Mechanic won’t use oil I’ve chosen

Okay guys, sorry, I did not realized my thread was still going strong.

The mechanic is still employed by me, I let things slide until the new year. Pick my battles and all.
On one of my trucks up here I have sent in a oil sample to Blackstone Labs and I am waiting the results.
I have finally gotten my managers in the other state off the road, they can now do manager stuff instead of drive.
With this now being the case I am taking all purchasing power away from the mechanic by opening commercial accounts at 3 parts stores, so my mangers can buy brake pads, batteries etc at a discount and tax free and he cannot mark up the parts.
For example, the mechanic was charging me $120/axle for brake pads, with the commercial account I can get them for $40/axle with lifetime warranty.
I have not tackled the oil situation with him just yet, motor oil is becoming hard to find. My supplier is having a hard time getting it.

Again with everyone worried about not following the manufactures recommendations on motor oil viscosity…the trucks are parked inside a heated building. When not parked in the building they are running all day long. Fully loaded and being driven hard.
I am not worried about cold oil pump ability, what I am worried about is engine longevity, reduced downtime and repairs.
The cam phasers on commercial engines are turned off.

i will stay logged in and try to answer as many questions as I can.

Thank’s for keeping this going. I had no idea it’d blow up like this.
 
Okay guys, sorry, I did not realized my thread was still going strong.

The mechanic is still employed by me, I let things slide until the new year. Pick my battles and all.
On one of my trucks up here I have sent in a oil sample to Blackstone Labs and I am waiting the results.
I have finally gotten my managers in the other state off the road, they can now do manager stuff instead of drive.
With this now being the case I am taking all purchasing power away from the mechanic by opening commercial accounts at 3 parts stores, so my mangers can buy brake pads, batteries etc at a discount and tax free and he cannot mark up the parts.
For example, the mechanic was charging me $120/axle for brake pads, with the commercial account I can get them for $40/axle with lifetime warranty.
I have not tackled the oil situation with him just yet, motor oil is becoming hard to find. My supplier is having a hard time getting it.

Again with everyone worried about not following the manufactures recommendations on motor oil viscosity…the trucks are parked inside a heated building. When not parked in the building they are running all day long. Fully loaded and being driven hard.
I am not worried about cold oil pump ability, what I am worried about is engine longevity, reduced downtime and repairs.
The cam phasers on commercial engines are turned off.

i will stay logged in and try to answer as many questions as I can.

Thank’s for keeping this going. I had no idea it’d blow up like this.

Wait a minute. Your company employs a mechanic and he was buying on behalf of the business and then up charging the cost of the parts to the business? How was your mechanic charging you for brakes if hes employed by you?
 
I’m a fleet manager for a delivery company. Recently we expanded into another state and in this purchase came a mechanic and his apprentice.
He is a old school kind of guy, he uses what he’s been using forever, and it is not working. The equipment that came with this purchase is in rough shape.
A Ford V-10 with 85k on it is sludged up For example.
He has been buying the oil as needed at the most expensive place around. The oil he’s been buying is Mag1 which is a Warren Distributing dino oil and he’s paying $6/qt.
For the diesels he’s using Rotella or Delvac.
He is way over paying for the oil.

So I brought him a syn blend 15w-40 diesel oil and told him to use it in everything, he refuses to use it in the gas engines because, according to him, it will mess up the cam phasers and hydraulic timing chain tensioners.
He also claims it will sludge up the engines and that “they are rated for 5w-20 for a reason“

Now I’ve been using this oil in my gasoline engines for almost a year with zero problems. I have one truck closing in on 50k quickly and I am going to do a oil sample at that oil change.
The very first oil change there was oil consumption. 1 qt in 10k on the factory fill.
Now there is zero oil consumption. In the hottest dog days of summer the trucks used less than a quart in 10k.

The cam phasers are electronic.
I have zero timing/run issues. MPG is good for what we do (~8mpg)

Do I need to put my foot down and say use this or else?
Do I need to switch motor oil?

Also he does not go by miles for oil changes, he goes by “I have a system”

Any help would be appreciated.

That post was so stupid that it must have been a troll!
To rant about a person stopping you from making a mistake and not wanting to be an accessory is too stupid not to have been done on purpose.

I wonder..

Screenshot_20220110-155135_Gallery.jpg
 
The thread starter has a point. This problem is not going to be solved overnight.

You first get your own manager on side. Then the process begins and you relentlessly make the required changes. He follows and does the job properly, or he gets mad and quits, or you fire him for not following your instructions - after warning him that he must do so (with appropriate documentation of course).

It's a poor manager that would just walk in and say "I don't like what you're doing. You're fired."
 
Wait a minute. Your company employs a mechanic and he was buying on behalf of the business and then up charging the cost of the parts to the business? How was your mechanic charging you for brakes if hes employed by you?

I fully understand and do not blame you for not reading 12+ pages of thread, the mechanic is on retainer, he owns the shop, I pay him $X per week to work on and prioritize my equipment.
He is a independent shop, he is allowed to work on others equipment too.
I pay him well for the privilege of being prioritized and to provide the labor I need to keep my fleet running.
If this was not the case, then I would fully expect him to mark up parts, which is normal and expected for a shop.

His contract with me expired last week, we are continuing with no contract until either I find someone else, or he falls in line and I have him sign a new one.
As the year progresses, new contract or not, I am going to be controlling more and more of the parts and supplies for him to use.
 
The thread starter has a point. This problem is not going to be solved overnight.

You first get your own manager on side. Then the process begins and you relentlessly make the required changes. He follows and does the job properly, or he gets mad and quits, or you fire him for not following your instructions - after warning him that he must do so (with appropriate documentation of course).

It's a poor manager that would just walk in and say "I don't like what you're doing. You're fired."

Exactly.
Thank you.
 
True FLEET oil in a 10w30 is the meet in the middle ..... 66 or Rotella I believe I saw valvoline also
Get a 55 drum delivered and consider buying filters by the case my supplier sells Service Pro
Nothing wrong with Mag 1 either I believe they also offer a true "FLEET" oil
 
LOL so tell us what's still going on with this drama?

Okay, so….from mid November to the first of the year I have been to busy to even think about him. I’ve been letting the status quo go.
Now that things have slowed down, I am tightening the reins. He has been using the oil I supply for the diesels but still not for the gas engines.
He still is not changing the oil on time, but he is slowly getting better. I have a app that my drivers and he use, they post when a truck needs a PM, I can see when he reads the message.
Then if the oil is not changed within a week, one of my managers down there pulls the truck off the road and makes sure it gets done.
I am setting my 2 managers down there so that one is in charge of the fleet, the other in charge of the drivers.
When they need supplies he tells me what he needs either I tell him to go buy it himself or I make a trip down for the day and bring it to him.
What I can order and have delivered I do.

I put 25k miles on my office last year driving between there and here as well as my duties around here.
 
True FLEET oil in a 10w30 is the meet in the middle ..... 66 or Rotella I believe I saw valvoline also
Get a 55 drum delivered and consider buying filters by the case my supplier sells Service Pro
Nothing wrong with Mag 1 either I believe they also offer a true "FLEET" oil

I am getting gallons cheaper than a drum, a case of 4 gallons is easier to transport and store than a drum, no hand pump, no huge up front purchase price.
My supplier, who I worked for years and years ago, cuts me a deal, no shipping or delivery charge because I pick it up from him, and he will store it in his warehouse until I am ready for it. Then I will pick up 8-10 cases and throw them in my storage unit.
Because it is winter, when a PM is coming due, I bring a case into the house to warm up 24 hrs prior.

As for the lesser quality oils, I am doing 10k PM’s with a syn blend diesel 15w-40. I have been in this exact buisness for 16 years, the fleets that use the 10w-30 and 5w-30 ”fleet” oil and go 5-6k PM’s replace engines every 200k or so.
I am doing different. Been truck driving for 30 years, if those wheels aren’t turning you ain’t making money.
The fleets using 10w30 every 5k are spending ~$30 a PM.
I’m doing every 10k and my cost is ~$35 per PM.
I buy my oil filters by the case. Commercial pricing, tax free. I have been using WIX Gold at $5/ea, I just bought a case of Bosch Distance Plus for $3.50/ea from RockAuto.
I also bought transmission filters, brake pads and other pieces and parts.

I am anal about maintence. My trucks do not go over the 10k by much more than a couple hundred miles.
I do not keep track of the -100’s, there is a iPad in every truck and the drivers log in every morning, they must enter the mileage.
On my end, I have preset PM intervals, when the truck is 1,000 miles out I get a text saying “unit 123456 is due for a PM-transmission service-gear oil-whatever” I put in the system.
10k, 20k, 30k…not 30,234k, 30,000. If it goes over oh well, it’s still due at 40k next time.
 
Why are you getting them tax free if you're the end user?

Because transportation industry tax loophole.
Any thing I buy to keep my current fleet on the road is tax deductible. If I fill out the proper forms, then I am tax free at the place of purchase as well as getting special pricing.
I get special pricing on tires, a $185 re-tread is $150 after my discount, and still tax free.
$35? Big deal you say, $35 x 6 = $210 saved per unIt. I have 38 units right now and they all need new tires every year.
And yes you can use re-treads on the steer axle as long as it is not a passenger bus, HAZMAT or drive more than 100 miles at a time on the expressway.
And using re-treads I can pick and choose the tread pattern I want.
 

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Update. My oil sample is back.
15w-40 synthetic blend diesel oil.
Ford 7.3L gasoline V8.
NAPA Gold oil filter.
10,000 mile PM’s.
Delivery van, on the road 6-7 days a week.
50,000 miles on the van at time of sample.
 

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Nice report...the 15w-40 agrees with the 7.3. Is it a bulk oil you're using, and/or are you planning to extend intervals if things look good? I guess idle times vary...
 
Nice report...the 15w-40 agrees with the 7.3. Is it a bulk oil you're using, and/or are you planning to extend intervals if things look good? I guess idle times vary...

No, I’m going to stick with the 10k PM’s, it is easy to schedule that way and allows me wiggle room for tough times or when I can’t get a truck off the road for a PM.
I just go by the OD, 10,xxx, 20,xxx, I do not worry about the 100’s, this time the oil gets changed at 39,987 and next time it gets changed at 50,567, does not matter. Make sense?
this keeps it easy for my to schedule and plan for maintence.

These trucks run all day long, 8-10+ hrs a day, mostly low speed, hard throttle, full load and lots of idle time.

I buy my oil by the gallon, it is cheaper from my supplier by the case, which is 4 gals. Works out to $11.50/gal.
I also buy my oil filters by the case, which works out to $5ea.
With fully synthetic grease, oil changes are roughly $35/ea.
 
No, I’m going to stick with the 10k PM’s, it is easy to schedule that way and allows me wiggle room for tough times or when I can’t get a truck off the road for a PM.
I just go by the OD, 10,xxx, 20,xxx, I do not worry about the 100’s, this time the oil gets changed at 39,987 and next time it gets changed at 50,567, does not matter. Make sense?
this keeps it easy for my to schedule and plan for maintence.

These trucks run all day long, 8-10+ hrs a day, mostly low speed, hard throttle, full load and lots of idle time.

I buy my oil by the gallon, it is cheaper from my supplier by the case, which is 4 gals. Works out to $11.50/gal.
I also buy my oil filters by the case, which works out to $5ea.
With fully synthetic grease, oil changes are roughly $35/ea.
Seems like what you are doing is working!
 
I ordered more sample kits from Blackstone and I am going to do PM’s on 3 of my trucks out of state.
One GM, one Ford and one Cummins.
What I will not know though is the oil used in each or the miles on each oil sample.
I am going to do these myself so I know for a fact the samples will not be contaminated.
 
My understanding of cam phasers is complete. They are hydraulic with electric servo assist.
And they are not operational on our trucks, commercial applications come with the cam phasers turned off. Yes they are there, but they do not do anything.

i never said Mag1 was a bad oil, what I said was he is over paying and going WAY to long between oil changes.

The 6.8 3V V10 doesn't have cam phasers at all. They used a fixed one piece cam-gear just like the old 2-valves.

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