I'm curious to know how often do you guys change your oil. The book says 6 months or 6K miles. Before I got the truck, my dad just had the oil changed to set the truck up for winter, and some of you remember me asking a bunch of newbie questions as I was making my drive from Wa to NC in Feb. It's 'bout a 3100 mile trip, and the conditions weren't TOO severe. Just wanted to get your input, and see if any followed to book change recommendation.

 

I run rotella t6- change filter every 5k and oil at 10k

09 CTD qcsb, parts fell off, some got added, car seat and hot wife mod w/ full wallet delete

 

I change twice a year no matter the mileage, once in the spring, and once in the fall. I do tow a fair amount, so figure it is a good deal.

 

Oil n filter at 6500 and fuel and air filter ever other change .

 

These things will run a million miles if you keep the oil, fuel, and air clean.

 

I too do my oil and oil filter every 6 months. Then fuel and air cleaner once a year....usually with my spring oil change.

 

Oil and oil filter every 5000 miles. Primary fuel filter every oil change, secondary fuel every other change, air filter when the gauges tells me.

 

Personally, I run Rotella synthetic, and I change it either once a year or 10k miles. Even when I change it after all that time, it's still relatively clean. Why ? IDK. If I ran conventional oil, I'd probably do it sooner,and more often, but that's the advantage of synthetics, as they take forever to break down, or accumulate enough particles of junk to require a changing. Fuel filters, I change ever 5k, as to me it's more important to keep the fuel clean than the oil, for you're more likely to get a bad batch of fuel, than have your engine dump contaminants into your engine crankcase.

WIth reference to your trip, Change the oil before you go, and if you want to when you come back. Since you're doing all highway miles, I bet the oil doesn't get dirty as if you were just tooling around town. These engines thrive on use (as J. has pointed out), and long distance runs don't hurt them at all. Severe conditions are super hot weather, lots of dust, heavy revving, and lots of stop and go's.

If you feel uncomfortable, pack a few quarts of oil with you, along with a filter, and inspect the oil when you get to NC, or sooner. If the oil is blackened severely, or looks contaminated, change out the filter during the trip, or change the oil on the fly down there. I can't imagine that your oil would be that bad, unless you have internal issues, such as excessive fuel or combustion gasses bypassing the piston rings.

On a trip that long, I'd pack An extra fuel filter or two, antifreeze, distilled water, trans fluid, gear oil, fuel additives, and lots of oatmeal raisin cookies, and my smart phone. All the things I would need to feel comfortable on a long trip....

 

I run 15000 mile Mobil 1 15-50 and I run it 15000 miles. I would never do it with regular oil...Mark

 

Once a year with synthetic, i only put on a couple thousand miles a year though.

 

thanks every1, a 6 month change makes it a lil easier on the wallet, least at this time. NJT, I already made the trip from Wa to NC in Feb of this year with just my tools, and a bottle of power services diesel treatment in the white bottle......lol. Still new to this diesel engine, but learning alot from this forum!

 

Would changing the oil filter help? I thought oil breaks down so you typically have to change it all at once? I could see changing the oil filter every 5k miles and not doing to the oil to keep it clean? I also know that on big diesel rigs they have a filter system where you can run oil through several filters and it comes out looking almost new. Oil is so expensive that this way saves some money for those truckers. Which got me thinking, does oil really break down or just get dirty?

 

The base oil itself doesn't really break down as much as the additive package in the oil gets used up. Part of the additive package suspends the contaminants if that filter system can remove the contaminants and leave the part of the additive that suspends it then the oil life should be increased. Many of the big trucks change oil based on oil analysis and may end up running 100K before a change.

For my truck it's in the fall before it gets up up for the winter (unless there is under 1500 on the last change). Then depending on how it gets used 3-5,000 during the summer with delvac.

Oil is cheap when compared to an engine so I tend to change more often than "needed".

 

Rotellaand all filter every 6k. Drive about 30k a year mostly hiway.