the original Mazda engine is the bare block. The rest of the engine is different to get the Atkinson design. I think I will stick with what the engineers recommend.

And the block’s not even the same going back to the Gen 1/2 Duratec hybrids. The 2.5 Atkinson has been through several revisions.

 

[Ryom]

Folklore and the anecdotal aside, I had oil analysis done on the dealer 0w-20 last year--at 10k mi on the oil- and it was very good to excellent on all points (see related thread). I have 5w-30 (full synthetic) in it now and approaching the 10k interval (April, I think). Plan to have that oil analyzed as well. Hoping for somewhat better total metal ppm (under 5ppm/1000mi). I won't be dismayed if it is the same or even somewhat worse, in which case, I'll try 5w-20.

Also a big grunt to those who use 20w-50 or something like that for strawman arguments against deviating in any way from OEM viscosity recommendations. 5w-30 isn't a dramatic difference anyway.

As for smoothness; I too observed a somewhat quieter engine w/ 5w-30 in the Fall and Winter, which I wasn't surprised by, given past experimentation with viscosity with other vehicles. It IS a tad bit lumpier transitioning from electric to ICE when the engine is cold, but once up to temp, the transition is nearly undetectable from seat of the pants as before, but of course still noticeable as the ICE exhaust makes noise.

Thanks for sending the oil off to the lab, that's the only way to settle the argument in this thread. The rest of ya'll can argue theory all you want, but an oil analysis is the way to go here.

 

[2seater]

These threads generally go nowhere, since it is made up of opinions. If you pay attention to lots of the videos that are everywhere online, bearing clearances are only part of the equation. Many posts about small passages, cam phasers and other oil dependent items on a modern engine that fail sometimes due to oil maintenance issues and other times because of incorrect fluids. Clearances are tightest at a cold start and open up as the engine warms. Of course this is just my opinion, but the four vehicles in my signature get a zero weight first number oil. The second number is the standard number recommended by the O.E., so primarily 0W-20 and 0W-30. Flow volume is highly important, pressure as a specific number, less so. Mileage of these engines range from 9,500 on the Maverick to 220,000 on the Subaru, the oldest is supercharged.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Oh, I thought you meant the roof of your car. I couldn't imagine more than about 200watts of solar surface area on the roof of an older EV.

I didn't realize that you dropped tens of thousands of dollars for "free" electricity. My bad.

I saw the big drop in $. I want solar but it's hard to justify in Texas. My ELECTRIC COOP fixed rate is about $0.11/kw PLUS service availability (aka meter) fee of 26.69/month. in my case it would pencil out better to purchase a couple power walls go with time of use power billing charging at night cheaper and discharging during super peak billing times. About the time you think it will work out with 12 year ROI you remember to include finance cost on the investment adds several years. Then you remember buying 100 sh of TSLA at $22.30, selling 90 when it gets to 200% of purchase and keeping the 10 sh forever.

 

[710-oil-614]

I saw the big drop in $. I want solar but it's hard to justify in Texas. My ELECTRIC COOP fixed rate is about $0.11/kw PLUS service availability (aka meter) fee of 26.69/month. in my case it would pencil out better to purchase a couple power walls go with time of use power billing charging at night cheaper and discharging during super peak billing times. About the time you think it will work out with 12 year ROI you remember to include finance cost on the investment adds several years. Then you remember buying 100 sh of TSLA at $22.30, selling 90 when it gets to 200% of purchase and keeping the 10 sh forever.

Yep.

I have a 1 KW solar array on a back patio that is not tied into my electric panel but feeds my a solar generator (inverter) in my basement with roughly 5kwh of capacity. During the dead of summer I have it running my blower motor for mt HVAC and in winter it runs my tankless water heater fan, chest freezer, and second fridge.

I calculated by ROI to be only 3.5 years but I did the work myself and did not incur expenses like tying into my panel and having to get it permitted (although technically any panel in my City warrants a permit mine is hidden on a smaller roof on the rear of my house).

After I have recouped the cost to me it is really just a back up power supply to combine with my inverter propane generator.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Yep.

I have a 1 KW solar array on a back patio that is not tied into my electric panel but feeds my a solar generator (inverter) in my basement with roughly 5kwh of capacity. During the dead of summer I have it running my blower motor for mt HVAC and in winter it runs my tankless water heater fan, chest freezer, and second fridge.

I calculated by ROI to be only 3.5 years but I did the work myself and did not incur expenses like tying into my panel and having to get it permitted (although technically any panel in my City warrants a permit mine is hidden on a smaller roof on the rear of my house).

After I have recouped the cost to me it is really just a back up power supply to combine with my inverter propane generator.

My neighbor upgraded her solar batteries last Nivember. I purchased her old 16 6v 400amp AGM for $400 total. They are five years old and were abused. They have all seen noco maintainers and are holding at 6.4 volts, some for weeks. Game plan is lights and 2 freezers in garage plus well (or at least fill pressure tank from 1250 gallon surface tank filled by solar well pump during day). Also possibly separate from garage power for fans lights etc in a greenhouse. Have agreement with her independent solar installer for additional batteries if in decent shape to buy at scrap plus $6-$8. Will hook these up to inverter and load test to see what I have to work with. One of her batteries only saw service for 8 months but was paired with 7 survivors in a 48v string. MSRP of those 123 lb puppies is right at $700.

 

[Jonny44]

It might affect the VVT unit and solenoid. The oil passages for them are small and a thicker oil will not flow through as easily as a 20 weight oil, and it could clog them up after a while. The solenoid is easy enough to change, but the cam unit itself will be an expensive job if it fails.

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