GM V8 Recall. 0W-20 to 0W-40

Anyone check to see that GM is recalling the vast majority of their V8 engines. One of the interventions is to change the oil weight from 0W 20 to 0W 40. Curious, what people think and if people think Toyota will do the same regarding engine oil viscosity.

 

One of the main reasons you would hear people say don’t use 30 or 40 weight was the oiling system was not designed for that weight. Now that GM is recommending going from 20 to 40 it seems to indicate that engine wear is more important/effective with a system designed for 20 weight. It could also be that GM is knee jerk reacting and putting a bandaid on an engine block hole.

Using 20 weight is most likely for fuel efficiency , possibly emissions and the unknown of “lubricates better” since it can get into smaller areas in the engine design.

20 weight seems slightly more expensive in my experience. Overall I have switched to doing 5k oil changes using 5-30 on all my Toyotas. Assuming 30 weight doesn’t causes additional wear the slightly improved mpg seems trivial to the likely improvements in engine life. I think million mile Tundra guy did 10ks at the dealership with 20 weight though, so maybe doesn’t matter and GM makes a shitty engine with piston deactivation.

 

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2025/RCRIT-25V274-5347.pdf

14 pages for your reading pleasure - https://www.nhtsa.gov/?nhtsaId=25V274000

 

0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30, and 10W-30 are already spec'ed for the V35A.

 

Probably a knee-jerk. Doubtful magical oil formula is going to save a failing design.

 

The thinner oils are all to meet EPA standards for fuel economy. The Motor Oil Geek just posted a great video on all of this. All the myths of we need to run exactly what the manufacturer says is busted. My two cents... I was only offered a penny for my thoughts and today, y'all got a DEAL ! LoL

 

Advice worth the price charged?

C'mon, if thinner oils were bad, we'd see engines blowing left and right. I know 3rd gens are doing exactly that, but that's just garbage motor, we all know that.

 

It’s not just any 0W-40. It’s DexosR supercar oil. We should all switch to this oil for its better protection in all vehicles.

GM is in no way trying to get these engines past the warranty period.

You see they just screwed up and specced the wrong oil. It should have been this super car oil all along.

2025 6.2’s are still calling for 0W-20. This is a mistake and will be corrected by a future recall. There will also be one more recall for all GM engines 2020 and earlier to switch to this DexosR 40w oil. There is no problem with any of these engines in design or parts quality, it’s just a mistake on the oil spec causing these engine failures.

 

At least they're not trying to "fix" it with a software update...

 

GM is just recalling the 6.2 V8 from its half-ton truck and SUV platforms for four model years. The 5.3 V8 for those same vehicles and the 6.6 gas and 6.6 diesel V8s in the HD trucks are not affected. Not sure that's a vast majority, but it's significant.

 

Motor Oil Geek did a good video on this recently. It's possible to push the boundaries of engineering with resulting failures with lower safety factors. Oil technology has come a long way in the past 20 years. While 0w20 is probably fine in most cases, we may be seeing limits pushed too far.

 

They make 0w16 now. The world will surely be ending when touota starts recommending that oil in new tundras.

 

I do believe there is a 0w08 here in the states with a 0w04 in Japan.

Mike

 

Air bearings are next