no I am not kidding brother in law runs a small tucking fleet of 15 trucks ran delo 400 for years. and switched brands, he forgot to tell oil analasyts lab and they thought he was trying to pull a fast one em. his used oil was as good as delo 400 new. We dropped delo 400 12 years ago and extended our engine life on farm tractors from 6,000 hrs to 9,000hrs plus. have two smaller 135hp. that have 16,000 hrs. so you tell me there arn't better oils.....John Deere torque guard supreme for example campared theirs to delo and and all studies beat it hands down.(just for an example) granted i havn't used it for 12 yrs. but with my engine life history why should I?

 

I don't know about all of that but my '94 has had Delo in it from the first oil change by the origional/previous owner and it has 372K+ miles on it. Runs awesome.

My '97 PS was owned by a construction company with its own mechanics that kept detailed records and it has always had Delo too. 282K miles and going strong also.

Almost everyone i know with a Cummins (which is a lot) run it too.

I have no idea which is "better" but it seems to be good enough.

I use Pennsoil (which many people have told me is crap) in all of my gas rigs too simply because they are "pro-gun rights" and I've never had any trouble with it either. A lot of my rigs "sit" a lot too, which is not good, and I still never have oil-related problems.

 

My non-oil-educated (its seems some of us are psuedo-experts!) comment is that keeping it changed at proper intervals is way more important than brand. Yes some are probably better than others but change it when you are supposed to and she'll treat you right!

Thad

 

You are 150 percent correct, Big Bad! Chevron most assuredly is ahead of the curve in just about every area of lubricant manufacture, so I don't know where a comment like "Old Technology" would come from, flamebuster, unless you haven't done your research.

That said, I still use Shell Rotella-T. In warmer Colorado, I used 15W40. Here in this colder climate I use the 10W30 because the truck does more short hops than ever before. I also use 10W30 in my 2810 Ford utility tractor for the same reason... it has to start all winter plus it's on and off alot (the tractor equivalent of short hops). I sitll use 15W40 in my 100 hp Farmall. I think Shell oils are a great value and are more easily found in my area than Delo and less expensive. The R-T produces great oil anaysis reports on my 6.9L, the Farmall and the 2810.

The two tractors are on a 2-year (up to) 100 hour interval. The Ford 6.9L is about 18 months (at whatever miles, but no more than about 4-5K). I get good reports at 5K using the Power Stroke style filter, which filters a little more finely than the standard 6.9L fitler.

 

Just a ton of misinformation here...

 

Rotella 15W40

 

^^^I agree. A company like Chevron doesn't succeed by staying with old technology. Every oil company is striving to make better, longer lasting oils as well as exceeding industry/ manufacturers and EPA standards. Even with the introduction of CJ-4 spec oil a few years ago, they are working towards the next generation.

I don't think you can go wrong with any current 15W-40 oil such as Delo, Rotella, or Delvac.

The company I work for has ran all three of them at one time or another. The price seems to dictate the brand more than anything. The quality of the oil seems to be very close.
We use a 36K mile drain interval on some of our newer highway trucks. Except for a few instances, we are getting over a million miles before the first in-frame. We have even extended it to 72K miles on the new trucks they just purchased. I'm curious how that is going to play out.

I am suprised that I haven't seen any mention of Amsoil. It seems to be very popular on the Cummins forums I visit.

Jason

 

flamebuster: Nobody said that there weren't other good oils out there, just that Delo is among them. I don't even think it's the best you can buy. JD oil IS pretty good (made by Esso) and to a very high spec. It's a very good choice. That said, everything you talked about could have been done by any number of good oils, Delo included. Unless you took two identical tractors, used and maintained them in an identical fashion, running one on Delo and the other on JD, then tore them down and evaluated wear and tolerances, your statement about longer life is not worth a whole lot. Oils have changed a lot in 12 years. You might want to take a fresh look.

 

i use rotella 15w-40 i buy a 5 gallon bucket for $50

 

Untill they quite making it I used only Mobil Delvac 1 full synthetic.

After I finished all I had I started running Mobil 1 which meets IDI requirements, but is getting expensive.
Oil changes are getting close to 100 dollars with 11 quarts of oil and a Fleetguard LF 3630 filter.

If I go to another oil, it will be Mobil Delvac 1300 series.

 

Yes this is true I abviously spoke out line on Delo oils.I have compared my engine life to other farmers using diffrent oils but not really comparing their service practices. but I do listen to my dealers mechanics and they notice a difference of course this is not enough and I appreciate being so corrected. They obviously have kept updated. (delo) But I will not be trying it again because I feel I have a program that works far better than others. The hrs on my tractors and the work load they perform speaks for itself. The avg. life of a 160hp. and higher tractor is 5-7,000hrs. under this hp. 7-9,000hrs. now this is a known avg. by any dealer, similar to semi's hitting the million mile mark. and I have been exceeding this continously for years.All the examples I gave are factual and the basis of my opinion.But I have not taken into account our strict service schedule and I again I recend my statement about old technology.....But it did make for some interesting reading..
I am tempted to experiment with some of the synthetic on the diesels.. I like what I see so far in gas rigs with this oil. But so far I havn't...

 

i run whatever dino oil is onsale at carquest and a purolator filter. no problems here so far.

 

I've never used Amsoil but your right: Amsoil and Cummins owners seem to be attatched at the hip.
Never heard anything but good about it.
If I ever went to synthetic in my Cummins it would be Cummins Premium Blue.