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When did Ford change the recommended engine oil for the GT?

K4fxd

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Or maybe it is so the oil will drain back from the heads fast enough to keep some in the pan at 7000 rpm.
If that were the case Ford wouldn't recommend 5W50 for track usage.
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Bulldog9

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Or maybe it is so the oil will drain back from the heads fast enough to keep some in the pan at 7000 rpm.
Nope, with 10 quart capacity and deep sump, not an issue.
 

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K4fxd

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Ford Racing/Ford Performance recommends 5W-50 for all Coyote engine variants for the track/HPDE. Can't hurt to give them a call if you want to hear it directly from them.
 

Dfeeds

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Or maybe it is so the oil will drain back from the heads fast enough to keep some in the pan at 7000 rpm.
It's not. This has been discussed to absolute death over and bobistheoilguy.com. Don't drink the coolaid. It's definitely about CAFE. There's not a big enough viscosity difference between 5w20 and 5w30 to make any meaningful difference in such a scenario.

Also, as pointed out, 10 qt sump.

Ford Racing/Ford Performance recommends 5W-50 for all Coyote engine variants for the track/HPDE. Can't hurt to give them a call if you want to hear it directly from them.
Ford actually did change the recommended viscosity, for track use, to 5w30 for the 2018 and 2019 MY. 2020 is probably the same but I never bothered to look it up first hand. It might be because the car goes into limp mode well before temps will reach a point where 5w50 is actually necessary.
 

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Any experiences with running synthetic blend exclusively, and then switching to full synthetic after you have lot of miles? I did that once with my high mileage Honda and it caused oil consumption until I switched back. My Mustang has just shy of 45k miles on blend. Not sure if it would be a good idea to switch at this point. The cost difference is not a concern to me.
 

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TLDR (for this whole thread): No official reasoning as to why Ford switched the recommended oil weight on the 5.0L from 5W-20 to 5W-30 for 2021+.

My speculation and opinion: Ford switched from 5W-20 to 5W-30 due to oil consumption.
 

K4fxd

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My speculation and opinion: Ford switched from 5W-20 to 5W-30 due to oil consumption.
Oil consumption, 2K rattle, BBQ tick, fuel dilution, has gas guzzler tax anyway so Ford went for better engine protection. Could be any or none.
 

Vlad Soare

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But do we actually know that higher viscosity equals better engine protection? This used to be the case in the olden days, when engines consisted of little more than a few lumps of iron moving up and down, but is it still the case with today's amazingly sophisticated engines, which have extremely tight tolerances and rely heavily on a very specific oil pressure and viscosity to work properly?
Conventional wisdom has it that the optimum viscosity at normal operating temperature is around 10 cSt. But this wisdom comes from an age when the oil was used merely for lubrication (not for actuating all sorts of mechanical devices, like it is today), oil pressure depended only on the temperature and viscosity of the oil and was considered OK if it was just roughly in the ballpark (unlike today, when it's tightly controlled by the PCM), etc. Do we know with any degree of certainty that the 10 cSt target is still valid today?
 

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But do we actually know that higher viscosity equals better engine protection?
When operated at high temperatures above intended use, yes. A 5w20 oil at 260* (130*C) is no longer the same viscosity as at 212* (100*C) where it was intended to be operated at. Thus the need for a thicker oil to begin with so that as it gets heated up and thins out it maintains the minimum viscosity needed.

Basically, a 5w30 thinned out to 5w20 viscosity is going to protect better than a 5w20 that's been thinned out to a 5w10. You just need to maintain a minimum viscosity, and in some cases that means compensating by adding a thicker fluid to start out with so the breakdown doesn't get below the minimum.
 
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gadgtfreek

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I'm two months in on this 2021 stang. The tick at idle was very prominent all the time when I get it at 9400 miles. HAvent heard it since changing to Mobil 1 5w-30 a couple of weeks in. Engine is very quiet idling, just hear tranny whine in P. I'm assuming what was in there was 5w-20 Motorcraft, but I have no idea. The meter was reset when I bought it, so the dealer or someone changed the oil.
 

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I sort of go along with Vlad on this. The engine was designed to operate at a certain temperature with a certain oil. If we change either of those then we may need to compensate but something else (like cam phasers ?) is almost always going to operate out of spec then.
 

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if oil is good enough for track day its good enough for every day.
 

EFI

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is almost always going to operate out of spec then.
There's always going to be cons with anything you do. If you track your car, one negative is accelerated engine wear either due to the load put on it or the "out of spec" oil you put in it. There's just no real way to have your cake and eat it too. Racers have to understand this.

But...and it's a big but. I think this out of spec thing is generally overblown. If you ran 10w60 in your engine yeah ok that might be out of spec and wear out your stuff quickly. But going from a 5w20 to a 5w30 is not that big of a difference. Also you have to remember that Ford at one point was able to recommend and warranty the same EXACT engine on both 5w20 and 5w50.
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