chuckystang said:
I was told 5 w 30 was thicker than 10w 30, I did notice just the other day under my 99 cobra hood it says 5w30, but could anyone settle this once and for all, what the difference is between 5w30, 10w30, 10w40??????
Whoa, whoa, whoa...looks like someone fed you some wrong information.
5w-30 & 10w-30 oil are the same "thickness," a thirty weight. 5w-30 and 10w-30 both flow the same once at operating temperature.
However,they only differ in that at cold start-up, the 5w will flow faster/better than the 10w...until the oil reaches temp.
Again,
both the 5w & the 10w thirty-weight oil will have similar flow characteristics at operating temperature.
Regarding "thickness:"
40 weight oil is thicker than a 30 weight (briefly: 50 weight is thicker than 40 weight, which is thicker than 30, which is thicker than 20).
There's really no need to use a 40 or 50 weight oil IMHO unless you are running your car hard during a long endurance event, such as open-track/road-racing. Variables such as climate (Arizona desert? New England cold?) come into play. Daily driver? Track-only car?
As mentioned earlier, the recommended oil was/is 5w-30 for the 96-98s, as well as the 99's. Ford then went to 5w-20 w/ the '01+ models strictly because of CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy - read: $$$$ savings for Ford). Many of us still use a quality 30 weight oil with no ill repercussions...
...the choice of oil brand (a whole 'nuther thread -LOL) & weight can be a very confusing topic, but the logical choice is to use an oil that is "just thin enough" for your application (for performance reasons/frictional losses/etc).
i think im just being slow tonight ahah
