Which oil to use?

[JMcCarty]

Hello everyone, this is my first post, I`ve had my truck about 3 months now and it`s getting close to oil change time, Since I bought the truck used I dont know what kind of oil was used, I`m looking for suggestions on what brand is best and if I should use synthetic or not. it has just over 52000 on it.



Thanks for the help

 

[Texas Diesel]

Welcome to the TDR!

I have used Rotella T for the past ten years and now that I have a REAL truck I am looking for something better. Until I decide on something better I'll stay with Rotella T. Lots of guys use synthetics and extended drain intervals. I'm sure you'll get lots of good advice on it. Amsoil has a pretty good advetisement in this months TDR. The most important thing is to change the oil regularly. Good luck

 

[Puff]

I use LE 8800. It is not a synthetic, but is reported to be excellent. However, Delo 400 smells really good.

 

[Jetpilot]

Personally I like synthetics, so I use Mobil Delvac 1. There are lots of good choices out there though.



Doug S.

 

[Deezal Man]

Use a quality oil containing all the specs required by Cummins for your model engine. As far as intervals, DC's schedule varies from what Cummins recommends... So that is your call as to what is practical and comfortable for your situation/application. Me personally, I stick with what Cummins recommends, rather than DC. To my knowledge, no other Diesel engine has an owners manual recommending 3K oil changes.



I know that advice sounds "cheezy", but this world contains a lot of people who think oil is oil.



Some of us prefer synthetics, others have had good experience with petroleum oils, and have no desire to run anything else.



Regardless what type of oil you use, nothing beats good old fashioned maintanance. The way I see it, oil and grease is inexpensive.

 

[HC]

Based on reading a lot of past posts, if I were using regular oil I'd go with the Delo. I've chosen to go with synthetics; I've used some Delvac 1, but right now I'm on Amsoil HDD 5W-30 and still getting good analysis results with more than 15k on the oil. After this round, I think I'll probably set something around 15k as my upper limit, since I don't have bypass filtration.



I firmly believe EITHER delo or one of these top synthetics will give you an engine life that far exceeds the rest of the truck. I went with synthetic to decrease the frequency of changes so that I can do them myself, to provide better summertime protection for hot turbo shutdowns (I still idle, I just feel more comfortable about it when I finally pull the key), and to provide optimum starting in winter. Necessary? No, but worth a few pennies to me on a $30k truck that I plan to drive past 300k.



If the search feature is working now, you can find about 3 days worth of reading from people who feel very strongly on this issue. Only problem is, we're divided into two camps, so you still have to decide which feels right to you!

 

[Skibby]

oil?

JMcCarty,I use Amsoil Series 3000 HD 5w-30 an have had very good success,I've used it on two different Dodge/Cummin's engines.

 

[EMDDIESEL]

For conventional oil i would definatley go with Rotella or Mobil. The Cummins reccomended oil is fine too.

Personally, with 52,000 miles on the truck already, i would not invest the money in synthetics. One of the greatest gains of using Synthetic oils is the reduced engine wear which in turn will mean longer bearing life, less oil leaks, etc. With 52k miles (And depending on the owner, they could have been HARD miles) alot of that wear has already occured. So you may only be able to get the gains that you would if you switched to synthetics at say 15K.



I have seen Cummins and Detroit Diesels in tow trucks (that are abused) with over 400,000 miles on them running conventional oil and getting oil changes at 10k miles or more. If you can afford it, go Synthetic, otherwise conventional is fine with oil and filter changes every 7-10k miles depending on how hard you are running the truck.

Its almost a 2 for one difference in price being that 12 quarts of good synthetic oil cost as much as 24 quarts of Rotella. Personally, i cant justify the expense of synthetics so i can go a few thousand more miles between oil changes. Its pretty easy to change the oil in a Ram, you can almost crawl under the truck to get to the drain plug.

This just my opinion from working on diesels for the past 11 years. Good luck with your new truck.

 

[Chace TX]

Synthetics after 52k, no problem. I don't think that a damaging amount of wear has occured in the last 52k, regardless of usage. I have personally put 300K on a Cummins Dodge and she was running better than she did at 100k. I put Mystic 15-40 in the old 91 that racked up all those miles. If you want to run synthetics have at it. I swithched my last two Dodges to Amsoil synthetic when I got them (85k and 75K). I changed the filter at 7500 and then the oil and filter at 15000. I did it because it was cost effective and I didn't have to crawl under the pick-up as often. In winter the synthetic really shines, starts are easier and everything runs a lot smoother. In my new 24valve I am going to change every 5k with Delo 400 (Mystic is hard to find). At 30k I will reconsider the synthetic. This is just opinion, but I was pleased with the synthetic, even though the used pick-ups had 75-85k on them, when I switched.