Put in wrong oil

[PAExplorerXLT]

Murphy's law struck today. I had two jugs of oil. One 5W-20 and one 5W-30. Guess which one I used. If you say it doesn’t matter a whole lot then I am a bit relieved. In any case, I am not about to change it anytime soon.

 

[acschilling]

I ran my 92 4.0 OHV over winter with Motorcraft 5-20 and everything was just fine.

 

[4rd Xplora]

Ran a straight 30wt Pennzoil for years with no ill effects.

 

[swshawaii]

4.0 SOHC timing chain tensioners are a design flaw and a serious enough issue. Using the recommended 5W-30 can only help.

Penny wise and.......

 

[PAExplorerXLT]

4.0 SOHC timing chain tensioners are a design flaw and a serious enough issue. Using the recommended 5W-30 can only help.

Penny wise and.......

Read somewhere that a thinner oil may actually help with the timing chain. I am not even sure I have a problem with the chain. The most I am gonna do is to add a bottle of Motor Honey or should I just leave it alone? I figure over the 165000 miles life of the engine I am sure somebody has slipped up a few times before.

 

[boominXplorer]

It will be just fine, just make sure you change it at 3k miles so it doesn't get too thin.

 

[bill06447]

5w20 is what is recommended. Ford bulletins are out to that effect that supersedes the radiator support sticker and owners manual.

Bill

 

[swshawaii]

^ Thanks for the heads up Bill. Always learning something new on EF.

SAE VISCOSITY GRADE RECOMMENDATION (5/3/99)
http://www.revbase.com/BBBMotor/TSb/DownloadPdf?id=44867

RECOMMENDED APPLICATIONS FOR SAE 5W-20 AND SAE 5W-30 MOTOR OILS (1/21/02)
http://www.revbase.com/BBBMotor/TSb/DownloadPdf?id=114752

http://www.bbbind.com/free_tsb.html

 

[BubbaFL]

Ford never changed the specifications for the 4.0 SOHC or 4.0 OHV engines.

The 5.0 was back-spec'd to 5w-20.

If you don't want to dump the 5w-20, I would put a bottle of STP oil treatment in to thicken it up.

Not worth risking the fragile timing system components on a 4.0 SOHC, IMHO.

 

[lorraine1]

i run 10w40 year round,always have and have no problems so far,i use it in all the vehicles i own., ever since i started driving ,57 years now.

 

[Flash]

Just leave it in, it will be fine.

If you want to, keep an eye on the oil pressure but I'm sure it won't make any difference.

 

[SoNic67]

Ford never changed the specifications for the 4.0 SOHC or 4.0 OHV engines.
The 5.0 was back-spec'd to 5w-20.

That that's what ruined my 5.0L at 90k miles. Now I have to run 10W50 in it so it won't have oil pressure issues at idle.
Ford needed to improve the gas mileage to comply with the new CAFE regulations.
So they lowered the oil requirement for an engine that was designed in 1960 around 20W40 oils and was already moved to 30 once. That gave them the small improvement needed on expense of us, the customers.

And yes, the Explorer 4.0L years 2001 and 2002 were specifically excepted in the 2002 bulletin - a change from the initial 1999 bulletin. Wonder why those years? They had too many warranty claims!
For earlier years 4.0L... who cares, more business to the repair shops!

On OP case I would go with a bottle of Motor Honey, Lucas, STP...

 

[bill06447]

You're oil problems generally don't occur during run time (unless parts have already wore out) it's the start up that kills engines. 20w50 STP Lucas and other ilk don't circulate when cold and let bearings beat themselves to death the first few seconds on start up. I run 5w30 in everything (10w30 in the Caddy) and oil issues, for me, are non-existent

Bill

 

[PAExplorerXLT]

I put in 5W-20 so I shouldn't have a problem on startup. I don't know if anybody actually knows what the likes of Motor Honey do to the oil. Do they affect the lower number or the higher?

 

[swshawaii]

W is an abbreviation for Winter, not weight as some are lead to believe. The higher number designates thicker in multi viscosity oils.

By far the most comprehensive, and opinionated oil forum in existence. Everything you probably don't need to know, and more. LOL

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm