Running engine oil for longer than 12 months?

[doitmyself]

I went through this mental exercise on my workplace JD tractors about 20 years ago. Sadly, we lost member Stinky Peterson (RIP) that managed a CAT Oil lab in S. Dakota and would share his wealth of data here. Now, you will probably just get anecdotal advice as shown above (+ kschachn's factual assistance).

As stated, UOA is your only reliable data. Maybe squeeze in an hour or two to just do a few pieces once and try to apply it to the others, just for some sense of comfort? I did a few UOA's decades ago to confirm that my one year OCI was more than adequate. I DID do 2 year OCI's this past session because we only put half our normal hours on (Covid = 1/2 = 60 hours+/-).

My anecdote: JD recommends up to 500 hr. OCI with their Plus 50 II OR annually. The 500 hour extended OCI is dependent on ultra low sulfer fuel and 5 other criteria ("normal" operation). If at 2 years you are still way below the normal OCI, it "seems" that the oil is probably still good. There's simply too many variables to make a blanket recommendation (fuel quality, equip. condition, operating conditions, .......). I'm clueless about the newest DEF engines.

I've adjusted all of my service intervals vs. the manual. I lengthened most (time wise) and shortened a few. My hytran fluid seems to start showing moisture at around 6 years, even at 1/2 the hours interval (1200 hours in manual).

Good luck. Maybe some tractor forums will have UOA data??

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[k1rod]

Going through our yearly maintenance on all our trucks and equipment, and with oil getting expensive/hard to find its got me thinking. I have a combine, dump truck, skid steer, and some other items that add up to about 20 gallons of oil. Most of these engines are only seeing 50-60 hours a year on them, and parked in a barn year round. When they are ran they are getting worked pretty hard so i'm confident any condensation is getting burnt off. I know the general consensus is to change oil every 12 months but is that really necessary in our case?

I’ve run good synth oils up to 3 years. No problem. I’ve got 253,000 miles on one of these engines. At three years I do start to worry that the oil filter is going to start to disintegrate.

 

[dlundblad]

I go 24 months with my tractor. Factory OCI is 400 hrs. I do about 50 a year.

 

[dnewton3]

What we're talking about here are extended OCIs; not by duration of miles but time of exposure. All I can say is ...

UOA! UOA! UOA!

Don't guess. Why not KNOW for sure what your situation will endure?

I personally have run 3 year OCIs on several pieces of my equipment, including two Kubota tractors and a Dmax Chevy truck, and after getting the UOAs, I saw absolutely nothing concerning with the OCI extensions. The wear rates were good, indicating the engine was faring well. The contamination was low and the oil properties were robust, indicating the oil was also doing well.