Oil Question

[wal1809]

I got a call from a buddy who is always finding great deals as he is the wheelen and dealinist man on the planet.  He found motor oil straight weight 40 which states on the jug "Meets Detroit Diesel series 71 requirements".  The dealer selling was selling all they had as they discontinued carrying that brand.  I told him I would throw for half and half.  96 gallons for $225, so I will get 48 gallons for $125.  PLease tell me it series 71 oil will be OK in my 6v92.

[Bill in KS]

I love a good deal and they happen everday. 

BUT I've found with somethings ............. ya get what you pay for. 

GOOD  Oil is cheap compared to down time and parts / labor costs. 

Bill in KS

[bevans6]

If it meets DD two stroke requirements it's the right stuff.  Without knowing brand and source it's hard to tell if it's the perfect best oil or just a good one.  I would have bought it.

Brian

[belfert]

Has anyone ever had a failure that could definitively tracked back to the brand of oil used?  All of the oil issues I ever hear about seem to stem from not changing the oil or using the wrong weight.  Yes, some car engines are picky about oil weight just as the Detroit 2 strokes are.

[luvrbus]

Your fine Wayne even if it has the old CD 11 rating,Belfert I never saw one fail for a certain brand of oil I do think the Mobil Delvac 1240 is the best oil for one though never saw one fail on 15/40 either.
you guys should have been around in the 50's and 60's and saw what was poured into those engines before all the Delco hype and bulletin boards lol and I can't see where they are lasting anylonger

good luck

[wal1809]

Well a $112.50 dollar gamble on oil turns out was better than the craps table in the casino.  Tunrs out to be 50 gallons of Texaco oil 40 WT and stamped ont he side "MEet Detroit Diesel 71 and 92 series engines.  I am glad I took a shot at it and hit it with the golden BB.

[Scott & Heather]

I read somewhere that Sulfated Ash content be less than 1%...Isn't that Rotella spec? Someone correct my gaps in memory. I am wanting a definitive answer for this as well since I need to "oil up" before we head to Florida in October.

[belfert]

I never pay any attention to what brand of oil goes into my bus or my car.  I just make sure the oil gets changed per the mileage requirements.  I did put Mobil 1 5w-40 in my TDI because it required synthetic oil, but only had to be changed every 10,000 miles.

My brother bought a used car at age 17 or 18 with around 60,000 miles.  Engine quit maybe nine months later.  It turned out the engine was full of sludge.  The mechanic didn't think the oil had ever been changed before my brother bought it and my parents ended helping him buy a remanufactured engine for the car.

[Scott & Heather]

I could be very very wrong, (I am all the time) but I read a few different articles that stated somewhat strongly that DD 2 strokes were picky about ash content. I did some Google searching but didn't come up with exactly what I had read, but it might be worth some investigation or at least someone weigh in on what the big deal is about ash percentage...

[wal1809]

By Detroit specs for the DD 71 and 92 series motors call for a straight weight 40 less than 1% or maybe .75 % or less ash content.  The previous owner used delo 400 in my bus and it smoked like a crack head.  When I read the service records and changed it to the correct oil it quit smoking and didn;t slobber oil near as bad.  After what I have read and seen I am convinced the engineers created those specs for a good reason.  I am not always a believer in engineer specs but in this case I have seen enough to realize the specs are in order.

[artvonne]

  Mobil was sued and bought one hell of a lot of engines when they got selling the MobilOne thing. Especially costly were a lot of aircraft engines. Cost them $millions. Many, many in fact.

  Then there was the Quaker State Oil fiasco. I dont know the deal anymore but they put out a big batch of bad oil that ruined a whole lot of engines. Took them a long time to recover, and I dont think they ever really did. They had a big ad campaign afterwards, and claimed if you had an engine failure within 100K miles while running their oil, they would pay it. Lots of ways to talk your way around an oil related failure, but it can and has happened. 

  In the automotive world its one thing if you lose an engine, and there arent many people out there looking out for us. But Aircraft are a different deal, and the FAA will tear down engines after a crash or alleged engine failure and if they say it was an oil related failure, or a fuel quality issue, whoever sold the junk is going to be answering some questions.

  When I had the Mercedes diesels I was running Kendall. I ran it in everything back then. When you see cars with odo's reading plus 500K and read of others nationwide seeing and experiencing same, its hard to discount. But Kendall got sold out to Mobil IIRC and they shut down that single special well that pumped the good stuff. Now I try to put Rotella in most everything. I try to buy good oil, but  the stuff is changing all the time now its hard to keep up with it. Keep your eyes and ears open, so if the stuff your running starts having problems you hear about it.

  Myself I just have a hard time pouring cheap oil into an expensive engine. Im no Synth fan, but I dont like cheap oil either. Keep reading Bob is the Oil Guy.

[wal1809]

Well come to find out the oil distributor had to remove all Texaco products as they switched over to Shell.  The Shell contract start date was coming soon so they had to mark down all of the stock they had.  I was glad to take advantage of that deal.

[luvrbus]

Wayne if the oil is not over 4 years old you bought Delo in a Texaco jug

good luck

[wal1809]

I am not sure how old they are clifford.  The boxes seemed fairly new to with the exception of the one bax that had a leak in one of the jugs.  The leak was on the bottom of the jug so I turned it over.