Use of synthetic oil during break in period

[Casey Balvert]

This was posed in another topic and thought it warranted its own thread.

Originally posted by Jeremiah

I am quoting from a post I left elsewhere. Since you live in Canada, you might have an answer for me. I live in Colorado where it gets 20-30 below in the winter. The '03 owners manual says to use 5W30 synthetic below zero. I've always heard you shouldn't use synthetic oil in a Cummins engine until it was broken in. You have any info on this?



Best,



Jeremiah

This is from the Cummins site that might be helpful:



What guidelines do I follow to properly break in my Cummins engine?



The only requirements when breaking in your Cummins engine is that you keep the fluids topped off and use a standard petroleum-based oil for the first two drain intervals. Cummins also recommends not idling the engine for more than 5 minutes and to work the engine during the break-in period.







How many miles does the Cummins engine require for break-in?



In general, 5000 miles. This depends on the type of driving the truck is subject to; hauling or towing a load will shorten the break-in period. Light duty hauling or "babying" the engine can delay full engine break-in for up-to 20,000 miles.





Is it OK to use synthetic oil with my Cummins engine?



Cummins recommends that you not use synthetic motor oil during the break-in period of 5000-20,000 miles, based on the type of driving, to allow proper seating of the piston rings. Beyond that mileage it is OK to use synthetic oil.



So Jeremiah, I would stick with dino at least for the first two drains (with appropriate use of the block heater) and switch to the recommended synthetic after that if temperatures warrant it. But I honestly believe that the odd really cold night does not warrant the switch to synthetic. Just my opinion.



Casey

 

[lschultz]

Cummins hit the nail on the head. I don't think thats hard to understand.

 

[Casey Balvert]

And I got this response form the tech folks at Cummins. Just pick your poison:



Summary: ram isb03 o&m hdeo winter



Solution:

Thanks for the email Casey. We hope we're straight on F vs. C. We can't believe it's already below zero degrees F up there! All of the major oil companies make 10W-30 diesel CH-4 and now CI-4 oils. We know that Esso up there makes such products, in fact they have an excellent 50% synthetic heavy-duty diesel oil (HDEO) that uses both polyalpha olefin (the common synthetic base stock) and the more expensive polyol ester base stock. Refer to the below temp chart:



WARNING

An SAE 10W30 designation on a product is a viscosity designation only.

This designation alone does not imply that the product meets Cummins requirements. Only 10W30 oils with diesel performance credentials listed in Table 1 may be used in Cummins Engines if the reduced ambient temperature indicated in Figure 1 is observed. Only 10W30 oils meeting CES

20078 (API CI-4) can be used in the ambient temperature range similar to 15W40 oils



Recommended SAE Oil Viscosity Grades vs. Ambient Temperatures



Oil Viscosity Season Ambient

Ratings Temperature Range (deg F)



5w-40 or 15w-40 All seasons Temps above +5 deg F

10w-30 and CI-4 " " -5 deg F to +115 deg F

10w-30 Winter Conditions -5 deg F to + 70 deg F

5w-30 " " -15 deg F to +70 deg F

0w-30 Arctic Conditions Temps below 32 deg F



According to the chart above the proper classification 10W-30 should be good to below zero Farenheit.



We thank you for your interest in Cummins products.

 

[boonsur]

I think plugging it in whenever it sat cold for a while would be a good thing to keep the natural from getting too thick. Once the engine is running, it should stay warm enough that viscosity wouldn't be a problem. Just, kind-of a pain to plug it in every time.

 

[moorepowercoatings]

synthetic oil cold weather

The thing that I liked about the 5-30 synthetic in my 1st gen, was that in the winter where I work it got to -25 and we had no place to plug in the truck so with regular 15-40 rotella it almost wouldn't turn over and you would have to watch it for a while so it would run. With the 5-30 Mobil 1 it turned over like summer time and it took about 5 revolutions of the engine to start. Also I was confident that I would have proper circulation of oil with the 5-30, so I believe that it is very important to run the light oil in the winter, synthetic or no.

 

[pkennedy]

B Calvert I live in Alberta and work 600 miles North of where you do vertically on the globe. It is imperative you do not put synthetic in too early as there will be very important seating issues. However on my 01 I ran 25k on Dino oil, 25k more on PetroCan semi-synthetic and switched to true synthetic at 50k, the truck has now 100k and again my second CTD that I used this method and everything is great. Physically my engine on both trucks never completely broke in until 60-70k, what our friends in the south don't understand is today it may be 32F and tomorrow it could be -46F and stay that way for 2 weeks. Our plug ins failed twice last year at -38 to -44 and truck would not start without help, the difference was when it did fire standard petroleum oils in CTD's DO NOT generate oil pressure for 60-90 seconds. My 15-40 synthetic was showing oil pressure in less than 10 seconds and this is important as your high compression diesel produces extreme bearing impact loads in these conditions. Oil movement and pressure is your protection for bearing scuff and failure on crank and con rods and secondary the cam and fuel pump parts. There was another thread here with a discussion about lugging the engine, traditionally big trucks that pull big loads from the beginning seat faster run better and get as many or more miles between rebuilds than trucks that run light all the time. Many of the original CTD's that hauled cars and RV's full time went well over 500k miles without a problem, hope this gives you a little help in deciding what to do. PK