Re: Engine oil

Posted by trucker40 on January 07, 2010 at 11:55:38 from (69.152.172.208):

In Reply to: Engine oil posted by Don McCullough on January 07, 2010 at 07:16:18:

When I started working as a Diesel mechanic in 1980 there was still a lot of people using series 3 or straight 30 weight,heavy duty Diesel oil.And there are engines that may even like that oil better still because it might stay in an old engine with old seals a little better.But thats about the only reason.The bearings surely will have a shorter life using straight 30 weight.
If a trucker had a 318 Detroit 2 stroke engine in his rig in 1980 he might get 150,000 miles before an overhaul.
I also have seen the difference in power of the 2 stroke engines and the 4 stroke Cummins and Cat engines.There really is not any comparison in the hills.Cat or Cummins will tear them up because they have way more torque.
If he had a Cummins diesel engine he could maybe get 300,000 miles before an overhaul.Sure some people could do better in both cases,but for trucks with drivers on them running hard that was about all they could count on getting out of a over the road truck.Macks were better if taken care of.
They switched to 15-40 oil and got rid of the trucks with 2 stroke Detroit engines.We started replacing bearings in Cummins motors at 300,000 miles and sometimes they didnt even need it.Overhaul around 500,000 miles.Then Big Cam 2,3 and 4 Cummins engines all improved the life of the engines to where by Big Cam 3 Cummins in maybe 1986 some engines were getting a million miles before over haul.Now of course some people could get better some worse but it was starting to get to where lots of engines got at least 750,000 miles by 1989 with maybe a bearing change at 400,000 miles.They way,way improved the efficiency of oil coolers on the Big Cam 4 Cummins and they improved the water system.They also put restricters in the water system and a new type of radiator that had 2 sections built in it to cool more efficiently,and then they started getting a Million miles a lot more.Cummins always had problems with liner erosion because they flowed so much in their cooling system.Old engines like that need a water filter on them and need the water tested regularly to get the most miles.Slowing the water flow down also made the engines live longer because it helped the liners last longer on the older engines.So by improving the aftercooler to air to air and lowering oil pressure so the oil quit foaming and lowering the flow of cooling,raising the turbo boost rate with more fins on the blower side,better rings,better pistons,better gaskets,better training of mechanics and a little better tolerances on their products they went from 300,000 to a million miles before over haul.The part the oil played is 15-40 is a better fit from cold to hot than straight 30 weight.Its better when its cold because its thinner and it protects better when its hot because its thicker.Bearings taken out of a 300,000 mile Big Cam 1 Cummins even with 15-40 oil are wore out showing copper and about ready to spin sometimes,after 500,000 miles in a Big Cam 4 with 15-40 they look good,no copper usually unless its been hot or had a defective oil cooler or something.
Cat is similar to Cummins but also the first engines to make it to a million miles because the parts inside the Cat engine were better harder metal than what was in a Cummins.Now Cummins has hard metal liners too.Both Cat and Cummins were way ahead of Detroit 2 strokes.Those engines had been around since the 1930s and didnt have a whole lot of improvements.At the last they had better rings to where you could get 300,000 or more miles out of them.
Newer Cummins and Cat and DDEC inline 4 stroke Detroits kind of designed by John Deere maybe now regularly go a million miles without much trouble.Its better management of air and fuel and oil that sticks to surfaces better,better cooling and better metals.Air to air helps too.All of this together with sleeker bodies and overdrive ratio transmisions and higher geared axles all work together to make this possible.Also reducing the maximum Rpm from 2400 down to 1950 on Cummins engines and gearing the truck to work at those Rpms.
Some people can tear up an anvil in a sand box.I have seen trucks that didnt have 400,000 miles on them missing and smoking oil leaking everywhere and even a few with a blown engine.You have to check the oil every day,you have to change it regularly,and you have to fix whats wrong with it like water leaks and oil leaks so it can run instead of blow up.Then once in a while a bad one gets through and is nothing but trouble.For the most part its possible to go past a million miles now without major problems as long as good maintenance is done.
I dont know anything about the very new engines except they probably wont go as far,are choked back because of emissions crap and the newest ones will be worse.Things are going backwards it seems like now.
So along with lots of other things,15-40 at least tripled and potentially way more raised the performance of crank bearings.Also noticed that engines using 15-40 Shell were a lot cleaner inside than ones using series 3.The 15-40 oil was a big improvement in every way over straight weight oil from what I saw.

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