Need to start an oil war/advice

[MHowell]

Its time for me to change my oil again. Before, I was using the old Rotella T synthetic (CI formula). On my last oil change, it wasnt available anymore and I used the new CJ formula. Perhaps it is just me, but I feel like my truck smokes quite a bit more since the last oil change.



What are people using (non-amsoil) in their trucks now that CI is so scarce?

 

[RankRam]

CI rated Cat DEO

 

[AH64ID]

I use amsoil CI, but I have heard that John Deere and Cat oils are still CI.

 

[MHowell]

where do you get the CAT oil?

 

[BDaugherty]

You get CAT oil from a CAT dealer. They will sell both CJ and Cl4+ oils.

I'm using Kendall Super D3 Cl4+. I've got quite a stock of it, so I don't know if it's still available.

 

[MHowell]

Are any of the readily available CJ oils good?

 

[rscurtis]

They're good if you need them, but I understand a CI oil offers more protection for highly loaded sliding surfaces such as the cam and lifters. It also has a higher base number, and could tolerate longer change intervals.

 

[GaryOwen]

I used Shell Rotella CJ dino in my 03 for over 300k miles (531k total when sold). Used oil analysis was great with both CJ and CI+4. TBN number was lower with the CJ, but was still 6. 6 after 12k miles and oil had plenty of life left. There was a lot of discussion about the CJ being not as good as CI+4 when the changeover began, but all oil analysis results that I have seen do not indicate a wear problem.



A dirty air filter will cause more black smoke. Might want to check yours if you haven't already. You didn't indicate the color of smoke.

 

[bheiting]

Its time for me to change my oil again. Before, I was using the old Rotella T synthetic (CI formula). On my last oil change, it wasnt available anymore and I used the new CJ formula. Perhaps it is just me, but I feel like my truck smokes quite a bit more since the last oil change.



What are people using (non-amsoil) in their trucks now that CI is so scarce?

Valvoline Premium Blue Classic (CI4+) is still available at my local

Cummins distributor. Get on their mailing list for the sales. It was

available at NAPA recently as well.

 

[CBari]

John Deer 50plus is cI and is reasonably priced. Can by it by the gallon, 2. 5 gallon, 5 gallon, or 55 gallon drum. My 55 gallon drum works out to about $10. 25/gallon.

 

[mconstable]

These guys are HIGHLY though of by a lot of aircooled VW and high performance V8 guys... one guy in particular... Jake Raby of Raby enterprises builds high end porsche/VW engines (10,000-15,000 dollar average) mainly for the vintage road race circuit.

He's done extensive testing on this different oils, because 95 % of these engines are flat-tappet engines, and there's a HUGE problem with cams going flat due to newer oil specs aka less zinc... same with the high performance V8 market.



This oil is MANDATORY in all of his engines, I haven't tested it, but I switched to it... worth a look see.



Welcome!

 

[flyby night]

I use only Lubrication Engineers oil. It is a little more expensive, but I feel it is well worth it. Where i work we started using it. The oil has solved alot of problems for us, and we have extended our drain intervals in sever use equipment as much as 8 times longer than we were able to with Delo 400 CI.

 

[MHowell]

I went with Royal Purple. It's still CI-4 plus and I was able to get 3 gallons on sale. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Jong]

Got 2. 5 gallons of CI+4 last night at Tractor Supply for 19. 99... you can't beat that!!!