2.7 engine owners ? What oil weight do you use ?

I have owned Tacomas since 2003. This is my second 2.7 engine. I love these engines. The factory shows to use 0w-20. I am wondering if my engine would be better protected by 5w-30 oil. I think that is what was used in my 2003 engine. I know Toyota jumped on the fuel economy band wagon and lowered the oil weight to 0w-20 to save gas but I think it's not as protective as the 5w-30 oil.
Also , if I do change to 5w-30 , would this affect the cam-phasers in the VVT ? I know they run and operate by using the engine's oil as a type of hydraulic fluid.

 

0w-20. Is recommended why go away from the recommendation. Didn’t you buy a Toyota for reliability, why stray from their recommendation. The car nut. Toyota guy goes over what to buy when changing a worn part or even spark plugs. Watch and learn

 

It really doesnt matter with the 2.7.

0W20 was introduced mainly because its synthetic and lasts the modern intervals.

You could run the cheapest gas station oil with any grade on the 2.7 and it will out live us all.

You won't notice any difference with any oil except extremes.

 

Toyota is no longer the company it used to be when I first started owning them back in 1989. I'm afraid the newer Tacomas will no longer be a 300,000 miles truck without some type of significant failure, one being that turbocharger.

 

Recently purchased a 2014 with a 2.7. I drive it quite a lot and have changed the oil 3 times now. I use the recommended 0w-20. Haven’t had any issues using it for 15k miles and changing it every 5k.

 

..

 

Oh I watch him. He's a good guy. I'm just wondering if this oil weight change was because of the CAFE standards and for Toyota to say "hey we got better MPG's be having thinner oil...." I want this newer 2.7 to last as long as I can. I had an 1989 Tercel with 389,000 miles on it. I know how to keep up an engine but these newer VVT's and such make things more complicated.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0VoEhW2I-E

 

Name a manufacturer that this can't be said about, nearly everything is relative junk compared to what it used to be.

Nearly everything happening with modern automotive drivetrains (downsizing of engines, adding turbos, thinner oils, start/stop, more gears in transmissions, lighter parts, etc) can be attributed to government regulations, they generally don't tell manufacturers how to meet them but that they need to meet them.
The rabbit hole of various fines and credits that they shuffle back and forth for having things that meet/don't meet regs and stuff that isn't in regs but they get credits for doing goes very deep.

That being said I haven't seen a failure that could be attributed to running thinner oil that was approved for the engine, most failures are from the extended oil change intervals being recommended now, the fact that most modern engines burn oil, and the average consumer never checks it or changes it on time.

I think in the case of GM's whole 6.2L debacle they are using the heavier oil to compensate for the poor manufacturing of the engine parts and keep the engines alive long enough to get out of as many warranty claims as they can.

I'm a firm believer that if your using the correct recommended oil and changing it on time for your driving habits (could be less than 3k miles if your driving 1 mile to work every day or over 5k if your driving nothing but long trips on the highway) you will have no issues that can be attributed to oil.

 

So use 0W30 like I do in everything. You get the cold weather flow of 0W20 with the film strength (is that the correct term?) of 5W30 at operating temp. Just change the oil every 5k to avoid gumming up the VVTi cam gear, which manifests as a cold start rattle reported by a few here. (The 2.7L in 3rd gens got dual VVTi, so it isn't the same as the 2nd gen's engine.)