2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Motor Oil?

[Mentzer]

I have a 2002 Ram 2500 Cummins 4x4 auto transmission with 173000 miles. I have changed the oil every 6000 miles with Shell Rotella and Lucas Oil Stabalizer. Is Shell Rotella any good? What is the best oil for Cummins... I am not interested in amsoil... are Lucas Oil products any good? Is Lucas bad for the motor?

 

[rluft]

For me and my Dodge its Amsoil. I use Shell Rotella in my farm diesels and heavy duty gas trucks. I use Lucas products but not in the engine oil.

 

[jleons]

Hello

I can only recommend Lubrications Engineers(LE) 15-40 8800. It is a great lubricant and with oil analysis, I change @ 12,000 ml .

Thanks

JL

 

[mroidt]

If I may be so bold to ask, what you got against Amsoil ?



I luv the stuff and use it religiously. price? bad experience?

 

[DIESELWRKS]

IMO for my driving style I do use a Amsoil EaO80 filter. (thanks to a few people on here) found out awhile back its better than the fleetguard I was using. cost little more. but. . I change my oil with dino every 5000. if I was to do extended oil drains things like full synthetics or bypass filters etc would be where I would look. or if I did alot of long hauling etc.

to me I'm changing at 5k. may be alittle early. but I know the filter is doing a better job to 5k than the fleetguard. i have used alot of diff oils. changing at 5k miles every 3-4 months i feel confident using shell, chevron. even the cheaper walmart oil at 5000 miles. . but to me the biggest bit is the oil filter in my case. . pending where someone lives alot of cold weather. alot of dust etc. and how I use the vehicle would take a big account on the oil I choose. .

IMO... .

 

[Missouri Mule]

I use Premium Blue 15w40 (Valvoline) before that used Valvoline's All Fleet Plus 15w40. I have used FleetQuard Microglass oil filter for a long time but now Genos is shipping the Stratapore oil filter in their Filter kits, supposed flow more oil and filter the small particles at the same time.

 

[KnightR]

Hey were can I get a job like you guys. Spend up the wazoo. Twenty seven thousand acres of owned and leased cattle operation and I have to take the oil from my Dodge when changing and put in my tractors.

 

[CharlieFoxtrot]

Don't tell anyone, but I use whatever brand of Cummins-approved oil that's on sale. If it's Cummins-approved, it's good enough for me. Just read the back of the bottle.



Edit - anyone can tell you their experience with a truck or two, over maybe a couple of hundred thousand miles, but if they're not a Cummins engineer or a motor oil engineer, it's still just a personal opinion based on a small (tiny!) sample size and minimal scientific evaluation, if any. Give me a scientific comparison of 100 trucks run on brand "A", 100 trucks on brand "B", etc, etc, run over 500000 miles per truck, with religious consistency, oil analysis every 1000 miles, and a teardown of every engine at the end of the test, and I'll be impressed.



Or just call me a skeptic...

 

[ESwartzer]

What I've experienced with amsoil is engine cleanliness. Two years ago I put a cam in my 98. 5 cummins and also pulled the head because an intermittent miss I was having. The machine shop commented that I had one of the cleanest heads they had ever seen. All the pushrods and lifters looked brand new with no varnish at all, and the cylinders looked fresh honed. Amsoil products have been good to me. By the way, the miss was caused by two valve guides in the #4 cylinder machined way oversized and causing a sloppy seating condition. Two sleeves and a hone to size and the miss is gone and she purrs like a kitty.

 

[rluft]

Hey were can I get a job like you guys. Spend up the wazoo. Twenty seven thousand acres of owned and leased cattle operation and I have to take the oil from my Dodge when changing and put in my tractors.

'Behind every successful farmer is a wife that works in town!'



I hope you are kidding about reusing motor oil, if you thought it was still good why did you dump it?

 

[Grizzly]

Mentzer, You and I are among the minority, I don't see any good reason to use Amsoil. I like Rotella or Delo 400.



george

 

[macdaddy]

Don't tell anyone, but I use whatever brand of Cummins-approved oil that's on sale. If it's Cummins-approved, it's good enough for me. Just read the back of the bottle.



Edit - anyone can tell you their experience with a truck or two, over maybe a couple of hundred thousand miles, but if they're not a Cummins engineer or a motor oil engineer, it's still just a personal opinion based on a small (tiny!) sample size and minimal scientific evaluation, if any. Give me a scientific comparison of 100 trucks run on brand "A", 100 trucks on brand "B", etc, etc, run over 500000 miles per truck, with religious consistency, oil analysis every 1000 miles, and a teardown of every engine at the end of the test, and I'll be impressed.



Or just call me a skeptic...

Shhhhhhhhh!!!!!!



Amsoilman will hear you.



Mac

 

[Midnite]

Back to the original questions, one of which was whether Lucas products are any good--I don't know much about them, but I would never, ever use any kind of oil additive. Either Shell Rotella T, or Chevron Delo 400 15w40, or one of the big name synthetics with a CI or CJ rating, and you're good to go. That's it--no magic snake oil whatsoever.

 

[DIESELWRKS]

since I have done a complete rebuild and added my cam, the normal break in with high zinc, what I'm doing now is i have 7k miles on the rebuild and still running high zinc additive with my oil not for the cam now but the new oils have lower zinc levels its not hurting its not snake oil, and its a small amount added compared to the ammount when I did the cam break in.

 

[amsoilman]

Shhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Amsoilman will hear you.

Mac

I did hear you! My thoughts are to use whatever one wants to use, but in my 31 years experience of using the Amsoil oils, I will use them until something better comes along!

Respectfully,

Wayne
amsoilman

 

[Grizzly]

I did hear you! My thoughts are to use whatever one wants to use, but in my 31 years experience of using the Amsoil oils, I will use them until something better comes along!



Respectfully,



Wayne

amsoilman

No offence Wayne.



george

 

[JustDave]

The first 100,000 miles I used Shell Rotella T 15-40. I changed to Valvoline Premium Blue Synthetic 5-40 for the second 100,000 miles. At the same time I added a TST 11 plate and boost elbow. According to my data, I saw a 10% increase in fuel mileage. I'm not sure what to attribute this to, the synthetic oil or the fuel/boost change. I made no other changes. Has anyone else experienced an increase in fuel economy due to oil type?

I made the change to synthetic because I was towing very heavy for quite awhile and thought the synthetic would give a wider margin of safety. I don't live in a cold part of the country that would require the flow characteristics of the 5w. And I haven't extended my oil change intervals.

According to my data, if my fuel economy can be attributed to the synthetic, then I could make a financial case for the synthetic. I got around 20 mpg for the first 100k on my truck. Then it went up to about 22 mpg when I made the changes. Assuming I drive 5000 miles between changes and diesel costs $3. 89/gallon (my last fill up) then I'd save $88 in fuel costs. This would be enough to cover a synthetic oil change with Fleetguard filter.

I think I'll change back to Rotella on my next oil change to see if it shows up in my mileage. I'll let everyone know what I find.

 

[macdaddy]

Dave... .



I would bet its the motor becoming fully seated. My 05 only got a little over 13 mpg (hand Calc) when it was new. I now have 99K and am up to 16. 5 average city highway.



I started on synthetics at 10 thousand miles.



Mac

 

[Paul Herioux]

When I switched to the 5w40 Rotella Synthetic 2 years ago I saw a 1 -1 1/2 mpg increase in fuel economy. As a bonus I haven't had to plug the truck in since I made the switch. Only reason to plug it in now is if it is going to be below -10*F and I want heat with less than a 10 minute warm up.

 

[bheiting]

Read the Technical Topics articles by John Martin in TDR issues 56-58. Find out why Amzoil and Walmart oils are "average" and certain others are excellent. Digital issues are found on the home page under the TDR magazine heading.