5w-20 in the Festiva

[ericsmith32]

I just read the ford pages on which cars could run 5w-20. To my surprise the tempo and escort 1.9L was on it. I'm seriously thinking about running it in my 91 next time. I have a huge supply of 5/10w-30 around 26qts and only 6 of 5w-20 so it's still up in the air. Seeing that I get 43mpg right now i'm wondering what increase I might see or might not see, I don't think the 1.3 are to picky and i've never seen any difference between dino's and synthetic of different weights. Thoughts anyone?

[darkdan]

Please god don't do it!

Ford did it to reduce their CAFE fines. It results in about a 0.2% increase in fuel economy compared to 5w30.

Of course, what they don't tell you is it results in about 39% more wear on average.

I made a spreadsheet of ford modular motor (4.6L/5.4L) used oil analysis. Please right click and save as:

http://www.dantheoilman.com/modular.xls

You'll see 5w30 has a HUGE advantage as far as wear is concerned.

Will it ruin your motor? Most likely not.

Will your motor last 220k miles instead of 300k miles? Most likely.

[FB71]

I have to agree, stick w/ 5w-30. Dan is on the money.