Stargeezer

Some buds and I were sitting around a table BSing about trucks and such fun things and the subject of oil came up. Some used synth while others used whatever came out of the pump at the dealer - and a few were very vocal about their particular choice.

My own choices were out of date several years, and since we were talking diesels, none of it was transferable.

When I get my new truck (oh happy day) I plan to run snyth. but no real "skin in the game" yet.

What do you use and why?

redlineguy

If you feel the need to run synth DON'T do it till you have at least 20,000 miles on it. I don't use snyth's I run XLO15/40 Amalie.

Blake Clark

Shell Rotella T

If its good enough for dang near every diesel engine operating in the Gulf Of Mexico, its good enough for my truck.

jughead

i have used kendall oil since 1958 in everything i have owned. i have never had an oil related failure. in fact come to think of only 2 engine failures in my life. both were on the dragstrip and due to my stupidity.

93-331-29psi

x2, I tried amsoil in my old truck and I was in no way impressed with the blackstone report.

Stargeezer

I ran rotella in my 78 Meceades 240D for 300,000 miles and that would have been my choice, but somebody said it was not good for the RAM.

Is there more than one "type" of Rotella now.

Thanks

Stargeezer

Hey Jughead, Thanks for the reply. I have to admit to never running Kendall in any application. I know it's been big on the drag strip for years.

Back in the 70's I and some buds were playing with Formula "Vee" road cars and ran a series of oil tests in the hard working VW motors. Castrol, Pennsoil, Quaker State, Valvoline oils were ran for two races each - then the motor was torn down for inspection. The oil was changed between races.

Castrol held up the best with the least amount of wear shown on the bearings and cyilinders.

We saw higher revs with the Valvoline but it showed the most wear on everything.

The Pennsoil motor was covered with gunky oil foam and was very, very black each time it was changed.

The Quaker State did not exhibit any real bad traits except slightly more wear than the Castrol motor.

Heat was the killer of oil in those motors and bodies - very hard to keep cool, like aircraft motors. The OEM oil cooler was pretty pathetic.

Of course this was pre "blackstone" test days (at least for our budget) and was a very subjective test but I ran Castrol in all my gassers since. Times, they are a changing" and oil testing is much better now.

Thanks again, Larry

sgt snake

amsoil full synthetic. call me crazy , but i could swear that the truck accelerates faster and smoother

Como4076

In my 08 I use Valvoline Premium Blue 15w40 all year long and I have used it from the start . I change my oil every 5000 miles and I also change out my fuel filter at the same time !!! I have never ever had a problem I have had always had great luck with Valvoline !!!!!!!

Stargeezer

Hi Como - how many miles do you put on in a year?

BTW the things I said about oils should be considered as they were given - applied to a race car that was driven at high RPMs, overreved when down shiffed, overheated and generally abused badly for 2-4 thousand miles. We were happy if we got through a week with the thing intact. Plus that was 40 years ago.

Larry

dmurdock

Rosmella T 15/40 or Chevron Delo 400..whichever is cheaper at the time. Don't use synthetic until you've got about 50,000 on it unless you've been towing heavy, then i'd say at least 20,000 or you'll never break it in. If you aren't deleted I wouldn't use synthetic at all because these things dirty the oil so fast you'll go broke.

Stargeezer

It's hard to believe these motors are so hard to break in. Thanks, I might have started out with synthetic oil.

Is tere a Rotella T that is synthetic?

cincydiesel

Rotella here. Its the only oil that my truck or any diesel I own will get. Theres a reason that 90% of all semi's on the road run it

dmurdock

There might be a synthetic but it's just overkill. Using regular oil and regular changes you can get 800,000 for sure....The guy I sold my 2001 to is still in contact with me and he just turned 500,000...he and his wife are dr's and they travel around the US towing an RV and basically "substitute" at other Dr's practices while they are on vacation (or something like that). I used delo 400 when I had it and he uses whatever walmart puts in it when he gets it changed (either delo or rotella t). FYI he's on his 2nd injector pump but the engine still runs like new and doesn't burn any oil at all.

genesag

Sorry to disagree with you guys, but I'm on my 5th and 6th Dodge Cummins (03 D-3500 with 157K and 07 D-2500 with 41K) and have run Amsoil full synthetic in all of them since new (ran OEM oil in them until first oil change at 5K). Not a one has ever used oil. In fact the 03 has a by-pass filter and gets oil analysis every 25,000 miles and goes over 75K per oil change and even then analysis says oil is suitable for continued use! I change both filters at 25K and never have to add more than 3 qts to fill filters and bring it to full. I've used this same program with the same results on all previous trucks (92, 96, 99, & 02 d-3500s) running each to over 150K with no problems.

BTW the 07 is going 15K on oil change with good oil analysis numbers at change. Getting deleted next week so that I can run longer intervals.