I'll be taking delivery of my first diesel in 3 weeks.

I remember reading a thread here about a month ago on people's experiences on different oils. Some mentioned odors when using certain oils.

Questions:

1. What are top 2 or 3 for Cummins?

2. I plan on NON synthetic for a while so please list only those.

3. Don't want any oil smells

4. If you have the thread to the post mentioned above please post.

TIA

 

Valvoline Premium Blue and Chevron (I think) Delo400 are a couple of the more commonly used non-stinky conventional oils. I know that the Valvoline is recommended or approved by Cummins.

Rotella is the stinky one. Some guys call it Rosmella.

Personally I have about 29K on the truck now, and will probably switch to the new Mobil1 synthetic Diesel oil once Wallyworld gets it on their shelves. Supposedly that's supposed to happen soon. Most of the guys here don't recommend putting synthetic in for the first 20K miles or so.

 

Anyone able to describe the smell Rotella makes?

 

Its just an oily smell for the first couple of miles not bad at all.

 

It kind of has a fuel/90 weight gear oil smell combination to it. I like it. It basically comes out of the breather tube and gets sucked up the HVAC fan and piped into the cab. It's all I use and it doesn't bother me. In fact, I haven't smelled it for the last 2 changes. I'm used to tractors and big trucks, etc. so the smell is all relative to me.

 

Thanks for the feedback...

What are some good places to buy oil online?

 

I would check Walmart. Oil online might get expensive to ship because of the weight. Not sure though never shipped any. I buy it at the local farm store.

 

I bought rotella at Sams for 42 dollars a case. That's 6 gallons.

 

I use Rotella 15w40 also. You can buy it at Walmart for about $7.99 or so a gallon.

You might want to order your filters online though. You can get them at Geno's Garage.

http://www.genosgarage.com/CoastalDa...D=1003&CATID=1

You can also buy packages of oil/fuel filters and save a little more money.

I only notice the smell of the Rosmella about every other oil change or so and only for a few miles. There was a POLL on here a few months ago with Rotella showing about 40 percent or so of the total. All of the others shared the other 60 percent.

I like Rotella but any of the major brands (Delo, Valvoline premium blue, Delvac) are all fine. Just change it regularly. I do mine every 5k for simplicity.

 

Valvoline Premium Blue is factory fill and is Cummins recipe contracted and brewed by Valvoline. It was my first choice with my four Cummins Rams. Rotella does stink for the first couple hundred miles but it took the million mile '94 Cummins Ram past a million miles. Geno's has great deals on filters and filter kits, gauges and mounts.

 

As long as it's CI-4 rated (most are CI-4+ now) you'll be ok. They seem like they're pretty much all good stuff. I still can't bring myself to think about putting Pennzoil in my vehicle though.

 

I buy my Delo at Costco.

 

CI-4+ Chevron Delo posts Used Oil Analysis numbers on par with the best synthetics and can be bought at Auto Zone and Wally World here in IL. This is what I use April 1- Nov 1, then switch to Schaffer's 7000 15w-40 Syn Blend, Rotella 5w-40, or M1T&SUV 5w-40 in the winter. They are all good oils and will make your truck last a long time.

 

I do the same thing as Strjock, syn in the winter for easier cold (upper midwest, not plugged in) starts, and run Delo in the summer.

 

Here is a poll I put up a while back on oil choices.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ad.php?t=62163