Engine Oils

[John C.]

I've maintained a few fleets and run my oil selection by price, manufacturer's recomendations and the SAE ratings on the product. I've seen companies spend extra money for higher priced oil and then try to extend change intervals. I have never seen the economics pan out.

The statements made about who's oil is better or worse I've found to be pure fluff and puffery. I haven't seen a pure lubrication failure in thirty five years in the construction industry plus growing up with my father's machines. I have also not seen that anyone was able to successfully sue an oil manufacturer because their product caused a failure.

I agree with Mr. Nolan's post in that you have to manage a fleet down to each individual machine to achieve best practices. I have been successful using oil sampling on new machines until they are out of drive train warranties but consider it a waste of money there after. I've found out from personal experience that it cost a lot of money and time, gave incomplete or inconsistant results and caused lots of sleepless nights.

I used to use sampling before purchase of used machinery but have found most all sellers change all the oils before I do an inspection. So unless I see something obvious I skip that process.

I don't begrudge anyone who wants to spend extra money on anyone's oil, nor do I think oil sampling is a bad idea. I do think either program should be looked at very carefully for the actual economic benefit.

 

[Legdoc]

Any openions on Chevron Delo motor oil?

 

[Kgmz]

Any openions on Chevron Delo motor oil?

We used Chevron Delo for years and never had a problems, now we use Shell Rotella.


Why did we change. Because we have owned a convenience store for 24 years that used to sell Chevron gas and switched to Shell a couple of years ago. So we get a wholesale price on our oil through the distributer.

 

[thejdman04]

we run usually 500 hours, jsut depends on the application

 

[tuney443]

In my experience the HIGHER the sulphur level, the more frequent the oil change should become. Standard value in North America is under 0.5% I think which enables oil to be changed at standard interval depending on manufacturer. I haven't heard of reduced interval for low-sulphur fuel yet.

That's what every manual I've read says to do regarding high sulphur and changeouts.I change my 410G and 450 D Schaeffer 15/40 200X every 200 hours.

 

[Paystar]

I change my engine oil and filter (and fuel filters) every 250 hours and do a Cat S.O.S. This is on my dump truck (2005 Cat Acert motor). I go by the hours instead of miles as I have lots of pto and idle time. Sometimes due to being in the bush, I've gone to 400 hours and the analysis still comes back O.K. but the zinc is low showing the oil is losing it's ability to keep the acidity in check. It is the sacrificial wear metal added to the oil for the acids to attack. I use Shell Rotella T 15W40 and only Cat filters. That way if I ever have a warranty problem they can't say I use inferior filters