Tractor oils

I have a 550 Oliver tractor. Thje owners manual calls for SAE 30 weight engine oil in the Hydraulic system. I want to use a back hoe but am low on hyd. system oil. Will Hydraulic oil SE 32 be compatable? Will it mix with the engine oil ok?

you cant put hyd. oil in a system ment for 30w oil ,
pump wasnt designed for it & system will have low or
little pressure , tryed that in a farmall H didnt
work out well

Most likely needs the oil changed, pump it out and put a good hydraulic oil and it will be fine. Chuck

We use universal tractor transmission hydraulic fluid in our old and they work fine. In something like the Oliver's that have separate sumps you can use just about anything, as long as you don't have to worry about moving with other tractors. If you do, run what you run in those.


Donovan from Wisconsin

Most of the hydraulic systems on tractors from the
40's and 50's were designed for 20W or 30W engine oil they didn't have the close tolerances of later model systems,that and throw in 50 years of use I'd say the 30W would definitely be in order.I've gotten a couple AC WD models that the hydraulics didn't work very well drained the hydraulic oil that had been put in it and put in motor oil and everything went back to normal.After 50 years of wear common sense will tell you their tolerances are worn and thicker not thinner oil would be better.

(quoted from post at 12:23:34 03/17/15) I have a 550 Oliver tractor. Thje owners manual calls for SAE 30 weight engine oil in the Hydraulic system. I want to use a back hoe but am low on hyd. system oil. Will Hydraulic oil SE 32 be compatable? Will it mix with the engine oil ok?

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I've got a 1964 Oliver 550. I just had my hydraulic system refurbished because of a broken spring inside my 3 points control valve. Otherwise, the pump still worked fine for my front loader operated on a secondary valve. To be on the safe side, I checked with the senior mechanic at my AGCO parts dealer who supplied all gaskets "O"rings and the new hydraulic fluid filter. Based on the fact the system is operating in winter or summer, he advised me to keep on using good quality standard ATF fluid, not the SAE 30 specified in the manual which would only work in summer. ATF viscosity is not affected by winter and it has apparently the right amount of anti-foam and detergent additive to be ideal to use on the hydraulic system as well as the power steering of the Oliver 550.

My 550 works fine with ATF for several years and it is back in business thanks to a donor 550 I bought for parts. The previous owner who is a retired industrial mechanic had the same opinion about standard Dextron II type of Automatic Transmission Fluid as the ideal sustitute for all season operation.

I'm just passing the information, I'm not an expert by any means.