Also, is it worth mentioning to the dealership, or is it just one of those things that we need to "learn to live with?"

 

Last winter my yj was burning a qt of oil every 40 miles and smoked really bad, like i was fogging mesqitos! I put in a whole thing of lucas one night, just about stopped the smoke and only lost 1/2 qt so the stuff does work...

 

That's good. I don't burn much oil, but have heard it's good for the engine so I that was one of the quarts on the last oil change. It runs pretty smooth.

I was getting a spark knock a while back, never consistent, but it was there so I started putting 93 octane in. It's run better than ever since then.

 

My engine definitely got quieter after switching to 5w30

 

If you're not going to run 5w20, just run 5w30 year-round. You can most likely get the 5w30 oil by the warranty people, but the 10w printed on the receipts can lead to a red flag/denial (legally they can force you to prove what you put in for warranty work). They'll most likely deny and use something like "Additional wear at startup due to improper weight oil" as the excuse. You should have no problems finding 5w30, especially since any GM since the mid-90s has required it.

 

Chrysler obviously does not make the pistons or the rings but they did spec the low tension rings for this engine. Other 3.8s use standard tension rings, I don't know why they chose these for the Wrangler specifically. Lighter oils are always used in the low tension applications. Look at Honda and their V6s that use 0w-20 oils. I don't supply parts to Honda so I don't know their clearance specs or ring tensions but I do supply Chrysler.