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15w40 motor oil

woodbutcher

woodbutcher

Well-known Member
It's time to change the hydraulic fluid in my John Deere zero turn mower model Z717A. The manual recommends a 15w40 oil with SG rating (JD PLUS-50). Rotella has a CJ4/SM rating. As I understand it, the SM is for use in gasoline engines. Is that just a newer, better rating than the SG?
 
(quoted from post at 17:25:58 05/10/16) It's time to change the hydraulic fluid in my John Deere zero turn mower model Z717A. The manual recommends a 15w40 oil with SG rating (JD PLUS-50). Rotella has a CJ4/SM rating. As I understand it, the SM is for use in gasoline engines. Is that just a newer, better rating than the SG?
Click to expand...

That must be an old mower; SG was new in 1988! SM has been since 2005. About every five years a new standard comes out, so yeah use the new stuff. This is the problem with something lasting a long time, you can't find the specified oils unless it's NOS.
 
Hard to believe a JD mower not wanting you to use hy-gard or low vis. hy-gard in the hydro's ? But either way go by the book for it. Unless JD had a service bulletin on them. Won't hurt to check with dealer. Have them print it out if they find something different than your book says.
 
i have an older hustler ztr, and that uses 10w40 motor oil for the drive. i use rotella 15-40 no problem. i also have an older prime mover skid steer, it has the same drive motors as the hustler, that also uses 10w40 , it gets rotella. start em and let em warm up before running the hydraulics to get the oil warm.
 
Thanks for the tip. I haven't been allowing time for warm-up. I have been noticing lately that after I've mowed for awhile, the hydraulic tank is too hot to hold my hand against. Does your mower do that?
 
The "S" in oil ratings stands for spark ignition engines (gasoline or gas vapor). C rating stands for compression ignition (diesel) engines. There are differences in the additives and soot carrying characteristics between the oils. You can maybe save a buck by staying with the specified oil.
 

My Deere LX188 was getting slow and weak. Drained , filled with 60wt Amsoil , drained and filled again with 60weight Amsoil to get most of the factory oil flushed out.
Five mowing seasons later she climbs hills and roadside ditches without hesitation .
 
The latest 15-40 spec, the CJ, has changes to make it more fleet friendly. For a long time the 15-40's have been fleet oils (mixed gas and diesel) if you locate and read the "fine print". I don't think it will make a difference in it's use as a hydraulic fluid.
 

Raw hydraulic oil was simply non detergent oil of various cheap bases. New tractor hydrualic oil had a few additives to fight foaming, and keep orings from drying out..
More and more...

Newer hydraulic systems are now requiring wear additives to the base oil..Now with super high pressures, much more heat, old hydraulic oils no longer cut the mustard... They require upgrades.....The same wear additives that have been in HD motor oils... The additives fight acid, moisture and wear. Go figure.
 
You don't want to run hydraulic oil much over 130-140 for too long. It will wear out and "burn" a lot sooner if you do. This is from the engineers where I used to be a maintenance mechanic in a mill. We had a lot of hydraulic presses and other systems. I saw a few systems "burn: the oil when something would malfunction and the oil wood overheat. Some of these systems ran 8-18 or sometimes even more hours a day so it didn't take long for something to show up if it was going to.
 
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