oil change ???? for you guys

The oil in a modern engine is used as a coolant as well as the lubricant.
I retired in 2007, but was involved with a lot of units that did the same job, different owners, with different maintenance schedules.
We had guys buy the fancy synthetic oil, and do the oil sample thing, it was a big failure.
These were all units that ran 144,000 Lbs over the mountains of B.C. 11 hours a round trip two trips a day.
The longer the oil change intervals the shorter the life span of the engine was.
A very smart guy once told me that an oil change is the cheapest overhaul you will not need.
I would be doing a bearing roll in, add a gallon of ATF to clean it out about an hour before you drop the pan.
I use to watch a lot of owner operators tell me how rough it was, and how they were not making the money to repair, and maintain their truck. They did have the money for new stacks, a new seat or the newest fancy stereo.

 

Google Blackstone Laboratories. They will send you an oil testing bottle for free to send in an oil sample.

 

John so what were the intervals on those heavy haul trucks, 10k miles or 300 hours? How long they last? Worst/best case?

 

earthmover...if there is a speedco in ur area go there. they will come out and pull a sample and test it while u wait. johnp3 i know what ur saying about some o/os. they want all the prettiest chrome and the latest gadgets for their truck but then cant change the oil or buy tires when they need them.

 

Betting if you put new rods and mains in your oil pressure will go back to normal. My oil pressure, higher than yours of course in a cat, showed a similar drop at around 975k miles... about 5-8 psi lower than it had been. New bearings brought the pressure back up to what it had been .. Agreed with the cheapest overhaul being conventional15w40 on 10k to 12k intervals that's something I was told long ago and I think it sound advice to follow..

 

I change mine @ 250 hours in summer and 500 hours in winter. I don't go by miles/kilometres because I do quite a bit of idling.

 

I would tend to think if I never saw an oil pressure drop on 10k intervals that would be best. The motor is telling you what works. At some point that drop on 20k oci will become permanent not only from broken down thinner oil but also looser tolerances.

 

Some people will add a couple gallons of 20W50 to avoid oil burn off and raise the oil pressure. Something to consider, just make sure its Heavy duty engine oil, not the stuff for cars.