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Winter oil

Started by Northern hills, November 23, 2018, 07:21:13 AM

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Northern hills

Could probably find an answer to this buried in past posts, but what do you use for motor oil in your 3-53 Detroit's during the winter? (Here in Quebec winter means -30something nights & -10 days)

Plankton

I use rotella t sae 30 in winters and sae40 other times. It doesn't get nearly that cold here though maybe -10 overnight.

mike_belben

At those temps, probably diesel fuel!
Praise The Lord

Oliver05262

  Detroit's recommendation was SAE 40 in the summer and SAE 30 in the winter, using low ash content engine oil. Multi-vis oils were not recommended.
  As a practical matter, with some starting aid, such as circulating hot coolant from a heater hose hookup, or a block heater, the 30 weight seems to work OK. A lot of owners use 15W/40 oil year around just because of the availability of straight weight oils, and seem to have to have no ill effects. 
  Best advice is some kind of pre-heating, slow warm up, and minimal (no) use of the ether bunny.
Oliver Durand
"You can't do wrong by doing good"
It's OK to cry.
I never did say goodby to my invisible friend.
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BargeMonkey

Rotella makes a good 2 stroke 30 and 40W oil. The oil is formulated differently, diff levels of zinc, it's been a yr since I looked at a spec sheet. I'm running 30w with a block heater and it's ok. Supposedly the multi weight hung up in the rings and ports, I'm sure a detroit puritan will know the answer. 

mike_belben

Id have to start a fire under the oilpan of anything i own to get it fired at those temps.  And it wouldnt matter since im not tough enough to work in that baloney anymore.
Praise The Lord

mike_belben

Praise The Lord

Northern hills

An old timer had once told me to never use multi vis oils, ONLY straight 30, which I've always done (the old girl is kept tethered to an extension cord when she's not in the bush), but I'd long ago read usually all the damage done to a diesel motor is in the first few seconds of starting & the lack of oil due to thickness in the cold weather got me to thinking some of the new synthetics might be better????

lxskllr

It was fairly common knowledge years ago that multiviscosity oils were inferior to straight weight. At least as far as cars go, that's nowhere near the truth anymore. Dunno about heavy equipment, but I'd be leery of taking the advice of old timers unless they've been involved in mechanical work in the last 30 years or so. They could have written off multiviscosity oil 40 years ago, and never looked again.

Maine logger88

I just run whatever 15/40 is on sale at the time in my 3-53 and 4-53 right wrong or indifferent and have had no trouble yet. I'm not saying that's the thing to do it's just what I do. 
79 TJ 225 81 JD 540B Husky and Jonsered saws

barbender

If I was running my ol' skidder daily I'd have Rotella 5/40 synthetic in it. I read somewhere this oil will make spec as a straight 40 as well, and all the current CJ (or is it K?) oils are low ash because of emissions. But then, if I smoked the Detroit I'd put a 3.9bt Cummins in it and not feel bad, so take my opinion fwiw.
Too many irons in the fire

mike_belben

I tore down a lotta engines.  Having oil is better than not having oil.  If you have oil, youre probably gonna be okay.  You can spend your 401k on the fanciest new oils and still blow headgasket or break cams or crack heads or shear cranks or throw rods etc etc etc etc.  

Praise The Lord

larry12

I live in Northern Ontario and it's cold like Quebec . We have always used 15 - 40 year around and I don't know why lol I use 5-30 in my car and it always starts without plugging it in . I guess we have been breeded to use heavy oils in diesels lol? My chum owns a C6 with a 6 cyl perkins (conversion I think ) , he runs 5 - 40 synthetic and it starts at - 20 without any heat. If I don't plug in my 920 Cat loader , it takes a few minutes before the oil pressure gauge comes up as opposed to plugging it in , so that says alot about warm 15-40 oil

erin

I have a Clark 665 with a 353 Detroit in it and i use 30w.
PS.
I live about 2hrs away from Ottawa
 

62oliver

I run straight 40wt in my 4-53 like "they" say you should. In fact I just changed it today.
 I plug it in for at least 1 hr, 2hrs is better, but if it is much past about -15C I just don't bother running it. 
 If it had to run everyday I guess I would run 30wt. in cold weather.
I change it about every 100 hrs, but it probably takes me 2 years to put on 100hrs.
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