My truck is an HD (NON-MDS) and the oil cap says to run 5w-20, not 5w-30 like some people have been saying.

 

Now the funny thing about that is I have access to an '06 truck manual, my neighbor has an '06 1500 QCSB 4x2 Hemi, and it says exactly what JoeHemi copied into his post about using 5w-20 in MDS and 5w-30 in non-MDS.
Makes one kinda wonder if Chrysler even has a clue???


and yeah RamJam, I know what you are saying, "back in the day" whenever I had a truck or car (I was a big '70s Nova dude) long enough to get to about 75k miles, I always went up from the recommended 10w-40 to a 20w-50 weight oil for extra protection, less burning and less leaking. You could kinda feel the "lag" in a early 70's Nova with a 350 - 4bbl in it when first going to the thicker oil, but you lived with it for the thought of extra protection. Hell, I had a Jeep J10 pickup with a AMC 360 in it that had 180k miles on it when the body and frame basically rusted out from under the engine. I sold it to a guy wanted it for the engine and it still ran like a top. Put nothing but 20w-50 in that pig the whole four years I had it. A thing of the past, I guess...

For the record, I recently took advantage of a dealer coupon and had the oil changed in my '02 Grand Cherokee with the 4.7 HO engine in it. The book AND the cap calls for 10w-30, and it's what I always used since I bought it used in '06. Royal Purple since about the fall of '07. They had a deal where the oil change, filter, complete checkup and a tire rotation was $17.95. Called and got a quote for $20 more for Valvoline full synthetic, so for the $37.95 plus tax WITH the rotation (which was due), I couldn't beat it. After the work was completed, I noted that the receipt said that they used Valvoline Synthetic 5w-20 and freaked out on the service mgr. Now I can buy going from 5w-30 to 5w-20 but from 10w-30?
I was informed that Chrysler NOW spec'd 5w-20 for ALL their 4.7 & 5.7 V8s regardless of production date. I am still running it with no ill effects, but am not 100% convinced. If I remember correctly, I think I even started a thread on DF right after it...

 

Yep, here's what the manual says for the 05s;





And for the 04s;

 

I think Chrysler just picked oil viscosities out of a hat each year for the Ram.
It's all amess...

I would just run whatever my oil cap says. That's what I do. Although I have run 30 instead of 20 just because that's all i could find. An engine isnt going to throw a rod through my block from a small change in viscosity.



JOEHEMI: Love the obama animation, makes me laugh every time.

 

Weight of the oil is chosen for a few reasons...To enhance EPA gains for assembly line approval, oil clearances within the journals, valvetrain..etc, also how fast the oil need to get to the top of the engine.
Thicker oils go up slower and come down slower, put more wear on the oil pump...etc..etc

For the most part, going up or down one grade isn't going to hurt your engine., BUT for the MDS engine it does make a difference. READ THIS

 

I don't feel like hammering the internet to try to find out what year 5w-20 hit the shelves, but my guess is that it came into mass production and testing by the OEM's around 05'. It would make some sense to the inconsistencies from the 04-06 owners manuals. You can't allow an 04 Hemi to use 5w-20 in 04 if that viscosity is not around to use at the time right?

 

I know my father in law has had a few durangos and dakotas, never said any rams, withs 4.7s and the people hadn't been using 5-20w and they all had lower end bearing noise at the crank. To me they are designed for this. The days of throwing 10-30w are over i think.

 

I checked my owner's manual and re-re-re-read what the manual and the post said...

'08 2500 5.7L says 5W-30 if you are "operating under" {the operating conditions} 14,000 GCVW or GREATER. Using the word "under" in that context is a bit confusing.

My oil cap says 5W-20 and the owner's manual says 5W-20 for 5.7L with less than 14,000 GCVW. Of course, I'm running Mobil-1 5W-30...

 

My 01 F150 5.4L called for 5w20 so it has been around at least that long. Never had any engine problems with it. i often towed 7500lbs+ in 95 degree weather with the a/c on and had no pressure, wear issues. I do the same in my 08 Ram.