A lot of GM vehicles in Australia are marketed under the Holden brand. Granted, it's a little bit of a warmer climate, but 10w40 synthetic is readily available there. (And recommended by the Holden literature) Of course, they're not subject to the CAFE standards we have here in North America. I think GM just learned a hard lesson running 0w-20 in the brand new vehicles of the 6.2 that are all now recalled.... And now even GM is recommending the 40 weight in those.
It's worth noting that my wife's 2014 Escalade, they recommend 5W30. You had a co-workers 2014 Sierra pickup with the same engine, 0w 20 is recommended. It's in his owner's manual and printed on the oil cap. Different recommendations for the same engine, the only difference is the fuel economy standard they're trying to meet for two different models. When politics start dictating lubrication versus fuel economy, it's definitely not good.
in your case yeah, but I will say some cars have started using the same cylinder technique as motorcycles have for a while, where there's some type of coating and it makes the hone process completely different. the one I've read about was the Ford gt40, I believe the newer v6 one. it's calls for thin oil, but as performance shops started to turning up the boost they ran the normal racing oils. it gave them trouble because the hone type, liner plating and ring package couldn't keep the thick oil out of the cylinders. burning oil in a big boosted engine kills come of the detonation resistance of the fuel.
I believe some of the newer Honda engines that call for 0w8 oil use the same tech. putting a 5w40 on there might not be about fuel mileage. it might also be OK, but I wouldn't want to he the first to try it.
I have personally seen the opposite as well, we have v10 ford's in equipment at work that is normally diesel powered, constant high load for hours on end. they call for 0w20 but using it they will burn their 4 plus quarts and shut down long before scheduled maintenance. engineering said they need to break in lol, they never did. we
put 15w40 delo conventional diesel oil in tkem and they almost make it the 500 hours between pm now. much easier to keep up with oil checks.
will it damage the engine? so far I see no signs, plugs look good. the Ford v10 is not known to be reliable anyways.