Oil changes

[JJW_ND]

5K low miles use...10K for high mile use

Much better oil coupled with a very clean running engine (Cummins B 12V or 24V) will allow for allot longer drains then most want to use.



While your oil gets black (Soot) it is an extremely low percent relative to what a oil lab would flag as requireing a change.



If you do lots of short trips, only put on 1K or so a year, I would run 5 to 6K per change w/ a filter change. This is on any CH-4 oil.



If you make lots of longer runs, month mileage 3 -10K I would run up to 10K per change. At the most change the filter at 5K plus a fresh makeup quart. The harder you work the engine the cleaner it burns. Many hotshotters run with 10K changes on regular oil beacuse the engine runs the cleanest when working hard.



Even if you never plan on doing extended drains or using synthetic oils, I would grab an oil sample ever 10K or 25K just to keep an I on things.



If you got to change every 3K or less, you should catch the oil and reuse it ever other change.





jjw

ND

 

[Evan A. Beck]

WyoJim,



I have always used Cummins PB in my trucks. No synthetics, just the regular old 15W40. Synthetics are just too expensive, and I haven't seen any hard evidence that they really add that much life to the engine. JMO.



When I drain it at 10K, it always looks great. A good way to tell how much soot is in your oil (without doing an oil analysis) is to dip your finger in the oil, and then wipe it off. If you get a black stain down in your cuticle, then your oil has a fair amount of soot in it. I have always done this at every oil change, and when I wipe it off, there is never any stain.



A note about PSD's, fellas...



The high pressure oil system used for the injectors uses non-filtered oil. I have taken a couple of tech classes on PSD's, and this one really surprised me. One would think Navistar would be ultra careful about oil filtration. Turns out it just isn't 'convenient' to run unfiltered oil in the HP system...

 

[DNelson]

I do 15k oil changes with 15-40 Amsoil, with 3k oil changes (religiously!) It's sooty, but no serious deposits in the oil. No by-pass filter in the system.