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View Full Version : synthetic or regular oil on detroit series 60 engine question


encantotom
04-27-2012, 03:41 AM
one of the forum members asked me today what oil to use in his series 60. all i can do is share what i do and that is to use regular oil as the previous owner was doing as well. my bus mechanic uses regular oil in his huge fleet of charter buses unless it is under warranty and requires synthetic for the warranty.

i am not recommending one way or another, just what decision i made.

when i got my oil changed the first time i did an oil sample and had it analyzed as a baseline and will do that each time i change the oil.

i attached a poll question as to which oil you use in your series 60 to just see what the rest of you are doing.

thanks

tom

rheavn
04-27-2012, 10:39 AM
I use Rotella 15/40. Used it for about 175,000 miles without any issues. Change the oil once a year unless you do a lot of traveling--then every 15,000 miles.

tuga
04-27-2012, 12:18 PM
Newell recommends (see placard in engine room) Mobil Delvac 1 Synthetic 5W40 in the engine and in the generator.

That's what I have always used. I change the oil and filters every 15,000 miles.

RussWhite
04-27-2012, 12:36 PM
Oil? A diesel has oil? I thought diesels didn't need oil!

Yes, that is exactly what the guy that purchased by previous coach said. Since it wasn't a Newell I guess we don't need a "no oil" choice on the poll:)

I don't use synthetic even though I know it is recommended by Newell.

Russ

lbrachfe
04-27-2012, 04:52 PM
I use synthetic in the engine and regular in the genset and change both yearly. I buy the synthetic myself to save some $$.

Richard and Rhonda
04-28-2012, 10:11 PM
I use regular Rotella. My logic is the synthetic is wasted in a diesel that I will never wear out. I don't know what my engine saw for the first 90k miles, so the impact of oil type is irrevelant to my comment. When I pulled the head at 110k to replace a liner, the cylinder walls still had the cross hatching.

77newell
07-07-2012, 09:37 PM
I don't have a series 60 engine (just a mechanical 6V92T) but in doing a lot of research regarding oil since API is no longer certifying oil specifically for the V series, I found that one way of justifying synthetic is to do oil sampling annually and from the results decide when to change it. There are truckers out there (yep a different use pattern of the engine but not entirely irrelevant) that report going 100,000 miles between oil changes with synthetic oil, 15,000 mile filter changes, and a modern engine. I've seen reports of motorhomers using oil testing and changing still good oil after 3 years with annual filter changes. It seems the dino versus synthetic question requires broader perspective.

jon, 77 coach , civic toad