Motor Oil

I thought using Shell 15-40 wt oil in my JD 401 industrial 4 cyl diesel was a good thing. Reading the manual it recomends using straight 30 wt above 32F. Any thoughts? Maybe a lot has changed since the tractor was sold. Guessing it may be around 35 years old. Stan

"Maybe a lot has changed since the tractor was sold."

U R kidding, right?

38 to 40 years old.
Straight weight is fine as long as the viscosity is matched to ambient temp.

I used the rotella 15/40w oil in my 1968 international engine once, and oil leaked out of every seal and gasket on the engine. I changed back to 30w, no more leaks.

I agree. Multi-viscosity oils are crap. I use 600W steam engine oil in everything.

This has been covered on here hundreds of times. The manual was written when the tractor was in production, and covered lubrication standards for that time period. Lubrication standards have changed many times over the years, with no changes of course to the old operator manuals. Any quality 15W40 diesel oil if fine, such as:
Mobil Delvac 1300 15W40
Chevron Delo 15W40
Shell Rotella 15W40
Tom

"oil leaked out of EVERY seal and gasket on engine". i changed back to 30w,and no more leaks.




ya, right. i wish it was that easy to fix leaking seals and gaskets. are you a used car salesman?

(quoted from post at 13:34:34 05/15/11) This has been covered on here hundreds of times. The manual was written when the tractor was in production, and covered lubrication standards for that time period. Lubrication standards have changed many times over the years, with no changes of course to the old operator manuals. Any quality 15W40 diesel oil if fine, such as:
Mobil Delvac 1300 15W40
Chevron Delo 15W40
Shell Rotella 15W40
Tom

Click to expand...

^^^ this pretty much much sums it up.

and if you have [b:bf1d405e48][i:bf1d405e48]"oil leakeing out of every seal and gasket on the engine"[/i:bf1d405e48][/b:bf1d405e48]you have more problems then just oil.

why not just get your oil at a jd dealer? Plus 50 is better oil and probably not much more expensive. Case No.1 oil is also good oil and either spec better than shell rotella, delvac and other medium duty truck engine oils. My dsl. tractors still get 30w in them.

heavy duty oils have additives that fight the build up of acids in the oil.. these additives are exteamly base or alkali additives and they have the side effect of cleaning the sludge off what ever they come in contact with...

so yes... if your gaskets are bad, and covered with 50 years of bad oil breaking down into wax and parrafins.. commonly known as sludge...


then yes.. newer hd oils will clean this and then you will spring leaks everywhere... as the sludge is removed and the bad gaskets are exposed..

these new hd oils can also get a million miles between overhauls, something the older oils could NEVER do...(remember when you overhauled a car at 60,000 miles?? good ole 30 wt non detergent oil did that for you.)

your engine, your choice...

Oil is not as good as it was a few years ago. The EPA required oil suppliers to use a less effective additive package. The problem nornally shows up first on sliding lifter type camshafts. For a while there was a big fight between camshaft suppliers and oil companies pointing the finger at one another.
Some gasoline engine camshaft blanks are cast in China and machined in the USA. They may or may not be as good as the old ones that were cast in the USA.
After several failures that he had to eat our automotive machine shop recommends multi viscosity Shell Rotella diesel engine oil all the time with Lucas additive on the first oil change on both diesel and gasoline engines.

Multi viscosity oil should be used on all engines as it has a better additive package that reduces carbon build-up (and wear) in the piston ring pack area. This has been known for years. Multi viscosity is also better for starting and pumps throughout the engine quicker during the winter months.

Stan I dont wount to step on anyones toes but alot has changed sence it was built. Tolerances are alot tighter now than they use to be and the oils are desined for that so the oil for the new engine may not be the best thing for an old engine. I would find out what API Oil rating and weight it shoud have and run that. The wrong oil is as bad as putting sand in the oil. Do alittle reserch on API OIL STANDARDS and you will be suprised on what you will find. Bandit

30W will actually be thinner (have less viscosity) at operating temp then 15W40. But monograde motor oil is actually more stable and less prone to break down at high temperature and during prolonged use when running an engine hard for 8-20 hours at a time.

Thicker (higher viscosity) is not always better. On a fairly worn engine where its beyond factory tolerances using 40 weight instead of factory recommended 30 weight won't be an issue at all and probably even be better. However if the engine is still "tight" and within factory specs I would use the thinnest oil the factory recomends to ensure everything gets lubed.

Oil coats the internal moving parts and prevents metal on metal contact. The manufacturer recommends an oil that is thin enough to coat the metal and prevent metal on metal contract but thick enough to not break down under heat. With oil too thick (high of viscosity) and it literally can't coat the moving the parts until enough wear (excessive tolerance) has occured to give the oil enough room to coat the parts.

If you engine is good and tight I'd use straight 30 weight in the summer and 10W30 in the winter. If its "loose" burning a bit oil I'd use 15W40 year round.

If you have a brand new car engine that recommends 5W20 but put 15W40 in it because that's what all your other engines use you'll cause as much wear in one oil change as 100K of driving. If you go back to 5W20 on the next oil change it wouldn't surprise me it it started buring oil.