good morning guys/gals,

i am about to pick-up my new to me 2011 1 ton laramie (43,500km's)

on my old 2001 5.9 i used to run fuel conditioner year round.

what is recommended on these new engines - year round?
just in the winter? and if you guys are running conditioner what type/s?

does anyone run synthetic oil in their engines? if so what kind?

thanks for your time

 

I've run fuel additive year-round in all my diesels. I've been running Power Service lately due to ease of purchase but I'm trying some FPPF right now and seems to be working well and I like that it only takes one ounce to treat a tank.

I personally have not run synthetic in my 6.7L's since they have a tendency to "make oil" due to regens and don't want to waste the money on synthetic just to dump it every 5,000 miles because it's polluted with fuel.

 

OK, so what causes the 6.7 to "make oil"? I have a 2005 HD with the Cummins engine (200K miles) and am looking at trading for a 2010 with the 6.7. How long should I go between oil changes? Any other issues I should be aware of?


Thanks

 

All 2007.5+ Dodge Cummins are equipment with a diesel particulate filter (DPF). The engine goes into "regen" when the filter starts meeting certain thresholds. During the regen process, raw fuel is dumped during the intake stroke which causes it to wash past the pistons, making its way into the oil, thus making or increasing the oil level. What doesn't soak past the rings is sent back to the DPF too "clean" the soot build up.

The owners manual states no more than 7500 miles, however, I would monitor the oil level and change it based on that (don't fill to the upper line of the dip stick). Also, when it comes to the oil, keep in mind, synthetics are able to resist break down when diluted a whole lot better than conventional oil.

I have read some posts where folks said the oil was condemned after 1000-2000 miles, but I'm not sure if that is based on lab tests or not.

Oil like AMSOIL Synthetic Oil recommend on DPF equipped trucks to go by the manufacturer recommended change interval, but you still need to monitor the oil level. For the first 19K miles I ran whatever the dealer used, then switched over to AMSOIL OE 15W-40 Synthetic Oil, which if I didn't have to pay the $9.10 for shipping would have been less than my last conventional oil change.

My truck didn't create a lot of oil to the point I had to change it too early. The regen process can be passive (prolonged exhaust temperatures) which typically happens when you are pulling or active regen which happens when the ECU commands it, this is when raw fuel is dumped.

@ 27K miles I deleted and have since enjoyed much longer drain intervals with full synthetic oil.

It seems quite a folks across a few other forums (myself included) with 2010s have had problems with either the TIPM or Instrument Cluster where weird things would happen and go away and come back, so on so forth. One guy tried taking his truck in, but since the problems weren't happening the dealer couldn't troubleshoot it. I think I saw a 2011 with the same problem as well as a 2012 - but mainly 2010's though. Keep in mind from my research, it seems these are communication problems for the most part where if a message is garbled when passed, weird things happen, but no drive-ability issues. For myself, I was constantly clearing the DTCs, then after beating on the TIPM, my problems for the most part went away, came back once (quite a few months ago) and hasn't happened since.

Sorry rigstar - didn't mean to hijack your thread.

 

rigstar,

Cummins actually doesn't recommend the use of additives, except when using "emergency" fuel that don't mean the lubricity requirements that ULSD is "suppose" to meet.

Because there is no guarantee without getting a lab report from the suppliers fuel, I have run AMSOIL Diesel Concentrate year round and when i was in Montana, ran that with the Cold Flow Improver during the winter months.

 

np there 6.7, i enjoy reading learning/new stuff. this 6.7 is a different beast then my old 2001-5.9, nice to know what i am getting into. i have used amsoil , howes, and kleen-flo, and fppf melt down (when temps hit -45*C) all before in the 5.9. it seems like everyone just uses there personal perference when it comes to conditioner. i think i will keep what i was doing with the old truck every 3 or 4 tank in the summer and every tank full when the temps start to dip.
as far as oil, from what i can gleen when doing some searches on here is that alot of people are running rotella 5w-40 full synthetic year round, which is what i run in the 5.9 so glad to see that part hasn't changed.
as far as oil changes i used to do every 5000km and filter, as well doing the fuel filter at the same time, is that still the norm now with the 6.7? ( i will be doing the deletes as soon as i get the truck)
thanks for the replies

 

After deleting and if running Amsoil with their EAO80 filter I only change once a year or 25-30,000km, my son has around 200,000km on his 2011 doing this with no engine problems.

 

thanks for the info busboy, very interesting. do you run a fuel conditioner in the summer/winter?

 

My son doesn't but he does a lot of miles so the fuel is always fresh, I rarely run mine over the winter so I keep the tank low and put whatever conditioner I have in to ensure the fuel line doesn't gel and I have no problems with algae, only over the winter though as I do quite a few miles over the summer.

 

sounds good busboy; i forgot to ask in my last reply are you running the amsoil cj-4 premium synthetic 5w-40 or the 15w-40?

 

It states in the paper copy of the owners manual that if you use 15W40 in temps below -18C then engine damage will occur so I just run the Amsoil 5W40 full synthetic along with their EAO80 filter year round.

 

Thanks 6.7; good explanation.


Bill

 

thanks busboy