I've seen many people use shell rotella for their 7.3s. I got some free oil from a neighbor (8 gallons) of Chevron Delo 400 XLE SAE 15w40, which is synthetic blend. I've seen some very active discussions here on oil brands and types, but couldn't find anything particular to this exact one. Does anyone run it in their truck? The previous owner said he used "whatever the oil change place put in it" so I don't know what has been used so far in the 143k lifespan of the engine. I did put about a quart+ in to top off the level right before I went on a trip to the coast.

By the way, I wanted to know what kind of mileage I would get on the trip. I was hauling approximately 2500 extra pounds with the trailer and supplies. My in town stop and go mpg is around 13.5. I got 16.2 mpg on this trip, about half of which was slow mountain roads up and down, and switchbacks. I had filled the tank both before and after up until I could see it. It's a pain to fill it this far, but it seems like there's 5 extra gallons vs just filling until it knocks off.

Back to the oil, the price isn't bad at all for $15/gal with free shipping from Walmart. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Chevron-D...llon/464559459

 

 

OK, thanks @Y2KW57 . If the only problem is low ppm phosphorus, would there be an additive to bring this back up?

 

I don't know.

With over 215 different diesel engine oils in just the 15W-40 viscosity alone, that all ARE on Ford's Approved list as meeting the WSS-M2C171-F1 specification, that are among the approximately 410 diesel engine oils in all oil weight viscosity divisions that are also on Ford's Approved list as meeting WSS-M2C171-F1, I've never had the need to add an additive to an engine oil in order to attempt to meet a specification. There's hundreds of Ford approved diesel engine oil choices that do not need any additives.

The issue I see with adding an additive is... how much do you add? How do you know if you are adding too much? How do you know if you are adding enough? How do you know what other constituent carriers and chemicals are in the additive, and their compatibility or catalytic reaction with the additives formulated in the original oil? How do you know if the addition of any additive would then meet the requirements of WSS-M2C171-F1? How do you know what all the requirements are? How would you test your own concoction against those requirements?

It's easier for me to pay $15 a gallon for an oil where all the additive balance has already been tested and verified to be compatible and meet the minimum requirements for the standards the formulator attests to.

 

I agree with what you are saying. WIthout knowing anything about additives, I had assumed it could be, for X ppm of phosphorus additive, add Y amount per quart, or whatever.... That doesn't look like it's the case out there.

Only reason I was asking is that I have 8 gallons of it. Not trying to go out and buy some more and mess with it. Appreciate your input, thank you.

 

@ardubb , good to see you around!

The general rule of thumb for the 7.3L PSD is "vote NO" on oil additive and "vote YES" on fuel additive.

There are plenty of other choices out there for oil that are fairly priced, easily acquired and do well in the 7.3L and on UOA's. Tractor Supply Travellers 15w40 for example, SuperTech from Wal-mart seems to be a fan favorite as well. The Travellers was recently compared to a boutique oil via Blackstone UOA and the analysis results were nearly the same after 5,000 miles.

Link to the UOA I referenced above: FTE'r ArmyLifer UOA results

My own UOA journey to finding a high quality, affordable and reliable oil for my application: The UOA journey begins

I have been running Rotella T6 for the past 8 years. I tried Triax Fleet Supreme 15w40 for a 5,500 mile cross country trip. I will be going to buy some Travellers 15w40 tomorrow during the Veterans Day sale. My truck is used as a tool to accomplish work. The "work" is towing heavy cross country, so I need an oil that will perform well and keep the engine running efficiently.

Good luck to you on your choices going forward, there is A LOT out there to choose from!

 

Understood. And I've done the same thing...

A couple of years ago, Walmart was selling Chevron Delo 400 XSP 5W-40 FULL SYNTHETIC for only $5.00 a gallon.

Not $15. But $5. Not "synthetic blend", but FULL synthetic. Not just summer viscosity, but year round viscosity.

Did I grab some of that, at $5? You betcha. I cleared the shelf, and looked behind other bottles and brands for any more.



And do you see the problem that I didn't see, because my eyes were fixated on that yellow $5.00 sale sticker?

Just like me, this oil is a SiNner.

After getting my windfall of four $5 gallons of full synthetic safely home before I got caught for retail robbery, I checked it against Ford's list for oils meeting WSS-M2C171-F1.

Not found.

If I were smart enough to be able to use a smart phone, I could have checked for this in the store.

But it gets worse... look at the back label of these Chevron Delo 400 XSP 5W-40 full synthetic CK-4 / SN bottles...



As oil standards go, it doesn't get much better than Mack EOS-4.5 and Volvo VDS-4.5. These two standards, by definition, include passing the Mack/Volvo T-13 test.

Now add to that Caterpillar ECF-3 (think: meeting the needs of HEUI) and Cummins CES 20086 (remember, Ford owned Cummings), and Mercedes Benz 228.31 (who can argue with German engineering?).

Gotta be good oil, right? It's a descendant of Chevron Delo 400 for cryin' out loud... the bellwether standard for diesel engine oils sold at Costco by the pallet for the first decade of this millennium.

But look again.

The bottle says "Recommended For" all those wonderful standards.

It does NOT say MEETS.

Strike two.

When it comes to maintaining my PSD, I don't play innings out to 3 strikes. If a product doesn't hit a home run, it's benched. And these wonderful sounding bottles of ISO SYN technology got benched in my cabinet, relegated to use as make up oil, and as a summertime oil in a gas engine.

One reason why I like Ford's list so much is because I don't have to play guessing games with how the oil manufacturer's marketing mavens mince words and twist phrases to make me think something that isn't... such as the difference between saying

This oil is recommended for these standards.

versus

This oil meets these standards.

Rather than rely solely on the oil manufacturer's tricky twist of a phrase, I can check the oil against the standard bearer, on a list produced by the author and keeper of the specification, which is Ford itself.

With well over 400 different oils to choose from on that list, spanning all usable viscosities for a diesel engine, in mineral, blended synthetic, and full synthetic flavors, across a spectrum of price points, from name brand to generic... the sheer number of different oils on that list tells me that enough oil formulators found it important enough to pay whatever it costs to subject their oil to the type of certification testing that Ford requests to get on the list.

And these tests are not just lab beakers and petri dish samples analyzed by lab rats.

Oils are tested in instrumented engines, run for hundreds of hours... so how the oil chemical constituents change and react and oxidize and break down in shear and heat are also evaluated.

I can't do that at home by adding a bottle of mystery oil to my $5.00 windfall.

That all being said, if you change the oil every 3,000 miles, you will not likely tax the oil you have to the point of having to worry about any of this. At a 3,000 mile OCI, the lack of sufficient phosphorus, and/or any other additives that deplete or break down from use, will not have the opportunity to do damage to the engine from their insufficiency, because the oil is changed to fresh oil so frequently.

Still, the best practice is to follow Ford's recommendations. Leave it to Ford to figure out the chemistry.

 

Hutch and Harpoon mod will relieve you of that inconvenience

 

I did the same thing...only with Mobil Delvac 1300 Super Heavy Duty Synthetic blend at TSC....it was on sale locally and I zeroed in on the price.

Here is a Ford list of approved brands based on their WSS-M2C171-F1 spec. It is sorted by weight and brand.

https://parts.ford.com/content/dam/f...SSM2c171F1.pdf

 

@Y2KW57 I got these for free, so I'm not out anything. Neighbor sold his truck, and had these left over.

Regarding the 400 XSP, I had seen the ford list had the Delo 400 XSP SAE 15w40 as approved on the list. Interesting the 5w40 didn't cut it. The thing is, I can find no trace of this 15w40 for sale anywhere. I've used Chevron products all of my life. My dad was a chemical engineer for Chevron. Always have used the gasoline, and now diesel. Delo ELC, lube, techron d all stocked in my garage. Would love to find this 15w40 somewhere. There is a place that uses Chevron lubricants only near my son's school, maybe I'll ask there.

For now, being winter, I'll stick with Rotella T6 5w40, and see if I can find that delo as time goes on.

Thanks all for your input. I am going to have this truck for the rest of my life. Gotta make sure it lives that long as well. Right now, I've got it in the body shop to smooth out some dings and touch up some spots that the previous owner applied with his truck bed camper.

 

@Sous I'm always around reading through threads here daily. Hopefully in time, I can be as helpful as all of you.

 

I've said it many times oil is oil, change it often and your engine will show it's gratitude.
I'm using some foreign, not to spec stuff in our fleet and have yet to see any failures from oil issues.

 

^^^^

What HE said.

And don't run with 20k intervals.

 

I'm not aware of any additives that boost Phosphorus. Archoil AR9100 boosts Potassium and Boron which showed up on my very first oil run and UOA with the truck with T6. I do not know if Phosphorus is an ingredient that uses itself up over the life of the OCI or what....would have to do some reading on that, but here is the Blackstone for everybody's gawking/squawking pleasure. Phosphorus came back at 930 vs a suggested normal average of 1100 so IDK what to make of that. The SN rated stuff limits it to 800 ppm so are we making a mountain out of a mole hill here? Possibly. Nothing bad will happen immediately if you use that stuff, it's just not a recommended choice because of the already covered details. If it was free I'd do some short 3-5k OCI's and preferably not if the truck will be used hard during that time frame.

 

That list also....ehh. I notice nothing from Schaeffer or Amsoil appears on there. Hard time believing they don't make any diesel rated oils that meet Ford's criteria. I don't even see the higher end Mobil products like Delvac 1 or Turbo Diesel Truck. When I tested the Delvac 1 sample the Phosphorus came back higher than the Rotella T6 even after a significantly longer run, so good luck making any sense of that.