Thoughts on oil change interval for 20KW diesel generator

[thebigmoose]

Have a 20KW diesel generator with Isuzu 4LE1 using Rotella T5 10W40. It is run every month with a 10KW load for 1 hour. After a year the oil looks perfectly golden, like out of the jug golden. What drain interval do you all recommend.

 

[jetman]

Have a 20KW diesel generator with Isuzu 4LE1 using Rotella T5 10W40. It is run every month with a 10KW load for 1 hour. After a year the oil looks perfectly golden, like out of the jug golden. What drain interval do you all recommend.

I change the oil in or 17.5kw Kubota genny engine every 200+ hrs using Rotella T3 & T4.

 

[TomYoung]

Every 18 months should work for you. The thing about generators is that at some point you just might ask the thing to run for the next 300 hours. That’s why you want the new stuff all the time…

 

[Oliveoil2]

Two years easy. Keep
It topped off.

 

[fantastic]

Every 4 years or hours the manual suggests (whichever comes first). I think you mean 10w-30 T5 & not 10w-40 T5?

 

[oil pan 4]

Have a 20KW diesel generator with Isuzu 4LE1 using Rotella T5 10W40. It is run every month with a 10KW load for 1 hour. After a year the oil looks perfectly golden, like out of the jug golden. What drain interval do you all recommend.

I work on those. Probably as long as you change it more often than once every 3 years and put less than a thousand hours on it.

 

[Bighorn2500]

250 hours assuming it has an hour meter.

 

[Hohn]

Have a 20KW diesel generator with Isuzu 4LE1 using Rotella T5 10W40. It is run every month with a 10KW load for 1 hour. After a year the oil looks perfectly golden, like out of the jug golden. What drain interval do you all recommend.

The oil has 12 hours on it at half load. Of course it looks virgin.

Send in a sample to check the water level. Unless you have a prolonged outage, that oil is probably good for 3-4 years.

 

[thebigmoose]

I appreciate the good, field experience here and all the recommendations. It does have an hour meter.
With respect to the oil viscosity, the chart I have for the 4LE1 shows 10W30 between -4 degF and 86 degF, and 15W40 between 5 degF and above 86 degF... the top temp is not shown on the chart. Page 26 fig 36 of "Industrial Diesel Engine, 4LB1, 4LC1, 4LE1 Models. If I am in error, please expand for me. I did make a typo, using 15W40 RotellaT
Thanks again!

 

[oil pan 4]

The oil has 12 hours on it at half load. Of course it looks virgin.

Send in a sample to check the water level. Unless you have a prolonged outage, that oil is probably good for 3-4 years.

I had one with 5 year old oil in it with only a hundred hours on it. The oil didn't even want to stick to the metal any more. The oil wanted to bead up like water.

 

[Hohn]

I had one with 5 year old oil in it with only a hundred hours on it. The oil didn't even want to stick to the metal any more. The oil wanted to bead up like water.

Exactly, that's why moisture levels are THE reason to send in a lab sample. Especially if you live somewhere that has morning dew at times of the year. If the air is condensing water out, the inside of your crankcase is also. That's why the heat of operation is so important to keeping moisture at bad and preventing corrosion.

 

[oil pan 4]

Exactly, that's why moisture levels are THE reason to send in a lab sample. Especially if you live somewhere that has morning dew at times of the year. If the air is condensing water out, the inside of your crankcase is also. That's why the heat of operation is so important to keeping moisture at bad and preventing corrosion.

Where I live it's really dry. This wasn't water in the oil.