Before you think to yourself "oh great, another what oil is best thread" I want to mention that this isn't entirely one of those threads.
I have a friend with a 2011 Ram 2500 cummins, and she's spending about $150 on oil changes. She does her own oil changes, and that's her cost in parts! She said she runs Royal purple 5w40 and the RP oil filter. I cant for the life of me find a diesel rated RP 5w40, just a 15w40 so I'm wondering if she's running the gasoline engine rated oil in her truck. I gently mentioned how motor oil is a "hobby" of mine and that we can cut her costs down most likely. It's been a couple of months since and she finally inquired about it. From what I've gathered the manufacturer oil spec is two parts because of their useage of the word and, "Chrysler Materials Standard MS10902 and the API CJ-4 engine oil category is required". From what I can find the only oil that has the MS10902 certification is valvoline premium blue, probably because it's the only oil endorsed by Cummins. I'm thinking we can just brush that cert. under the rug and call it politics and really just go with the API CJ-4 rating.
Now, the CJ-4 rating seems to be outdated, with the latest being CK-4. Seems like a lot of people are bitching about the new CK-4 since ZDDP levels were cut similar to what happened with gas oils with the SN rating. From what I've read this seems to have been a change to address DPF clogging, something her truck has so this may be beneficial to her long term. I'm not a diesel guy, but based on my experiences despite people complaining about ZDDP reduction in gas oils, UOA samples show good wear on modern engines so I'm thinking the same applies here and it's not some conspiracy to blow up your engine.
The truck sees 2-3 short drives a week, sits the rest of the time, and is used for towing ~8000lbs about once a month through various types of terrain. Sometimes it's flat highways, other times it's through the mountains of West Virginia. I'm thinking any 5w40 CK-4 oil will do, preferably the cheapest one, and to lower the OCI from 7500mi to 5000mi. Especially given the combination of short driving and sitting for long periods of time, as well as having read some posts about fuel dilution issues with the 6.7 motors.
I'm guessing you cant go wrong with either Valvoline Premium Blue, Rotella T6, M1 turbo truck, M1 Delvac, or Delo. Coincidentally VPB is the cheapest of them all on amazon coming to a total of $54.77 for 3 gallons. Perhaps the Cummins logo on the bottles will persuade her to switch
Any thoughts? Again, I'm not a diesel guy but I put in the research and think I have taken a logical approach though I may have missed something.
I will take recommendations on oil filters though since I know absolutely nothing about them and kind of laugh a bit at people who take them apart. Being a toyota guy who runs $3 OEM filters I was thinking we'd order a bunch of Denso 1502051 oil filters from Rockauto since they are $5.70 a pop, we're not doing extended drains, and I personally believe that Denso makes decent stuff(some bias here). Or is it worth getting the "premium" filters such as the Wix XP, Fram tough Guard, or Bosch Distance Plus?
I have a friend with a 2011 Ram 2500 cummins, and she's spending about $150 on oil changes. She does her own oil changes, and that's her cost in parts! She said she runs Royal purple 5w40 and the RP oil filter. I cant for the life of me find a diesel rated RP 5w40, just a 15w40 so I'm wondering if she's running the gasoline engine rated oil in her truck. I gently mentioned how motor oil is a "hobby" of mine and that we can cut her costs down most likely. It's been a couple of months since and she finally inquired about it. From what I've gathered the manufacturer oil spec is two parts because of their useage of the word and, "Chrysler Materials Standard MS10902 and the API CJ-4 engine oil category is required". From what I can find the only oil that has the MS10902 certification is valvoline premium blue, probably because it's the only oil endorsed by Cummins. I'm thinking we can just brush that cert. under the rug and call it politics and really just go with the API CJ-4 rating.
Now, the CJ-4 rating seems to be outdated, with the latest being CK-4. Seems like a lot of people are bitching about the new CK-4 since ZDDP levels were cut similar to what happened with gas oils with the SN rating. From what I've read this seems to have been a change to address DPF clogging, something her truck has so this may be beneficial to her long term. I'm not a diesel guy, but based on my experiences despite people complaining about ZDDP reduction in gas oils, UOA samples show good wear on modern engines so I'm thinking the same applies here and it's not some conspiracy to blow up your engine.
The truck sees 2-3 short drives a week, sits the rest of the time, and is used for towing ~8000lbs about once a month through various types of terrain. Sometimes it's flat highways, other times it's through the mountains of West Virginia. I'm thinking any 5w40 CK-4 oil will do, preferably the cheapest one, and to lower the OCI from 7500mi to 5000mi. Especially given the combination of short driving and sitting for long periods of time, as well as having read some posts about fuel dilution issues with the 6.7 motors.
I'm guessing you cant go wrong with either Valvoline Premium Blue, Rotella T6, M1 turbo truck, M1 Delvac, or Delo. Coincidentally VPB is the cheapest of them all on amazon coming to a total of $54.77 for 3 gallons. Perhaps the Cummins logo on the bottles will persuade her to switch
Any thoughts? Again, I'm not a diesel guy but I put in the research and think I have taken a logical approach though I may have missed something.
I will take recommendations on oil filters though since I know absolutely nothing about them and kind of laugh a bit at people who take them apart. Being a toyota guy who runs $3 OEM filters I was thinking we'd order a bunch of Denso 1502051 oil filters from Rockauto since they are $5.70 a pop, we're not doing extended drains, and I personally believe that Denso makes decent stuff(some bias here). Or is it worth getting the "premium" filters such as the Wix XP, Fram tough Guard, or Bosch Distance Plus?
Last edited:
