A few questions about my oil change today.

[gjones813]

yesterday I had the truck in my shop cleaning the chrome and other things and decided to check the oil after 30 minutes, pulled the DS and oil was barely on the stick, usually I change the oil every 5,000 miles but the last two times I waited until 10,000 miles.



I added two quarts and that filled it up.

the last 10,000 mile change it didn't drop any but I think I may have been a quart low on purpose cause I dont want it all the way to the full mark I like to keep it between the full and add marks.



my shop is a very level floor and my parking pad in front of house is slightly tapered for water runoff so the readings are all ways different, but in anycase it dose appear it used some oil... I checked every where under the truck and the turbo area and found no oil anywhere, also when I start the truck everyday I always check the mirror to see what color the smoke is and its always a puff of black smoke.



I do remember a couple of months ago I was driving it pretty hard and thought when the truck kicked down I saw some white smoke mixed in but I dont know for sure but your first thought is usually right.



where is the blow by located at? is there some other maintanance items I need to attend too? what else do I need to check?



truck has 39,000 miles and its been great ever since I bought it new 2 years ago, all stock no power adders.



Thanks,



G. Jones.

 

[flyby night]

I have noticed that when running some oils, they will tend to use a little over an extended amount of time. Also if you are running hard towing/hauling heavy, you may blow a little extra out of the crankcase vent tube. This wouldn't be anything that you would notice at the time though, as it would come out of the crank case vent as a vapor. If it is really sub par oil, it can also turn to sludge and stick somewhere inside of you engine. If you are going to extend your drain intervals it is always essential to sample your oil. Sampling is the best way to determine the best drain interval for your engine, driving practices, particular oil used, climate, etc. It is actually a good practice to sample your oil even if you are not extending your drain intervals. In most cases if you have significant wear materials you can catch a failure and get it covered while the engine is still under warranty. Rather than have it fail and leave you holding the bag as the warranty expires.

Sorry for the rambling. .

By the way, what oil are you running?

 

[Bob4x4]

yesterday I had the truck in my shop cleaning the chrome and other things and decided to check the oil after 30 minutes, pulled the DS and oil was barely on the stick, usually I change the oil every 5,000 miles but the last two times I waited until 10,000 miles.



I added two quarts and that filled it up.

the last 10,000 mile change it didn't drop any but I think I may have been a quart low on purpose cause I dont want it all the way to the full mark I like to keep it between the full and add marks.



my shop is a very level floor and my parking pad in front of house is slightly tapered for water runoff so the readings are all ways different, but in anycase it dose appear it used some oil... I checked every where under the truck and the turbo area and found no oil anywhere, also when I start the truck everyday I always check the mirror to see what color the smoke is and its always a puff of black smoke.



I do remember a couple of months ago I was driving it pretty hard and thought when the truck kicked down I saw some white smoke mixed in but I dont know for sure but your first thought is usually right.



where is the blow by located at? is there some other maintanance items I need to attend too? what else do I need to check?



truck has 39,000 miles and its been great ever since I bought it new 2 years ago, all stock no power adders.



Thanks,



G. Jones.

Why would you go 10k ?

 

[flyby night]

With the oil I use, it would be a waste to change it at 10k. The oil sample results on my oil, my dad's oil, and my father inlaw's oil all came back with great results all after 10k plus. No action required. We all just change our oil filters at the 5k mark. Do you know your oil is bad at 5k? Is you oil bad at 3k? You don't know without sampling, I used to just do what was called for and change my oil at 3k or 5k on everything. Then I started sampling all of the oils on the Fleet vehicles where I work. This is when I changed to a good oil and started sampling to determine when to change my oil, and do I have any problems beginning to develop.

 

[HBarlow]

I religiously changed the oil on my '01 Ram at 5k intervals up to 150k miles until I started transporting RVs. Running 13 to 15k miles per month I simply couldn't maintain that schedule so shifted to every 10k. I ran it 325k miles before selling it with no apparent harm. I ran an '06 230k miles in less than two years using a 10k change schedule also with no apparent harm. I've never sampled oil. I guess you could accuse me of burying my head in the sand and not wanting to know but I've read many reports by TDR members who do sample and do run extended change intervals.

 

[steved]

JHardwick ran his truck 26k on an oil change before, and I believe the only thing that came back high was soot. That's without a bypass IIRC.

As to the OP's question, I would check it again, after its sat overnight... I have gotten to the point that as long as the oil is within the ok "range", I don't worry about it. The dipstick is basically a go/no-go and not really that accurate. I have also had the same thing happen... added oil until its full, checked it afterwards and one time it will be good, another will be low/high.

I have also found that some oils tend to "boil off" and it "looks" like you have lost/burnt some, when its actually because the oil has boiled off some of its lighter ends. I have had this happen using Rotella 15w40 CJ-4, and it only happens when the truck is worked hard. I have literally lost a quart of volume to what I feel was boil off.

 

[steved]

Why would you go 10k ?

The "recommended" OCIs for his truck are 15,000 miles (grocery getter) and 7,500 miles (for everything else).

On edit: I had my mileages and descriptions backwards!

 

[steved]

26K on an oil change. IMHO, too much downside risk to save $50 or $100 on one or two extra oil changes.

But if the oil is still suitable for continued use (based on used oil analysis)??

 

[gjones813]

I have noticed that when running some oils, they will tend to use a little over an extended amount of time. Also if you are running hard towing/hauling heavy, you may blow a little extra out of the crankcase vent tube. This wouldn't be anything that you would notice at the time though, as it would come out of the crank case vent as a vapor. If it is really sub par oil, it can also turn to sludge and stick somewhere inside of you engine. If you are going to extend your drain intervals it is always essential to sample your oil. Sampling is the best way to determine the best drain interval for your engine, driving practices, particular oil used, climate, etc. It is actually a good practice to sample your oil even if you are not extending your drain intervals. In most cases if you have significant wear materials you can catch a failure and get it covered while the engine is still under warranty. Rather than have it fail and leave you holding the bag as the warranty expires.

Sorry for the rambling. .

By the way, what oil are you running?

since new I've used nothing but Valvaline Premium Blue 15W40 (not syn)

Why would you go 10k ?

I did a oil sample on the last 9600 miles and it was great, so I was trying it again, but yes I usually only go 5,000 miles on the oil. and actually this oil change was 8900 miles not 10,000.

 

[Bob4x4]

It is much safer for a fleet to run extended oil change intervals than the average p/up owner. The fleet trucks generally are driven the same way consistantly.

In my area there are guys that drive their truck 5 minutes to starbucks then back home again. use 7500-15k intervals ? Not me.

I see inside these engines enough to see the diference between well maintained and not. I have a friend who has only changed his oil 3 times since 01,but he does regular oil analysis,changes both filters and adds make up oil every 5k. If you do it all right you can be safe but how many of us have the time or memory to stay on top of it that way?

 

[NavyDood]

23,000 miles on my oil and the analysis shows it could have stayed plenty longer. Soot was less than 1%. Amsoil AME 15w-40 and Amsoil filter. No by-pass. You can still see the hash marks on the dipstick at 23,000 miles on the oil. Gotta love the 305/555 engines. This next oil change that is coming up will be my 3rd oil change in approximately 75,000 miles.

Still way too many non-believers out there.

I am only a user of Amsoil products. Don't sell them and don't care to.

 

[S.Morris]

Had the valve cover off my truck recently to do the first ever lash adj.

ALL rockers were 2-3 thous loose(first time I have ever seen lash so uniform across and engine..... and I've done my shore of lash adj over the years)

This with 290,000km(180,000)miles. Inside of valve cover was clean as new!

Oil alway changed at 12000km(7500)mile intervals with cummins filter and 15/40 dino Rotella T.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Oil change

I noticed that in our bible of the DODGE CTD there was an article about the only problem with extended oil changes was that if CJ4 was used in our motors there would be a problem with the flat tappet cams. And that extended oil change intervals was not recommended. I change the oil not because the oil wears out I change it to get all the BIGNASTY'S out. :-laf

 

[steved]

I noticed that in our bible of the DODGE CTD there was an article about the only problem with extended oil changes was that if CJ4 was used in our motors there would be a problem with the flat tappet cams. And that extended oil change intervals was not recommended. I change the oil not because the oil wears out I change it to get all the BIGNASTY'S out. :-laf

Of course if you are running extended changes, you should be running a bypass filter... and that will catch all those BIGNASTY'S without premature draining!

 

[amsoilman]

Well, I have 79,000 on my oil, and the soot level is 0. 4% Viscosity is 14. 6 CsT@100 C. and TBN is 5. 7. I run the Amsoil 15W-40 Heavy Duty Diesel & Marine and have the Amsoil by-pass installed as well. I do the oil samples at 10K.

 

[topcat]

Valvaline Premium Blue on sale at Autozone for 12. 95.

 

[flyby night]

You can extend your drain intervals, but I still change my main filter every 5k to 8k, even though i have a by-pass. The oil goes through the main (stock) filter first and handles all of the oil. The by-pass usually only does about 10% of the oil at a time. Changing the main filter eliminates the worry of it going into by-pass mode, and also freshens up the oil's additive package slightly. Without the by-pass filter, by changing the filter only at 5k, you will get the big nasty's.