Military Vehicles OCI

[abycat]

Originally Posted By: sm00thpapa
I'm Military and we use any 15W-40. We don't have OCI, we just submit an oil sample every so often and if it comes back oil needs to be changed we change it. Hope this helps.


Straight from a military guy! Thanks for the info. Im pretty shocked you dont use a nice 5w-40 full synthetic. Dont military vehicles have larger sumps? Some of those big 8 wheel or larger machines have huge stationary diesels which should have at least 20 litre sumps maybe closer to 40L. Are you a mechanic in the military? If I were to be a mechanic I would have most likely tried to be one in the military. I decided not to do that as a career and just as a hobby. Thanks for fighting for all our freedom and stay safe!

 

[abycat]

Originally Posted By: cbear
That's interesting there is no OCI for military vehicles. I was a RADAR ET in the Navy, and I had to change the oil in my SPS-40 antenna every 3 months, even if it didn't make one revolution during that time. Doing an oil change up on a mast is a PITA.


Didnt see your post. So that must be a gear oil in that thing. Very interesting difference in change proceedure from the vehicles i guess. I bet you dont want your radar going out at any time so that must be the purpose of the frequency. What did you do with your used oil? Or was the change always done at the dock?

 

[cbear]

Originally Posted By: abycat
Didnt see your post. So that must be a gear oil in that thing. Very interesting difference in change proceedure from the vehicles i guess. I bet you dont want your radar going out at any time so that must be the purpose of the frequency. What did you do with your used oil? Or was the change always done at the dock?

The antenna was actually speced to use the same turbine oil that our LM2500 propulsion turbines used, so we turned the oil in to the engineers. The change was always done dockside. Going aloft underway would only be done to repair something that is mission critical.

 

[law3500]

I wonder if they are using 15w-40 in the Northern regions, Alaska, ect. ? Anyone know ?

 

[KevinsDMAX]

I'm in Alaska and in the USAF, and while we don't have HumVees in my section, we do have three vehicles:
1. 07 Ford panel van...mileage is around 4k
2. 06 Chevy 6 pack (w/plow attachment)...mileage 10k
3. 04 Polaris quad (w/plow attachment)...55 hrs

For the van and truck, my vehicle NCO gets a call every three months to drop off them off for their service. Which is a lube oil filter. As for the quad, since my squadron choose to buy this out of our own money, we have to take it to a polaris dealer and have it serviced annually and have to bring the receipt of what service was done (ie 50/100 hr) so they can update it into their system.

As for oil, they use regular dino oil, as we have a 4-way plug with block heater, battery blanket, trans and oil pan heaters, and we have to plug them in anytime it gets colder than -10.

Kevin

 

[The motor guy]

I didn't know the government took such good care of their vehicles. I must say im impressed.

 

[Spazdog]

When I was a 19E (M60A3TTS Patton tank) the Continental V12 turbodiesel used bulk oil. Unknown supplier. Unknown grade. Motor pool guys said it was Texaco Havoline.

Whatever the bulk was, it was used in all diesel applications from CUCVs (Detroit) to our then brand new 5-tons (Cummins) to M113s (Detroit again, 6 cyl this time).

Don't know what they were using in the Gama Goat. It was a diesel but a two cycle IIRC. It kinda just sat in the back of the armory motor pool and didn't move much.

 

[95busa]

We use 15w-40 in almost everything. Some newer trucks (FMTV family and IIRC the Cougar MRAPs) use 15w-40 in the transmission as well. Cost savings through using one lubricant. We also use one fuel (JP8) which sucked in the HMMWVs because it degraded a little gasket in the fuel system and caused a no-start when hot. We fixed that by adding transmission oil to the JP8 to make it more diesel like. In theater I encountered completely plugged oil filters on my gun trucks and had to deadline the truck and change the oil with no analysis due to a deadlined oil filter. Probably due to massive dust, really atrocious temperatures, and 6.5L turbo diesels working like they were never designed to with M1114 Frag 5 HMMWVs. We got oil in 55gal drums, I forgot what kind though.

 

[ahoier]

Originally Posted By: abycat
Im pretty shocked you dont use a nice 5w-40 full synthetic.
My thinking would be the "cost" involved....really....they want some robust, and efficient, that can be changed at a whim.


I'm surprised too that it seems the military takes good maintenance on their vehicles though.....makes sense though, especially up in AK Would hate to be stranded up there lol.


I'm surprised the USAF doesn't use oil analysis up in AK though?

Then again, AK....that's [censored] near close to "severe" service....so they likely figure 3k/3 months is a good time for changing

 

[GMZ]

We pull a sample and send it in, if it needs refreshing we will first drain down then re fill going through a fluid renovator cart. If that doesnt do it then we re fill the whole thing. This is on a 5" gun with 2 ~100 gal hydraulic systems filled with MIL-F-17111.