Why did Ford change to 5W30 on the 2011?

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lowc

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Agreed and I am doing the same thing.

I will be switching to full synthetic at 10,000 on my 2011 as the manual say's ok to do.

i wouldnt wait till 10k to due the first oil change

and agreeed with the above must of had something to due with the turbos or the motor failures. ive heard of a couple of them on here who knows how many there has actualy been
 
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itguy08

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I wonder if it has to do with the "new" 10,000 mile oil change intervals? It seems like all Ford's new Ecoboost motors, both the 4 and 6's are spec'ing 10w30....
 

Billm0066

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You know the one thing I miss about owning an srt vehicle? Is the engineers would do monthly chats and you could ask them any questions you wanted besides future products. You could give them feedback, or ask them anything your heart desires. Ford should set something like that up.
 

2010sho

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I asked my Service Mgr yesterday if he knew anything about the change.

His comments were that the 5-20 is PARTIAL synthetic while the 5/30 is Full Synthetic.

The 5/30 allows 10K mile oil change intervals. Customers appreciate that. His personal recommendation is go full synthetic but change every 7500. Or do the partial synthetic but keep under 5K oil changes
 

Siman

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Probably heat protection with the turbos.

What Ron said heaver oil for the turbos on cool down most turbo cars run 5W-30 for that fact 5W-20 isn’t thick enough for cars in colder temps or turbos.

It has to do with fluid dynamics and heat transfer. Faster is not always better, the less the number the less time the oil has to absorb and dissipate heat. So 5W-20 is higher flowing oil good for non turbo cars, but it doesn’t collect enough heat or "stay long enough" to liberate the turbo. Keep in mind the turbo is being spin at extremely high speeds. The compressor gets extremely hot and the exhaust gasses in the turbine don’t help either. The heat buildup has to be collected by the oil and some sort of intercooler air to air or liquid to air. But back to the main issue if the bearings don’t get lubricated and if not properly cooled they start to deteriorate. This is where you start developing shaft play. I take it some of the testing from ford realized the small turbos didn’t get enough/not cooled enough oil. There are 2 ways to change this oil or changing the flow insert for the oil inlet since one would cost ford more money they changed the oil.

http://www.repairfaq.org/filipg/AUTO/F_oil_facts.html
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/turbo.htm
 

typhoon5000

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What Ron said heaver oil for the turbos on cool down most turbo cars run 5W-30 for that fact 5W-20 isn’t thick enough for cars in colder temps or turbos.

It has to do with fluid dynamics and heat transfer. Faster is not always better, the less the number the less time the oil has to absorb and dissipate heat. So 5W-20 is higher flowing oil good for non turbo cars, but it doesn’t collect enough heat or "stay long enough" to liberate the turbo. Keep in mind the turbo is being spin at extremely high speeds. The compressor gets extremely hot and the exhaust gasses in the turbine don’t help either. The heat buildup has to be collected by the oil and some sort of intercooler air to air or liquid to air. But back to the main issue if the bearings don’t get lubricated and if not properly cooled they start to deteriorate. This is where you start developing shaft play. I take it some of the testing from ford realized the small turbos didn’t get enough/not cooled enough oil. There are 2 ways to change this oil or changing the flow insert for the oil inlet since one would cost ford more money they changed the oil.

http://www.repairfaq.org/filipg/AUTO/F_oil_facts.html
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/turbo.htm

That is all true, but remember the EcoBoost turbos are water cooled as well, not just oil FYI.
 

Siman

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True I haven’t taken a close look at the turbos in the new sho though, do they use a separate cooling system or are they linked to the engine cooling system?

Update:
Did a little digging they use Garrett/Honeywell G15 turbos they don’t use traditional ball bearings. It uses a journal type of bearing (a oil float). So changing the weight is less important than if it was a traditional ball bearing type turbo. Another reason the SHO doesn’t need a turbo timer for cool down. With that being said also I think the largest turbo you can upgrade to without switching out exhaust manifolds adding turbo timers ect, is a GT2252.

http://www.ford.com/about-ford/news...tail/pr-redhot-torture2658-new-ecoboost-29657
http://www.turbobygarrett.com/turbobygarrett/products/turbochargers.html

Update: I keep looking at it but they dont look like honeywell turbos more like borgwarner turbos. Does anyone know 100% what kind of turbos are on them?
 
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wchain

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FYI Ford does sell a Full Synthetic 5W20.

Siman, supposedly the Ecoboost motors GT15 turbos have water cooling that also has something called "Passive Thermal Siphon" once the engine is turned off.

The water cooling system is engineered to allow a process called reverse siphoning to take place. When the engine is switched off, the water pump ceases operation. The coolant in the extremely hot turbo boils and fresh coolant floods in behind it. This process continues until temperatures reduce, providing sustained, key-off protection for the turbo bearings.

“The EcoBoost engine uses passive thermal siphoning for water cooling,” Plagens explains. “During normal engine operation, the engine’s water pump cycles coolant through the center bearing. After engine shutdown renders the water pump inactive, the coolant flow reverses. Coolant heats up and flows away from the turbocharger water jacket, pulling fresh, cool coolant in behind. This highly effective coolant process is completely silent to the driver, continuing to protect the turbocharger.”
 

Siman

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Thank you wchain I understand how it works now. But I looked at them online ford says they are honeywell/Garrett turbos. But from pictures those are no ware near any garrett turbos I know of. They look more on the like of BorgWarner turbos look at this:

EcoBoostEngine.jpg

100182858_2010-ford-taurus-sho-ecoboost-engine

100182857_2010-ford-taurus-sho-turbocharger-photo-by-rex-roy

taurus2.jpg

ford-3-5l-v6-ecoboost-engine.jpg
 

Roadboss

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I asked my Service Mgr yesterday if he knew anything about the change.

His comments were that the 5-20 is PARTIAL synthetic while the 5/30 is Full Synthetic.

The 5/30 allows 10K mile oil change intervals. Customers appreciate that. His personal recommendation is go full synthetic but change every 7500. Or do the partial synthetic but keep under 5K oil changes

That's just the kind of information that is totally ignorant. I wouldn't believe anything he told me in the future. The truth is that they are both multi viscosity oils, with the one acting a little heavier at operating temperature. Both weights of oil can be bought as regular dino, semi synthetic, or pure synthetic grades. The reason for using the synthetics in a turbo is to help minimize carbonizing of the bearings.
 

itguy08

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What you have to remember is what you see on the manufacturer's website is a "generic" turbo. Something you would use if you wanted to add to a car that doesn't have one (ie: drag car, race applications, etc).

What's on our SHO is an application specific part that was most likely jointly developed by Ford and Garrett. It's probably the only application of its kind and heavily modified to Ford's specs. It will most likely look like nothing they have "off the shelf". It's real easy to design a 1-off when you get, say, a million unit contract.

That being said, I just use what Ford recommends, change it when they recommend it. It's worked for me in the past with other cars and I think it will work for this one. No need to obsess over it; just do what they say when they say and your car will perform as designed. And last the 150k it's designed for.

About the only area I'd deviate is Trans fluid changes every 30k....
 

typhoon5000

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They are def Honeywell's. I've talked to the chief turbo engineer on the EcoBoost from Honeywell. Like itguy08 said, they are custom designed for Ford. If you want to see some close up high res pics of the turbos (including cut-aways), I have some on my Flickr account from an SAE event featuring the SHO I went to a while back: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24619344@N06/page4/.

If you think the FWD configured EcoBoost turbos look wierd, you should see the turbos on the EcoBoost F-150 (sorry for the super high res):

11f150 3 5l gtdimg

2011 f150 engines 10

In the end, it all comes down to packaging. In the F-150, those turbos almost hug the frame rails. So much so, that they had to put reliefs in the rail for them. They try to make them flow as much as possible, but it's still gotta fit in the car when you build it :thumb:
 
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SHO U UP

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Good find Typhoon! Very interesting design to say the least. That timing cover looks weird with the coolant passages and t-stat housing right up front. Wonder how much of that engine shares parts/configuration with the SHOs?
 
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