single or multigrade oil for old diesel tractors

I enquired today about some oil for our tractors and I spoke to a guy who knew about lubricants he told me that some old diesel tractors complain if they have modern multigrade engine oil but are happy if single grade oils are used
 

If it were mine I would give it good all-fleet multi-vis and if it complained tell it to shut-up and be happy to be getting attention!
 
its really a personal preference--some older tractors will burn more oil if multi grade and burn less with single grade--i understand its due to the additives in multi grade. However there are a lot of guys using multi grade and their tractors run well on it
 

Rather than asking Bubba or waiting for your tractor to complain. How about looking at the AIP specs and cross reference to what your tractor requires .
Straight weight oil tends to be a low ash oil SF-2 rated oil for two stroke Detroit diesels with roller cam follows . That oil can be low on shear strength and point pressure .
If the engine has flat tappet cam followers , the lube oil requires scuff resistance .
 
15/40 fleet diesel. The same oil as I use in EVERYTHING. All my tractors are OLD ('67-70) with high hrs. Never had a problem.
 
(quoted from post at 13:33:25 04/28/16) what is B&D and bubba??????????

B&D is Buick and Deere (above) and Bubba could be described as someone who doesn't know what he is doing but tries anyway.
 
My two IH 1480 combines would "Complain" by using twice as much oil running 15-40 VS straight weight #30. IH engineers felt the same way indicating in the op manual that you should change 15-40 at 100 hrs, while they were OK running #30 to 200 hrs.
 
The multigrade oils contain polymers that activate at temperatures to allow for lighter viscosity at cold temperatures and higher at warm. I would actually expect the opposite of the statement about burning oil. I believe the issues that are being discussed are with the detergent/non detergent properties, the detergent oils should clean out the old sludge and buildup. This can "effectively" increase the clearances on rings that allow for the oil to get through where it was plugged up before. There can also be an issue with getting this sludge into the pickup screen.

I have done this several times without issues, I really do not think the sludge lets loose all at once, use a good detergent oil and keep it changed.
 
I use 15W-40 Kendall diesel grade oil in every engine I own and have for around 20 years without any oil related problem I'm aware of,and once I buy a tractor regardless of what
the previous owner used I always change it over.Usually oil pressure will improve.Also am running some very high hour engines that still do fine.
 
My dad was a hard-core fanatic when it came to using straight 30W oil in his diesel tractors for the longest time. As I recall, the oil he used was the most current, with respect to API specifications, available in a 30W oil. He probably was one of the last farmers in the area to switch over to a 15W-40 oil, and I tend to think he switched about 20 years ago. I seem to recall seeing the first 15W-40 engine oil produced at least as far back as the early 1980's, and probably earlier. I had worked for neighbor in 1982, who used a Farm Oyl 15W-40 in his tractors. The equipment this oil is currently used in ranges in age from 1973 through 1997. I happen to use a 5W-40 synthetic in my 2002 Chevrolet diesel pickup and in my 1978 IH 86 Hydro tractor. The pickup allows for it in year-a-round use, and the tractor is my yard tractor and snow removal machine; the oil pumps easier in cold weather and that tractor is a bit cold blooded anyway, and I do plug in the block and transmission heating elements to aid cold weather starting on the tractor. The gasoline powered tractors are not used for heavy pulling anymore, so we use a 10W-30 diesel grade oil in those engines. We used the 30W prior. The detergent in the diesel grade oil did clean up the engine internals in these older tractors.

The only recollection I have is a couple friends of mine, who had IH diesel tractors from the 1970's and 1980's, "claimed" their tractors were prone to more camshaft wear when using the 15W-40 versus 30W. I cannot address that claim. Our older Deere tractors have at some point in time been overhauled and I would suspect the metals in the newer engine parts are an improvement over what was originally assembled. The engine oil used in the older machines cannot be attributed to the cause for the overhaul either. The 1994 and 1997 models have the original engine in both with the oil recommendation for 15W-40 in the operator's manual.

I also remember a neighbor, who farmed back in the 1970's and 1980's, ran a particular brand of tractor (which shall remain nameless) and used a 50W diesel grade engine oil in those tractors. We had only one of this brand of tractor in the 1970's and it was difficult to keep it in one piece. For the horsepower, the engine lacked in displacement and oil holding capacity in the crankcase. That might have been some of the reasoning the neighbors used 50W, back in the day.

In my opinion, if the design of the engine is good, and the internals are in good shape (as in not worn out), there should be no reason why using a multi-weight diesel engine oil, such as a 15W-40 should be problematic or detrimental. I believe the modern oils are far superior to what we had access to 30, 40, or more years ago.
 
I would add that the only exception to diesel oil might be Detroit Diesel (2-stroke) engines. They had historically used single weight engine oil, and not of the type used in most diesel engines.
 

Back in the day we ran the same 30W oil in everything including the Detroits we had, later we changed to Rotella 15-40 and ran that in everything. Now we use Delo 400 15-40 and it's used and every engine including that old Timber Jack skidder with the 4-53 Detroit.
Never heard that two cycle Detroit engines needed a different oil, maybe that's why we had to rebuilt it at 11,000 hours.

Only thing I don't use 15-40 in is my lawn mower, it still gets 30W per mfg requirements.
 
(quoted from post at 20:12:15 04/29/16)
Back in the day we ran the same 30W oil in everything including the Detroits we had, later we changed to Rotella 15-40 and ran that in everything. Now we use Delo 400 15-40 and it's used and every engine including that old Timber Jack skidder with the 4-53 Detroit.
Never heard that two cycle Detroit engines needed a different oil, maybe that's why we had to rebuilt it at 11,000 hours.

Only thing I don't use 15-40 in is my lawn mower, it still gets 30W per mfg requirements.

Are you saying that the Detroit Diesel engineers are wrong and you are correct ?
The oil must have been low ash or the two stroke piston rings and sleeves would have scuffed. And the exhaust ports would be plugged with ash/soot.
 
(quoted from post at 17:39:58 04/29/16)
(quoted from post at 20:12:15 04/29/16)
Back in the day we ran the same 30W oil in everything including the Detroits we had, later we changed to Rotella 15-40 and ran that in everything. Now we use Delo 400 15-40 and it's used and every engine including that old Timber Jack skidder with the 4-53 Detroit.
Never heard that two cycle Detroit engines needed a different oil, maybe that's why we had to rebuilt it at 11,000 hours.

Only thing I don't use 15-40 in is my lawn mower, it still gets 30W per mfg requirements.

Are you saying that the Detroit Diesel engineers are wrong and you are correct ?
The oil must have been low ash or the two stroke piston rings and sleeves would have scuffed. And the exhaust ports would be plugged with ash/soot.

Never claimed to be smarter than anyone, was just saying what we used.
I have seen at times where engineer recommendations didn't work to well in real world environments.
The 30w we used along with both of the 15-40 oils were all diesel rated but I can't say what the ash content was. If Detroit Diesel was supposed to have something other than diesel rated oil I never knew about it and apparently we got away with it.
I've only been inside of three Detroit's, the 8-71 blew a head gasket and we rebuilt it while it was down, one 4-53 had scuffed pistons and liners because the operator run it hot, the other 4-53 has what looked like normal wear.
I'm a little confused about the exhaust ports plugging with ash and soot thing, seems like it would have to be burning a lot of oil to do that.
I will say that the operator has a lot to do with the service life and oil consumption of a Detroit.
 
i'm using 15w40 or 5w40syn C/S rated oils in just about everything now.

I do have 2 tractors, gassers running 10w30 syn and a van running 5w30 syn though, as it's new and under warranty and that is what is reccomended.
 
derwin I spent 15 years in oil and fuel sales and testing, I cannot explain the guys reasoning for saying what he did. Back in the day when we were testing different formulations of 15W40 VS 30 weight, the 15W40 exceeded all 30 weights we tested in every category except Detroit Diesel. With the advancements, I would think that is true today. We ran many cat, cummings, deere, A.C. IHC diesels and a few more I cant remember on both versions. The truck engines had combined over the road and short haul mileage of over a million miles. Some were new some were rebuilt with cranks, bearings, sleeves, pistons, etc miked before they were put into service.
 

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