Mixing Oil Grades

I like that! Maybe I’ll just keep it in my truck and when I see a 1 Gen I’ll just give it to them. The funny thing is one of these guys that stood me up on Marketplace had a good chance of me giving the oil to them for free.

 

Shit mang... if you're not going to use it, give it to someone who will! Go on regionals for your location and post it up in the classifieds or something. There's all kinds of people on TW that run 5W-30 in their trucks.

 

I understand the destination but not the motivation. If you’re concerned about waste management, find a neighbor who could use it and… give it to them. You said money’s not the issue so give it to someone who could use it.

 

Are your 5W30 and 0W20 oils from the same company? If so, feel free to mix them in any proportion. You can also put in the 6 qts of 5W30 straight in one go. That's what the owner's manual specifies in Mexico.

 

I’ve been cleaning out my garage for a couple weeks now and you’d be surprised how hard it is to get rid of stuff. I’d post a ‘for free’ ad and they’d want me to hand deliver it to them. I just chucked a good set of service ramps that I couldn’t give away to save my life.

 

Yes same manufacturer. I did not know the Mexico deal. Nice! Now I’m going to take a shot of tequila and a little siesta.
Buenos noches.

 

Or just use it, because it won’t matter.

 

Use it just fine. It will not matter. The factory service manual officially allows for up to 15W-40.

 

Mixing oils is not like mixing food coloring, where you'd get purple out of a bit of red and blue. You can have unexpected interactions between the fluids. Maybe they mix and you get a viscosity that's somewhere in between, but its much more likely that the resultant viscosity is completely unpredictable and somewhat heterogenous.

In my lab I've mixed two things of similar paint-like viscosity and have gotten a fluid that's as thin as water. The next day I mixed the same in different ratios and got a paste thick enough to serve upside-down at the drive through. ... Its not always a linear relationship when it comes to rheology. Actually, its very rarely a linear relationship. You don't know how the two oils will interact, so are you willing to use your engine block as the experimental laboratory?

Either run 5W or run 0W and give away the 5W. Don't mix/match. Or do. Just don't try to sell the car to me afterwards.

 

Brother, I’m military and have moved 6 times in the last 10 years. I feel ya on cleaning out the garage and finding a good home. Fortunately, there’s almost always another military family nearby who could use it. Do you live near any installations? I guarantee there is a family that would happily take anything you have, just have to find a way to connect to them.

 

Which is pretty much what the manufacturer stated.

 

Fort Liberty(Bragg), Seymour Johnson AFB, Camp Lejeune. Another good idea. I’m US Army ‘74-‘77.

 

right. just use it in the summer when it's hot out.

 

I use 4 quarts of Valvoline 5w-20 wxtrended performance all summer long with 2 quarts of valvoline extended performance high mileage 0w-20 and change at 5k-7.5k miles. I’m at 162k miles with zero issues whatsoever on the truck. Last 2 vehicles I’ve owned and did this lasted 320k miles and engines were still running fine before I quit driving them.

don’t sweat it and use the 5/30 in the summer time or put a quart in for next 6 changes and you won’t have an issue in my experience. The oil usually looks nearly unused after I drain it for an oil change when it comes out at 5k miles but oil is cheap and I’ve had great luck from my intervals keeping it below 7500 miles most of the time

 

Just use it and quit the Rolaids!! OMG!

 

If you can figure out who the installation ombudsman is, they should be able to link you up with a network. Military families have to throw away a bunch of stuff each move because the movers don’t move flammable, open liquids, open spices, etc. Guarantee you that there are multiple families in Jacksonville or Fayetteville that would gladly take stuff off your hands.

 

Not what he's saying. Just do a 1 time 5w30 oil change the go back to 0w20 the next time.

The truck won't care. At all.

 

I’ve yet to see anyone who’s run 5w-30 in their 3.5 3rd Gen come back and say “something went wrong”.

This topic comes up frequently.

I’m of the opinion that, mixing won’t likely hurt it.
Running full 5w-30 in temperatures above 50’F won’t hurt it.

In short, I wouldn’t worry about it.

 

Literally nothing will go wrong since the FSM straight up tells you you can run 15W-40. There is so much speculation about all this it’s insane. You have the right idea.

 

If it was me, I would use the 5w-30 jug for my next oil change, go back to the 0w-20 thereafter, and use the leftover quart in my snowblower next oil change.