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Is 5w20 what I should use and Im approaching my first oil change. What oil brand should I use-synthetic or not? Castrol? Helllppp!

Your owner's manual will tell you what the factory thinks you should use. You won't go wrong using exactly what they tell you.

Texas doesn't get that cold, but it does get pretty hot, so I stick with 10W-30 in mine. I use nothing but Mobil1 synthetic, even though this beast wants 7 quarts of it. I have an uncle in Ohio who does a lot of drag racing and swears by Mobil1. I've had no problems with it. If you decide to try it, and if you've never bought synthetic before, be prepared for some sticker shock.

I use pennzoil, 10W30 here in New York, the same stuff that saw both my parents cars to well over 100,000 miles without any engine troubles.

Hemi's like the lighter oil (less tick) I use 5-30w Mobil 1..you can't go wrong.

I've been using 5W-30 regular mobil1, but just put in synthetic at 15,000 miles. Everything seems to still be in fine working order.

the book calls for 5w30,,,, and as long as you us a good brand name u should be good to go,,,, most of the time it's what u are use to,,,,, althought I would not use synthetic until u got some mile on it aleast 15000,,, in order for the rings to seat good,,,,,. at least that's what i have been told

johnwmt wrote:the book calls for 5w30,,,, and as long as you us a good brand name u should be good to go,,,, most of the time it's what u are use to,,,,, althought I would not use synthetic until u got some mile on it aleast 15000,,, in order for the rings to seat good,,,,,. at least that's what i have been told

actually you will be surprised to see a 5W20 mark on the oil cap,

5w20 is factory fill and recommended. mopar is about the only place to get it though. i went synthetic mobil1 15w50 thinking the higher the oil pressure the better. but was suprised when my engine tick got much louder. a quick, yet expensive change to mobil1 5w30 cut the noise right back down. proving to me the hemi likes thin oil. now i just have to find out why????

MEANGENE75 wrote:5w20 is factory fill and recommended. mopar is about the only place to get it though. i went synthetic mobil1 15w50 thinking the higher the oil pressure the better. but was suprised when my engine tick got much louder. a quick, yet expensive change to mobil1 5w30 cut the noise right back down. proving to me the hemi likes thin oil. now i just have to find out why????

Its a 'higher' precision engine.

i have 80000 miles on my 03 1500 use 10w30 here in west virgina, ( i change oil every 5000) would like to change to syhtehetic, how long should i go on the syhtetetic befoe changes

ray wrote:i have 80000 miles on my 03 1500 use 10w30 here in west virgina, ( i change oil every 5000) would like to change to syhtehetic, how long should i go on the syhtetetic befoe changes

with 80K on your truck 3,000 miles, Contaminants and water still get into the oil.

Ray..don't change to synthetic now unless you want to have the truck for another 100k...

SoCalHemi04 wrote:Ray..don't change to synthetic now unless you want to have the truck for another 100k...

why do you say that?

recheck owner book look at oil cap still my says 5w 30 check with dealer and he said there was a mid-year change to the 5 w 20 so u guys are right ok but i let my dealer change it away so no big del ,,,, as far as 5 w 20 walmart has it ,,,,, not plugging walmart just cause I work there

Mine says 5w-20, the local Pep boz had only two brands at that weight. Pennz oil(I got this) and GTX. I got the regular Dino oil not the synthetic yet, I change over to AMSOIL at 6,000 miles on all my cars. I might have to go back, someone said 7 qts, I only got 6 and a filter.
Also I noticed only the 5.7l hemi in the Magnum uses 5w-20 the 3.5 and 2.7l use different ones yet.

Sounds like at the very least I need to switch from 10w30 to 5w30.

I don't know you guys, about these incredibly thin oils you are using.I've run Dodge & Chrysler V-8s all my life and I've always used the heaviest oil I can for the climate I'm in.Even when I lived in the arctic,I used 20-50 summer and 10-30 winter.During extremely cold spells(-40 to -50) I reluctantly used 5-30.But 5-20?!?!In your climate? I hope you realize that one reason manufacturers are using such light oils nowadays is to justify Mpg ratings they claim for new vehicles,an engine running with water-thin oil in the crankcase suffers much less loss due to less windage in the crankcase etc.Such thin oils will have less film strength,and when hot probably have less viscosity than water.Why do you think they use 60 and 70 weight oil in high load, blown drag motors?If I were you I would use the Castrol Syntec 5-50 an excellent compromise.I've used this stuff and though not cheap, results are excellent.
If you have to run 5-20 oil in a motor and you don't live in Antarctica ,I'd say there was somrthing wrong with it.

trappermike wrote:I don't know you guys, about these incredibly thin oils you are using.I've run Dodge & Chrysler V-8s all my life and I've always used the heaviest oil I can for the climate I'm in.Even when I lived in the arctic,I used 20-50 summer and 10-30 winter.During extremely cold spells(-40 to -50) I reluctantly used 5-30.But 5-20?!?!In your climate? I hope you realize that one reason manufacturers are using such light oils nowadays is to justify Mpg ratings they claim for new vehicles,an engine running with water-thin oil in the crankcase suffers much less loss due to less windage in the crankcase etc.Such thin oils will have less film strength,and when hot probably have less viscosity than water.Why do you think they use 60 and 70 weight oil in high load, blown drag motors?If I were you I would use the Castrol Syntec 5-50 an excellent compromise.I've used this stuff and though not cheap, results are excellent.
If you have to run 5-20 oil in a motor and you don't live in Antarctica ,I'd say there was somrthing wrong with it.

It cant be that bad Is Mopar is getting 350K+ Miles out of these engines...

Well it's only my opinion,each to his own I guess.But as a mechanic for 35 years I've noticed on engine teardowns that engines run on very light oil show more wear,although the internal parts appear cleaner.I know a friend of mine with a late model Camaro ran 10-40 instead of 20-50 only because of the Chevy's oiling-up thru the pushrods,he said it seemed the top end starved for oil on 20-50 because he could hear valvetrain clattering.
I've used straight 40 or 20-50 in all my motors(since Noah) in warm weather and have never experienced a failure of ANY sort yet,and I still run my engines very hard-like a punk teenager-to this day.