Oil Change

dons2346 wrote:

dave_330 wrote:
How often should you do an oil change on a diesel engine?

Follow what your engine manual says

Exactly. Not all are the same. Our ISL is 20,000 miles, our old Cat was 10,000 miles.

Due to time vs miles, I change ours at 10,000, which is overkill by any account.

Well ours seems to get changed before it gets dirty about 2000 miles a year at most lately. I know in Az when we had the oil changed it was still yellow in the drain pan. He asked why change it. Well it's been a year..
Depending on oil capacity and cooling, one year certainly is safe.
Oil does break down. I had a quart of auto brand synthetic sitting in garage for Mother In Laws car. She quit driving in 2001. I said, well, I'll use it in the truck. It came out slowly and then a big thick lump.
est advice is what the engine mfg says to change it at and more often if very hot or very wet or cold or dry or sunny or dark.

10k or once per year. My manual says 15k or once per year. Cummins 330

You may believe that a $100 or so once a year is too much, but it's not for me. I change the oil once a year no matter what. I have an older engine where the parameters are 10,000 miles or once a year but your engine is likely 15,000-20,000 but still once a year. You can send in samples or any other test you like but if you change it once a year despite lesser mileage you cannot go wrong.

I change it every spring

I change my CAT 330 every December or January, that is when we begin our yearly schedule of trips and rallies . This time while servicing they found the Turbo was leaking. Tradewinds is still in the hospital and I'm going broke. :R

Ivylog wrote:
Once out of warranty there is no good reasons to change once a year. 250 hours which could be 12K miles is a good number. I change mine every 15K miles which can be 2-3 years. You can have SpeedCo do an oil analysis before changing and even with 15K miles on it you will find it's still good to go even longer, especially if you change just the filter.

40 years ago with oil testing I went to 200 hours on my off road equipment... oils have come a long way in 40 years and driving down the road is a lot easier on a machine than off road. If you are close by and change once a year I'd be happy to dispose of your oil.

I agree

Once out of warranty there is no good reasons to change once a year. 250 hours which could be 12K miles is a good number. I change mine every 15K miles which can be 2-3 years. You can have SpeedCo do an oil analysis before changing and even with 15K miles on it you will find it's still good to go even longer, especially if you change just the filter.

40 years ago with oil testing I went to 200 hours on my off road equipment... oils have come a long way in 40 years and driving down the road is a lot easier on a machine than off road. If you are close by and change once a year I'd be happy to dispose of your oil.

I have a CAT C7 7.2L I think it calls for 15.000 miles but I do not put that many mile on mine so I do it once a year.
I do not remember how much it holds but it takes 21 quarts when you change it.

I bought a large drain pan for Amazon (about $80) and I change it myself.
I buy two 2.5 gal jugs of Shell Rotella 15-40 Hd Diesel oil for usually around $29 a jug on sale from Rural King, I buy one quart of Lucas Diesel oil stabilizer for $9 and a filter from Cat for $14.
total a little over $80 less than the cost of a fuel fill up.
Takes about 20 minutes about the same as a car only the filter and drain plug are a lot easier to get to and drain straight out missing all frames and other parts that are in the way on a car.
I do not jack it up just raise it up a little to get under it with the levelling jacks. Good time to hit you jacks and other parts with a grease gun.

Two choices:

1. Follow the recommendations of your engine manufacturer for your engine AND MODEL YEAR. I know both Caterpillar and Cummins recommend once a year irrespective of mileage.

2. Do oil analysis to determine if your oil is still in good condition.