This is the first truck I have owned in 8 years I had a sports car. (The first and last car I will own) I basically delt with the mistake and drove for as long as I could. I never opened the hood on that thing the dealer did everything for me.

I now get this new dodge 2500 and decide the dealer won’t touch it unless she lays down on me. I open the service manual and what the heck….15W-40 oil I think typo right check the Cummins page same thing. What’s up with that? What ever happened to good old straight 40? I understand the 15w-40 is better in the winter because it doesn’t get as thick. Is anyone running straight 40 in there gen 3 engines? Call me a conformist I fell in line and am using the 15w-40 Pennzoil.

By the way remember the John Madden commercial for valvoline where he stated “it gets inside your engine and actually coats the moving parts”. I always laugh about that statement.

 

You're doing the right thing, straight 40 weight is too thick for cold starts. Use what the book says, it's what the engine needs. The Pennzoil is good stuff, lots of moly in there.

 

What he said.... more wear is done before the oil starts circulating than any other time. Also, don't use synthetic til you get about 20,000 behind her. It's too slick to allow proper break-in. Personally, I would change the oil filter at about 2-3000 if I had a fresh truck. Get rid of any crud the factory may have missed. They tend to overtighten the filters before delivery anyway, and this might get it before it bakes on further. Might be overkill, but it's only $15.

 

aren't the 3rd gens running on 5W-40 or something like that?

 

15W40 according to my manual.

 

The new ones are rolling out with 15-40 valvoline premium blue

 

5w40 in mine...

we use 40w in our locomotives at work...

 

You sure about that?

Shell completely reformulated the Long-Life product here awhile back, eliminating molybdenum from the additive package.

The stuff to get now is CI-4+ Delo 400 15w-40. Great base oil, great additive package (now moly enhanced!), and great price!

 

Here we go again! It's a great question...but great oil questions are usually followed by everyone arguing for their favorite brand.

-Brand is your choice. Stay petroleum based for at least 10,000 miles, it's hard enough to break in these motors without Synthetics fighting the process.
-Go with 15-40...not like it use to be where multi-grades breakdown before the oil was used up.
-Make sure it is CI-4, as mentioned byjlells01. This is lower soot oil for the newer, tighter diesel motors.
You could get away with a straight 40 wt in Dallas, but would probably need a 10 min warm up everytime you start it...and thats not good for your motor. Why fight the engineers that designed the motor and reinvent this wheel?

RJ

 

CI-4 Plus, that is.

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