Went to change my oil this afternoon and didn't even bother to double check the oil I bought until I had the engine full...with 5W-20 Mobil 1 Synthetic Oil.

What's the best course of action?

Should I just run the W-20 for 3k miles, or dump it immediately?

 

being in florida with high temps ...... i wouldnt ...
5w will run hotter... and the 20 its too liquid .... no wot and change it in a few weeks ....
your engine will run alot wormer....

 

Dump it immediately. 20 weight is way, way too thin for any turbocharged engine. In all reality, you'd be OK running it for a few thousand miles, but you obviously don't want to accelerate bearing wear in the engine or turbocharger by reducing the film strength of your oil for any period of time. It's much like continuing to run some really old 5W-30 (except that would be missing necessary anti-wear additives on top of being too thin).

 

???

Please read my post above and ignore this. Base oil weight has nothing to do with engine temperature; it's just the contrary - higher-weight oils are more viscous at a given temperature. That is, oil viscosity and subsequently film strength is dependent on base oil weight and engine temperature, not the other way around. In reality, your engine would run cooler on 5W-20 because of reduced friction.

 

I'm running 5w40... I don't recommend 5w20

 

removing friction will get temps to go higher ....

 

Reduced friction makes any mechanical device run cooler and more efficient, up to a point. Switching from a 30 weight to a 20 weight oil is only going to reduce internal temperature and increase efficiency slightly.

Mobil 1 wouldn't market an entire "efficient" oil line of reduced-friction oils if they made people's engines run hotter and less efficient. You've got your facts backwards.

But to reiterate, don't run 5W-20 in any turbocharged car. Except maybe a Smart Fortwo.

 

I run 0/20 in my turbo'd engines - except for the EVO - with no problems. The only reason I still use 5/30 in the EVO is it ends up with 3 - 5% fuel in it in a month or so. So it's really only running a 15 or 20 weight after a few miles. So in effect I'm still running 0/20 in all my turbo cars.

Arizona is hotter than Florida last time I checked, although we don't have an many mosquitoes.

 

Rub your hands together and push them together firmly. Now reduce the friction and rub them together with them barely touching. Which way made more heat?

 

I use elf 5w-30 synth. I would love to use mobil 1 but they only sell it in 0w-40, the highest temps around here are 95f and the lowest is around 50f when i visit my parents, so i juts stick to what the manufacturer suggest.

 

oil changed out back to 5w-30...what a pain in the a$$ this all was. At least it's over...I won't be making that mistake again anytime soon.

 

Physics fail.

The buck stops here.

 

For the $50 + labour its not worth it..

 

^ +1. you woulda been fine for 3k with the 5-20 in there...

 

No I mean its not worth the risk