Old Ford tractor OCI's & oil info

[Bamboooo]

Hey guys. I have a Ford 1900 tractor, with a 3 cylinder Shibaura diesel engine. It's an 1980 - 82 model. I don't use it a whole lot, maybe an hour or 2 a week. Sometimes longer, just depends. Anyways, early this summer I did an OC, and put in Shaeffers Supreme 7000 synthetic blend oil. It seemed like every other time that I checked it, I was a quart low. I presumed that the oil was too thin. Anyways, I changed it out about halfway through the summer to Rotella T 15w-40. Hasn't seemed to used hardly a drop since. I was semi-amazed. I didn't thing there was that much difference in the viscosity to see a difference. Okay. Question one - winter is soon here. Should I change it back to the 5w-30 for winter? Or keep the 15w-40 in it?
Another question. When should I do OCI's on it? Every 6 months? Every so many hours?
Thank you all.

 

[turfequiptech]

Just to clarify.
Are you saying it hasn't used a drop on the Rotella oil?
And, previously you were using Schaeffer oil?

 

[oggb]

How about running Rotella T6 5w-40 year round?

 

[Bamboooo]

Originally Posted By: turfequiptech
Just to clarify.
Are you saying it hasn't used a drop on the Rotella oil?
And, previously you were using Schaeffer oil?


Yes. It has hardly used any of the Rotella since I put it in.

Yes. I was using the Shaeffers 5w-30 diesel rated oil before, and it was using it like crazy.

Originally Posted By: JRed
How about running Rotella T6 5w-40 year round?


Now, that's an idea!

 

[ac_tc]

And change once a year...

 

[Rob_Roy]

Rotella 5w40 or Schaeffer's 5w40 would work well for a year-round oil.

 

[Jim Allen]

The Schaeffer's 7000 is a gas rated, SN oil, so there could be a big part of your problem... wrong oil for the diesel application.

I'm not too surprised the oil consumption went down with 15W40 but am surprised you have consumption at all, even with a 5W30 SN. How many hours on the tractor? Those engines were reputed to be pretty good.

I have a Ford 2810 (England built Dagenham tractor, not a Shibaru) with a 152ci 3-banger diesel. It's never used oil but I have been running it on 10W30 Rotella since 2007 or so. I had winter starting trouble (cold barn with no place to plug it in) with 15W40 oil. The 10W30 allowed it to start when the 15W40 was too thick. I check oil pressure befoe an after and with the 10W30, hot at about 180 oil temp, it had 3-4 PSI less oil pressure (still 20 psi above the minimum spec I might add).

For me, cost is the deciding factor when I see how good UOAs have been. The 5W40 is $21/gal, Triple Protection Rotella 10W30 is $12.50. I have since begun switching over my entire fleet of farm vehciles small engines, cars and trucks to the T5 10W30 semi-syn and it retails at $16/gal but I've been able to stock up at $14 gal. I haven't changed the Ford tractor over to it yet but I expect better cold start performance than the TP, as the CCS specs are significantly better.

BTW, I have been doing 2-year or 100-120 hour OCIs with good UOA results. I haven't yet reached a 100 hour interval in 2-years, so I am considering going to the same 3-year interval I use for my 100 horse Farmall, which again was validated by UOAs (some have been posted here if you want to look up my posts). Unless your tractor sits outside, a year OCI might be a little too conservative IMO. Assuming your operation is not five minutes at a time, your weekly one to two hours of running (the equivalent of 80 to 120 road miles) is enough to call your operation cycle "normal" and not a short hopper.

 

[BoiseRob]

Originally Posted By: Jim Allen
The Schaeffer's 7000 is a gas rated, SN oil, so there could be a big part of your problem... wrong oil for the diesel application.


Jim,

FYI, Schaeffer Supreme 7000 15w40 is CJ-4 rated HDEO...

 

[Jim Allen]

Originally Posted By: BoiseRob
Originally Posted By: Jim Allen
The Schaeffer's 7000 is a gas rated, SN oil, so there could be a big part of your problem... wrong oil for the diesel application.


Jim,

FYI, Schaeffer Supreme 7000 15w40 is CJ-4 rated HDEO...



I was referring to the Schaeffers 7000 5W30 he installed first and found the oil consumption. The only 7000 series 5W30 I found on the website was SN rated, so unless I missed something.... I would be happy to find another 5W30 HDEO, CJ rated oil because I would like to have that as my "fleet oil" rather than 10W30. The only other HDEO 5W30s are too expensive (to me). I just rechecked and the 7000 Series 5W30 (#701) is an SN. They do make a 15W40 HDEO in CJ-4 but the OP talked about "going back to 5W30" so I assumed it was the Schaeffers. Was it, OP?

 

[marco246]

Bamboooo,

I have a Shibaura diesel running a generator. About 6400 hours on it with just the usual maintenance. I change oil annually at about the 200 hour mark and use Chevron Delo 15W-40. As for Kansas winters--well, I spent two at Ft. Leavenworth and that experience encouraged me to live in Hawaii. I think Jim Allen has the right idea with respect to using a 10W-30 HDEO year-round in your case.

 

[Bamboooo]

Originally Posted By: Jim Allen
Originally Posted By: BoiseRob
Originally Posted By: Jim Allen
The Schaeffer's 7000 is a gas rated, SN oil, so there could be a big part of your problem... wrong oil for the diesel application.


Jim,

FYI, Schaeffer Supreme 7000 15w40 is CJ-4 rated HDEO...



I was referring to the Schaeffers 7000 5W30 he installed first and found the oil consumption. The only 7000 series 5W30 I found on the website was SN rated, so unless I missed something.... I would be happy to find another 5W30 HDEO, CJ rated oil because I would like to have that as my "fleet oil" rather than 10W30. The only other HDEO 5W30s are too expensive (to me). I just rechecked and the 7000 Series 5W30 (#701) is an SN. They do make a 15W40 HDEO in CJ-4 but the OP talked about "going back to 5W30" so I assumed it was the Schaeffers. Was it, OP?


I was running the Schaeffer Supreme 7000 10w-30 #711. It is diesel rated. I mis-typed earlier when I stated it was 5w-30. The tractor was going through oil faster than a fat kid eating twinkies.

Anyways, I switched to the Rotella T 15w-40, and consumption has basically stopped.

I was just wondering if switching back to the 10w-30 for winter would be a good idea.

Jred suggested using a full synthetic 5w-40 year round. Would that still be "thinner" than the Rotella 15w-40? If not, that sounds like an excellent suggestion.

Thank you all, and here is a link to the Schaeffer #711.

Schaeffer Supreme 7000 #711

 

[Bamboooo]

Originally Posted By: marco246
Bamboooo,

I have a Shibaura diesel running a generator. About 6400 hours on it with just the usual maintenance. I change oil annually at about the 200 hour mark and use Chevron Delo 15W-40. As for Kansas winters--well, I spent two at Ft. Leavenworth and that experience encouraged me to live in Hawaii. I think Jim Allen has the right idea with respect to using a 10W-30 HDEO year-round in your case.


Yep. I messed up earlier, when I stated I was running a 5w-30. I thought it was, until I went out a little bit ago, to take a picture of the bottle. Sure enough, it's a 10w-30. I wish I could run it year round, but the consumption seems high. The 15w-40 really cut down the consumption. Thanks.

 

[Jim Allen]

Well, often a heavier oil will cut down consumption (sometimes the opposite) but that 711 looks like very good stuff. Good NOACK and flashpoint, which are indicators of possible consumption issues, or lack thereof. If that rig like a 40 grade, try the 5W40 year around. I'll bet it's a little less expensive than the Schaeffers anyway. The 15W40 would be more a liability if you can't plug the tractor in for cold starts and/or it sits in a unheated building.

 

[cronk]

For the winter temps Kansas gets, 15w40 would probably work fine year round.

 

[Bamboooo]

I'll try the 5w-40. Should I go with the full syn? Semi? Dino? Also, it does sit in an unheated barn, out of the elements, but I can plug it in to keep the engine toasty.
Thanks again.

Oh, one more thing - What should I do on the OCI's? One a year? Every X hours?

 

[Jim Allen]

THe only 5W40 you will find is either a Group III or Group IV synthetic. The Rotella T6, essentially a Gp III syn, is generally around $21/gal. I haven't recently priced any others, such as CHevron or Mobil 1.

Repeat of what I posted above.

I have been doing 2-year or 100-120 hour OCIs with good UOA results. I haven't yet reached a 100 hour interval in a 2-year interval, so I am considering going to the same 3-year interval I use for my 100 horse Farmall, which again was validated by UOAs (some have been posted here if you want to look up my posts). A year OCI is a little too conservative IMO. Assuming your operation is not five minutes at a time, your weekly one to two hours of running (the equivalent of 80 to 120 road miles) is enough to call your operation cycle "normal" and not a short hopper.