Wow that was scary went from straight 50 to 20W50 uh oh

[loveoftiki]

Well the PO drove the truck as a daily and always ran straight 50 in it, but being in Sacramento you can get away with that a little easier than here in Detroit ( its my summer cruiser , but planned to drive it to Autorama this wekend ). So I decided I would throw some Valvoline 20w50 in her along with half a jug of the Lucas in the white jug. Got it buttoned up fired the motor and something didnt sound right, heard a slight squeek I never heard before. Thought it was a water pump or alt. Both of those were fine when spun. I than drained to 40 bucks worth of oil, filter, and lucas junk. Nothing on my magnetic drain plug, oil coming out looked clean, nothing in the fillter when I tipped it out I went and bought more straight 50 valvoline vr1 racing oil and a new filter on. When I got home a saw a nice puddle on the pcv side of the motor. I thought maybe i had a clogged pcv, but that checked out. I filled it back up with the 50 weight. Fired it up no more squeek, got 50 lbs at start up and good oil pressure after 20 minutes run time. I also now have only a slight oil leak, which its always had. I didnt think going to 20w50 over 50 weight would be a big deal. Please help me sleep easier and tell me my bearings arent pinstriped at this point ha-ha. Everything seems fine now, maybe the 20w50 was able to sneak past my leaking valve cover gasket? Why did I mess with it in the first place

[Bill W]

I never liked using multi viscosity oil in the older engines... but i do use Valvoline! good stuff.

[slickmainer]

bill what do you run for oil?

[Bill W]

40 weight.... for the trucks it's what ever is on sale because it cost so much now to buy name brand stuff.

my little honda engines (compressor, power washer etc) only get valvoline

[Bill W]

this is what happend when you switched to 20W50... the oil is thinner when the engine is cold or cold conditions outside....that is the 20 part. the W stands for winter not weight, the 50 part is when the engine warms up, the oil will get thicker. So the noise you heard was in part because on startup your oil was not thick enough to fill up the wear between the bearing surfaces. newer engines have very tight tollerances so they need multi weight oils... old tired worn out engines need the thickness of a single weight oil at start up.

hope that helps.

[loveoftiki]

Being I still have good oil pressure, and didnt see any metal shavings on the plug or in the filter do you think I hurt it ? I ran it for about 2-3 minutes trying to pinpoint the squeek. Man I will be sick, this thing ran so nice and never missed a beat. I thought I was doing the right thing putting that oil in there. I have ran 20w50 in my 351 cleveland for years with zero issues. What could be the consiquences of my stupidity?

[slick4x4]

i have a hard time thinking that changing oil & you would get a ''squeek'' sound....
there is still some residue oil left in the bearings for lube ( think about an engine that
has sat for years . . . they can start up and not be damaged)
i was taught that oil such as 20-50 meant it had the vicosity of 20 weight when it was cold
and the vicosity of 50 when it was hot ( it still is thinner when it is hot,,,, but not as thin as 20)

this is my guess.......

the ''squeek you heard was from belt noise.....
when you took the belt off to check the pump & alt , then re-tensioned it...
the ''squeek'' went away......

i bet your motor is fine.

[BigMike]

I run 10-30 Castol GTX in my truck with no issues. I wasn't sure what to use when I got so asked and that was the overwhelming answer. 20-50 sounds like a better choice especially here in the South. I run straight Valvoline VR-1 50W in my Harley in the summer though.

[64 f100]

I would not worry over the oil you put in it. I would worry about other aspects of the engine in connection with the oil you are running. Alight squeeking noise? If, the engine bearings are squeeking something is really wrong. I, like others, don't think don't think your squeeking came from the engine, and deffinately not from bearings. The things to watch for are oil pressure, and if you think you have a problem there, then install an aftermarket mechnaical oil gage. At least, I think you can still buy those. You never know with todays economy. I am not a great fan of multiviscosity oils but use these all the time in most of my engines. However, I prefer to use single viscosity oils in older engiens as this was what they had back then. Musti viscosity depend on polimers to thicken the oil whenit gets warm, and these will break down over time and use. Thinner oils mean the oil will excape thru smaller holes, but in escence, if you have oil running thru the engine you hae lubrication, and yes there should be a a residue of oil still left from yoru previous oil. I've run engine very low on oil a few times, and I remmember specific instances where it did not hurt the engine to any apreciative amount. I have also ran slick 60 in engines and the main ingrediant is a form of plastic so to speak, teflon I believe. This stuff works it's way into areas of the engine and stays there to a certain degree. I believe, with some proof, that this will help protect bearings from catastophic failure for a short while. Uncertain as to how long you can run an engine with little to no oil with this addditivve, but I've done it and didn't destroy the bearings nor have to rebuild the engine because of the lack of oil. Doesn't mean the engine didn't need an overhaul to start with, just that I didn't throw a rod or main. Anyway, get a mechanical guage and retry your 20/50 , don't throw the oil away, it's still good.

Rich

[ICEMAN6166]

went from sae40 to 15w40 in my y block , it leaks and burns more now especially when cold so im going back to the sae 40 next oil change.

[CoralRed]

I agree with the other posts. You probably didn't hurt the bearings, but they probably are worn...they are a wear item. If you want peace of mind, cut open your filter. If you lost any bearing material, you'll see it inside.

[BigMike]

The factory manual says to use 10w-30.

[ICEMAN6166]

but the factory manual is not paying for the oil, however if it wants to send me $ for the extra consumption then i will use it.

also i do not think todays 10w30/40 is the same formula as the 1960s version.

possibly if i had a fresh rebuild with new rings and bearings i could probably use the 10w 30 or 40 but with a 50 year old engine i do what keeps the consumption down to a minimum.

i will see whenever i get my rebuilt 223 on the road if it likes 10w30 or 40

[loveoftiki]

Thanks for the replys everybody. I agree I dont think the motor is hurt, but it does make me think it's time for a rebuild

[Toyz]

went from sae40 to 15w40 in my y block , it leaks and burns more now especially when cold so im going back to the sae 40 next oil change.

Dayum, Brian, How do you get that thing to start with 40w? I drove one of my vehicles to Northern Colorado, (hey, that's the tundra to me) with 20w50 Castrol. First really cold morning, it barely started. Problems at the franchise oil change place were entirely another matter, but when I finally got it filled with the correct amount of 10w30, it started fine. The engine had a huge compression ratio, but some of that was (or should have been) bled off by cam overlap, and the engine was set up kinda loose by street standards.!
The higher weights do seen to cut oil consumption, though.
My basis on multi-grades is: don't ever believe that higher number, and keep the lower number within 20 of the higher number, preferably less!
That said, I run my Brand X's on 0w20 Mobil One with good oil pressure. Seems to be an improvement on the dyno, and they all rattle at idle anyway My wife's English Ford uses 10w30 although 5w30 is recommended; there's a noticable sound difference in the blower at low rpm between the two. 20w50 Mobil in the Cyclone and the Uni, may go lighter once I see extended oil pressure readings.
Again as they say, your results may vary
Paul

[frdnut]

i have a hard time thinking that changing oil & you would get a ''squeek'' sound....
there is still some residue oil left in the bearings for lube ( think about an engine that
has sat for years . . . they can start up and not be damaged)
i was taught that oil such as 20-50 meant it had the vicosity of 20 weight when it was cold
and the vicosity of 50 when it was hot ( it still is thinner when it is hot,,,, but not as thin as 20)

this is my guess.......

the ''squeek you heard was from belt noise.....
when you took the belt off to check the pump & alt , then re-tensioned it...
the ''squeek'' went away......

i bet your motor is fine.

I would tend to agree.....If you need straight 50 weight you must have some serious issues with bearing clearance or an internal leak somewhere.

[64 f100]

Your manual recommends 10w30? I seem to remmember mine (64) read 40w in the summer, and something less in the winter, but not multiviscosity.

Rich

[ICEMAN6166]

went from sae40 to 15w40 in my y block , it leaks and burns more now especially when cold so im going back to the sae 40 next oil change.

Dayum, Brian, How do you get that thing to start with 40w? I drove one of my vehicles to Northern Colorado, (hey, that's the tundra to me) with 20w50 Castrol. First really cold morning, it barely started.
Paul

plug it in below +20F

only time i have ever had any issue was one time @ -30 (62 below freezing) when the oil light did not want to go out.

[ezernut9mm]

in my 1961 owners manual it says 30w for 32-100f. multi vis oils can be used if they meet the api standards. it doesn't give any mutli vis weight recommendations except for 20-20.

[flareside64]

Hey loveoftiki, what year is your truck? I plan on heading down to autorama this weekend too. Where do you live at? I'm in north end of Macomb County.

I would reccommend running a zinc additive in your oil. Todays oils dont have the zinc required to lubricate flat tappet engines like ours. I run Brad Penn 10w-30 racing oil in my 445. And I run 15-40 in my 223.

Travis