I can only report what I've observed, Dave. Try it and see. I was a BIG believer in 5W50 for a while, you saw how I preached about it - but when I stopped putting enough miles on for two oil changes a year, I quickly realized that 5W50 below about 45F was just to thick upon startup. 5W40 (and 0W40 for that matter) do not yield a "tapping engine" at even 30F.

And yes, I know about the "it performs like the first number at cold temps and the second number at high temps" claim - but again, I can only report what I have directly observed.