5W-20 NOACK % Evaporation
 

A Heads UP, for those not following this on the Oil & Lube forum posts.
PQIA has completed a Second round of NOACK testing on SN/GF-5, 5W-20 engine oil & more are showing Increased % evaporation over the previous SM/GF-4 recipe, including Motorcraft & one brand is well out of spec. SO, if your using one of the oils that has a higher % evaporation, you need to check your oil level more often during the OCI, so you don't run your engine low on lube due to it evaporating!!!!

Hot running engines like a turbo, or super charged, or high rev over head cam, operated in hot temps, or for long hot high speed Interstate runs, or long lugs & tugs towing, or those operating in lots of hot city stop & go traffic, need extra watching!!!! The Petroleum Quality Institute of America

Those of us that still have 5W-30 specified, or never changed to 5W-20 on engines that were back specified to use it, still need to watch out too, as a number of 5W-30 SN/GF-5 lubes are also showing Increased NOACK % evaporation loss, over the previous service grade SM/GF-4 recipe!!! PQIA also has a bevy of tests on the SN/GF-5 5W-30, regular & synthetic that we can check on here. http://www.pqiamerica.com/index.html

My family has 4 engines that had never consumed oil during a change when using the specified 5W-30 SM/GF-4, Suddenly begin to consume 1/2-1 qt of 5W-30 oil in a 6 month intervial, as soon as they were changed over to the new service grade 5W-30 SN/GF-5!!!! The consumption usually begins around the 2500 mile mark!!!!

Thanks for that excellent link! Very educational.

Thanks for the heads up. Changing the ranger's oil this weekend. I'll have to watch during its life cycle.

i just changed the oil in my ranger, and happened to use 5w20, normally i run 5w30 (and thats whats supposed to be in there) but last summer i got a jug of oil for my daughters car, thinking it used 5w20, then found out it was supposed to have 5w30. didnt want to run it in her car, esp in the hot summer months, but figured it would be ok to use in the winter, ive noticed that ive seen some consumption issues that i hadnt before, i just thought it was wear and normal "blow-by" occuring.....good information to know! :)

If your using the 5W-20 in a 4.0L, be aware that its oil pump never got upgraded to be able to meet the 4.0L flow/volume needs when trying to move the lower viscosity hot 5W-20, so Ford never back specified the 4.0L & a couple of other engines, to use 5W-20!!!!

im keeping a close eye on things, probly by march it will get changed again and i'll go back to the 5w30. i defintly wouldnt run it in warm weather or do any towing with that lighter weight oil in there, if i need to add more before it gets changed, i'll top off with the 5w30 weight.