Fleet motor oil

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West Michigan
Hello everyone, I am now the daily operations and fleet manager for a small delivery company.
We have all Ford’s, all but one is brand new. V8’s and V10’s for the larger vans. Over head cam, multi valve Ford Triton engines.
All of the van’s are parked inside a heated building when not in use.
They are all on the road 7 days a week, they are rode hard and put away hot.
Fully loaded every day, winter temps below zero, summer temps in the 90’s.
They only get shut off when parked for the night. Dirt roads. Tons of idle time, lots of foot to the floor wide open throttle.
I would like to do extended PM’s so a full synthetic is going to be best.
But I also need to keep costs down, and I need to maximize engine life. These van’s will be averaging 50,000 miles a year.
I will also need a grease to match the extended oil changes. There are 15 grease fittings on each van.
I am a fan of Shell Rotella T6 5w-40 but I do not know how well that will do in the Ford’s where 5w-20 is the factory recommended oil.

The used van has 200,000 miles on it, 2017 Ford 6.2L V8 and their mechanic used 10w-30 and changed it every 5-6,000 miles. They bought cheap dino juice, they have a history of blowing up the Ford engines, every 100,000 miles or so the V10’s have been dropping valves. I have no idea if that is a Ford issue or a lubrication issue.
I want to avoid this issue with my fleet.

So, my first choice is Rotella T6, second is Rotella Gas Truck 5w-30, Castrol, then Kirkland Signature 5w-30.
Castrol Syntec comes in many viscosities and variations, Magatec is stil full synthetic but less expensive than Syntec, which is less expensive than their Edge motor oil.

In my personal vehicles I use Castrol Syntec, 5w-30 for my Toyota, and 5w-20 for my wife's Kia.

So, what is everyone’s thought/recommendation on this?

I am not a fan of Mobil 1, I am of the personal opinion that it is over priced and surviving on his history of being a good oil.

Also, fuel economy is not a concern. Cost’s and longevity are.

And yes I will be doing a SOS once the engines get a few miles on them.
 
Some V10's had problems with the cam followers not holding up. There was a recall for some models from 2012 to maybe 2016, IIRC? The top end on these motors is at the end of the oil system and if oil pressure gets low, especially at idle, the cams and followers can have marginal lubrication. Extended idling will obviously exacerbate the problem.
 
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Some V10's had problems with the cam followers not holding up. There was a recall for some models from 2012 to maybe 2016, IIRC? The top end on these motors is at the end of the oil system and if oil pressure gets low, especially at idle, the cams and followers can have marginal lubrication. Extended idling will obviously exacerbate the problem.

Thank you!! I had wondered about that. Low oil pressure at a hot idle and then a hard throttle from there would definetly shorten top end life.
That is one of the reasons for a thicker oil, or even just a better oil, so it holds up better at hot idle and maintains oil pressure.
 
Can you get bulk pricing? Fleet maintenance is a numbers game. I’d go with whichever synblend you can get at the best bulk price.

We are not large enough for bulk pricing yet. 8 trucks and we do not have our own shop. I am doing the maintenance and basic repairs on these trucks, bigger jobs will get farmed out to a shop that we have a relationship with.

The used truck is going to be the spare once we are 100% up and running, right now we are only running 3 of our own, we are renting the rest until our’s come in. Production is delayed due to Covid.
They are projected to be in in mid December.
 
I think some outfits retrofit a high idle to help with this.
Thank you!! I had wondered about that. Low oil pressure at a hot idle and then a hard throttle from there would definetly shorten top end life.
That is one of the reasons for a thicker oil, or even just a better oil, so it holds up better at hot idle and maintains oil pressure.
I think the main problem was that often the timing chain tensioners will blow out a seal and cause partial loss of oil flow to the top end. I'm pretty sure a thicker oil will not really fix this problem and only be a prartial band-aid. The main thing is to pull the rig out of service and fix the problem as soon as noise in the valve train is heard. You can see the seal that blows out in the pic below.

4971bf92755e76d9d1e1661dd188d148.jpg
 
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Given what you want to do and your preferred options, I would select a full synthetic 5W30 with Dexos1-Gen2 spec. Sure you have Fords and Dexos is a GM spec, but it establishes a high quality oil.

I would go the Shell Rotella Gas Truck 5W30 in everything. It’s a bit thicker than most 30 grades at KV100 = 11.7 cSt.
 
I think some outfits retrofit a high idle to help with this.

I think the main problem was that often the timing chain tensioners will blow out a seal and cause partial loss of oil flow to the top end. I'm pretty sure a thicker oil will not really fix this problem and only be a prartial band-aid. The main thing is to pull the rig out of service and fix the problem as soon as noise in the valve train is heard. You can see the seal that blows out in the pic below.

4971bf92755e76d9d1e1661dd188d148.jpg


The only problem with that is the drivers. If they do not tell us about any noises we cannot investigate the problem.
Some drivers are really good about that, most are not. None of them are mechanics and most only know where the gas goes.
The only gauges they pay attention are the gas gauge and speedo. They just want to go home.

If there is a known mileage these parts go bad then they can be changed preventively. But I do not know that.

I will have to investigate further. Thank you for the help.
 
The used truck is going to be the spare once we are 100% up and running, right now we are only running 3 of our own, we are renting the rest until our’s come in. Production is delayed due to Covid.
They are projected to be in in mid December.
We are not large enough for bulk pricing yet. 8 trucks and we do not have our own shop. I am doing the maintenance and basic repairs on these trucks, bigger jobs will get farmed out to a shop that we have a relationship with.

The used truck is going to be the spare once we are 100% up and running, right now we are only running 3 of our own, we are renting the rest until our’s come in. Production is delayed due to Covid.
They are projected to be in in mid December.
Gotcha - It might be easier for you to contract with a local shop that will give you discounted pricing for a service package. That’s what I did for my small fleet. I got a good deal for a pretty thorough package.

Are you going to be rotating tires On your own too?
 
Contact Schaeffer oil in St. Louis and tell them what you are wanting. They will fix you up. Their products are simply amazing.
 
Given what you want to do and your preferred options, I would select a full synthetic 5W30 with Dexos1-Gen2 spec. Sure you have Fords and Dexos is a GM spec, but it establishes a high quality oil.

I would go the Shell Rotella Gas Truck 5W30 in everything. It’s a bit thicker than most 30 grades at KV100 = 11.7 cSt.

I want “one and done”.
I know that Dexos is only a rating and not brand specific.
If I can do a PM for under $50 that would be great.
 
Gotcha - It might be easier for you to contract with a local shop that will give you discounted pricing for a service package. That’s what I did for my small fleet. I got a good deal for a pretty thorough package.

Are you going to be rotating tires On your own too?

I’ve thought about that. We can use the mechanic that is going to be doing our larger repairs, but he is going to be using the same cheap oil that he has always been using.
He buy’s whatever he can get cheapest by the drum. So brands change every couple of drums because of whatever is on special.

Rotate tires? Nope. We don’t do that.
 
If your trying to save money, i think kirkland or super tech full syn is well suited for your applications, since your vans will see no cold starts go 5 or 10w30 and experiment with one van on 15w40 ?? As you state fuel mileage is not much of a concern !
 
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Most fleet vehicles use cheap bulk oil and do fine. You want to do extended OCI's and I don't think that's a good idea. As other have mentioned, a synthetic from Warren Distribution (SuperTech, Kirkland or Amazon).


Yes most fleet vehicles use cheap bulk oil, but what you do not see is how often the engines are replaced. Or how much oil they use between oil changes. Or the sludge problems they have.

Why don’t you think extended PM’s are a good idea?
When I drove truck we’d go 50-60k on a single oil change. That was dino juice 15w-40. With full syn they go 100k.

I used to drive a Sprinter and they recommended Mobil 1 5w-40 and 15k oil changes.

I’m not saying you’re wrong, just wanting to understand your thinking.
 
If your trying to save money, i think kirkland or super tech full syn is well suited for your applications, since your vans will see no cold starts go 5 or 10w30 and experiment with one van on 15w40 ?? As you state fuel mileage is not much of a concern !

That’s why I was thinking about the Rotella T6 5w-40, it is rated or 80k drain intervals in over the road trucks.
I am not saying that we’d get 80k out of a single oil change, these Ford’s don’t hold 5gal of engine oil or have two oil filters the size of half gallons of milk.
But I think 10-15k on a single oil change would not be out of line using that oil.
I’m just not sure about using it in a brand new engine designed for 5w-20.
 
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