Best diesel engine oil for high sulphur 5000 ppm diesel

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Jul 22, 2020
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Good afternoon,
i have to change oil again soon and i realized that the diesel here in nicaragua is high sulfur 5000 ppm, so which out of these following oils is low SAPS:

shell rimula r4 15w40 with ci-4 plus specs
castrol crb turbomax 15w40 with ci-4 specs
delo ultra gold 15w40 with ci-4 specs
castrol crb turbo g4 with ci-4 plus and cj-4 specs
mobil delvac mx 15w40 with ci-4 specs
valvoline all fleet e700 plus 15w40 with ci-4 plus specs
pennzoil long life gold 15w40 with cJ-4 specs
john deere plus 50 II 15w40 with cj4 specs

thanks
 
Anything CJ-4 and newer will be low SAPS, designed for use with ULSD & DPF. You want the highest TBN, oldest school CI-4 you can find. I’ve heard Delvac MX is pretty high in the TBN department, around 12.
 
High TBN oils are often recommend for use with high sulfur diesel fuels to combat the sulfuric acid produced as a byproduct of combustion. Of those listed, the Rimula shows the highest at 11. The old Pennzoil Supreme Duty was more than 12, if I remember correctly.
 
I’d find what has the highest TBN.
Not low saps but Amsoil HDD in 5w30, and Amsoil AME in 15w40 are 12.1 TBN oils.


 
What vehicle? Emissions equipment?
Obviously you need a high TBN oil. ACEA E4/MB228.5 fit those categories best. But those categories have a minimum TBN of 12. And some are as high as 16. What major brands are available in Nicaragua? Let me know about the intended vehicle and what brands have wholesale outlets at least in Managua and I can make an informed decision. I have studied these oils in a small way before deciding on Delvac 1 SHC 5W40 for my 05 Unimog which is in Alaska, when not traveling elsewhere on the planet.
Feel free to PM me.
 
Amsoil is kind of hard to find in nicaragua.

The vehicle is a 1990 toyota corolla sedan 1.8 diesel.

I dont think it has Emissions equipment. I remember seeing like a diesel emissions electronic module in it somewhere though.

The oils available are :
shell rimula r4 15w40 with ci-4 plus specs
castrol crb turbomax 15w40 with ci-4 specs
delo ultra gold 15w40 with ci-4 specs
castrol crb turbo g4 with ci-4 plus and cj-4 specs
mobil delvac mx 15w40 with ci-4 specs
valvoline all fleet e700 plus 15w40 with ci-4 plus specs
pennzoil long life gold 15w40 with cJ-4 specs
john deere plus 50 II 15w40 with cj4 specs
I think shell rimula t5 which is semi synthetic and
I rimula t6 full synthetic are available, going to check.
 
Of the oils that you are sure you can get, the Rimula T4 has a TBN of 11. Your car has a small sump, I would guess 4.5L at most.
You should probably change oil and filter approximately every 5000 miles/8000km, at most, with the T4. And try to have an oil analysis with TBN the first 2 times to make sure the used oil TBN is at least 3-4.
By the way, using a ACEA E4 oil with starting TBN = 16 could allow change intervals at least double the T4.
Does the engine burn oil? Adding makeup oil can extend oil life but worn rings allows more combustion products (like sulfuric acid) to get into the oil.
 
Shell rimula r4 is what is available here and i checked the pds and it has tbn of 10.

There is also toyota diesel 15w40 oil. Couldnt find any specs on it online such as tbn.

The highest tbns i could find are:

Valvoline e700 all fleet 15w40 with tbn 11
Castrol crb turbomax 15w40 with tbn 10.7
John deere plus 50 2 15w40 with tbn 10.5
Delo ultra gold 15e40 with tbn 10.2

The best price to tbn ratio apparently is valvoline all fleet e7000.

The delo ultra gold with tbn 10.2 has very good price. Would it matter to run delo ultra gold with tbn 10.2 because of high sulphur fuel with 5000 km oil change? Or it is better to run valavoline e700 with tbn 11?

I change oil every 5000 km because diesel is very dirty and high sulphur here.

I havent checked to see if the rolla burns oil.

I am leaning towards the e700.
 
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TBN test is not the end all try 1 oil and test it thats the only way to optimize the oil for YOUR use.
dispersant leveal and even metalics make a diference.
 
TBN test is not the end all try 1 oil and test it thats the only way to optimize the oil for YOUR use.
dispersant leveal and even metalics make a diference.
You can easily approximate the TBN when new by dividing Ca ppm by 300, plus Mg ppm by about 200. Why the difference? Ppms are by weight, and the atomic weight of Mg is ~24, Ca ~40. They’re the cations to the sulfonates/salicylates etc that actually neutralize strong acids, like sulfuric.
But that’s only when the oil is new. The alkaline earth cations don’t get used up, but their organic anions do get “used up” neutralizing hydronium ions, so “metallic” measurements are not indicative when measuring the acid neutralizing capacity of used oil. And Zn of course has nothing to do with it either.
TBN definitely IS the “end all” as far as preventing sulfuric and sulfurous acids eating up an engine.
 
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not really yes to neutralize acids but not all metal protection is due to TBN.
Even "Neutral salts" will corrode and attack metal a high TBN may react with acids but the resulting salts still are a problem.
 
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may be off subject but years ago chloro parrifins type snake oils were around maybe still are.
Knowing that they formed HCL quickly the mfg's added over based CA sulfonates so they had a 5-10 TBN to combat this.
But the resulting CA HCL reaction products if not real high in free acid were still very corrosive to metals.
This showed up very well in upper engine areas where water condensation would aggravate the corrosion.
 
Bruce381, I think your point is referring to the inorganic results of neutralization of sulfuric acid by the detergents, i.e. Ca and Mg sulfonate, phenate, salicylate. In other words Ca and Mg sulfates, which, like the salts in seawater (these are big in seawater evaporites!), increase corrosion rates compared to distilled water. This is a very good point.
I refer you to page 138, “Lubricant Additives”, Ed. Leslie Rudnick; a CRC publication.
“The soap portion keeps oil-insoluble polar products suspended in oil.”
In other words the tendency of inorganic salts to accelerate corrosion when dissolved in water (which is in short supply in an oil sump but NOT non-existent, depending on duty cycle) is partially mitigated by the remaining detergent.
Which means for me it’s ok to drive 40000 miles over a short period even burning high sulfur fuel (adding 16L makeup oil) some of the time over 1 year because the oil stays dry, and the TBN will still be 6-10 or so. But I had better change it when I get home! Because water will slowly condense inside a sump on subaerial surfaces just from temperature changes.
As far as somerandomguy is concerned, he doesn’t take megatrips, so he’s stuck with frequent changes.
 
I'm with everybody, pick the highest TBN.

Valvoline e700 all fleet 15w40 with tbn 11
Castrol crb turbomax 15w40 with tbn 10.7
John deere plus 50 2 15w40 with tbn 10.5
Delo ultra gold 15e40 with tbn 10.2

Within your list, I'd go with the Joh Deere oil, just because 😂

Otherwise, pick the cheapest. You seem to say the Delo is cheap, that's good oil, and the TBN difference will not be very significant within an OCI.
 
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