Tacoma 6 vs 4 cylinder specs

Are the new 4 cylinder Tacomas more refined and tighter spec'd than the 6 cylinders being they use 0-20 synthetic? I ask because I do not understand why the 4 cylinders come with iridium plugs and 0-20 synthetic oil, but the 6 cylinder call for conventional 5-30 dino oil and plain old short life spark plugs. Do the 4 cylinder engines have tighter tolerances? Does tighter tolerances equate longer life? I was hoping to hear Toyota put in the conventional oil and plugs in the 6 cylinders to save the company $$$$. Can one expect the 6 cylinder engines to last as long as the 4 cylinders if they indeed have looser tolerances?

 

I believe you're correct. Typically engines running 0w oils are engineered tighter, although older 2tr-fe models ran 5w if I remember correctly. Specs may have tightened on newer models to meet emission demands though. I'm sure a tech can chime in and correct me.

 

There definitely could be something to the tighter specs but honestly I would say most of it is just that when they introduce a new engine or re-engineer or significantly upgrade an existing engine they migrate it to the latest practice of using the super-thin oil and change to more recent components. I would be surprised if there is any engine Toyota makes that is significantly looser or tighter tolerances than any other.

 

My 06 calls for 5W-30 dino. I think was the case until the 08 models. There haven't been any changes to the engine that I know of, the lighter weight oil that is spec'd now is for fuel economy.

 

Just a guess here.

Operating costs are very important when fleet buyers make their orders. Iridium plugs have a longer service interval, therefore lower maintenance costs, this along with the MPG enhancing 0w20 lowers the operating cost of the truck appealing to fleet buyers which probably buy more 4cyls than 6's.

 

That's true. And I also find their terminology interesting, in that somewhere in the documentation for my truck I recall reading that my 2.7 had been "approved" for the 0W-20. That almost sounds like they regard the thin oil as tougher on the engine and the V6 might need additional testing to make sure it could take it.

I use what they say because it's under warranty and doing anything else at this point would be foolish. But I have doubts as to whether these super thin oils are really better for the engine. Back when GM got the ball rolling on that in the 1980s they started in with 5W-30, at the same time the Europeans such as VW were still encouraging 20W-50 in the summer. While the Americans were then saying these thin oils are great because they get to vital parts sooner, the Europeans were saying the thick ones were better because they never ran off the vital parts to begin with after shutdown. Now as you say, the thin crowd has won out probably because of fuel economy and emissions issues that don't have anything to do with engine longevity.

If I am fortunate enough for my truck to make it to 100k and beyond I am at least going to step up to 5W-30 at that time.

 

One of my local Toyota Tech told me the same thing. I didn't see it in writing so can confirm 100%

 

Before anyone starts the inevitable crowing about how 5W30 MUST be better than 0W20 for our engines, please take the time to educate yourselves about oil using the following site:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com

 

I have been all over that site (and many others) for years. Please note that I said when the engine reaches 100k I feel that at that point any advantage of ultra-thin oil is outweighed by the greater tolerances in the engine owing to wear. That's my opinion, it's shared by some but not all others, and I accept that. But please don't say I haven't "educated myself" about this because I have, for more than 30 years. And many dealership people I talk to agree with me.

But again, I did not and never would advocate not following manufacturer recommendations for an in-warranty vehicle.