Howdy!

[K9amz]

Just thought I'd introduce myself here... Alain ('Alan') and Michele in the Loess Hills in Western Iowa.

Purchased 2007 Damon Outlaw on the W24 chassis with the 8.1l Vortec engine about a month ago. Hauling motorcycles, a BMW R1200GS and a BMW F650GS, or ATVs (Arctic Cat and Honda), together with permanent residents 'Zorc' and 'Hanna,' our GSDs.

Wondering... What types of oil are y'all using in your engines? Mine's brand new, so I'm using regular oil (and tranny fluid) for now. I am using Amsoil in all my other vehicles and plan on switching to it for the Vortec and Allison as well. Any recommendations as to how long I should wait before switching? (Note: I plan on continuing to change oil and filter every 3000 miles, even with Amsoil...)

[K9amz]

Just thought I'd introduce myself here... Alain ('Alan') and Michele in the Loess Hills in Western Iowa.

Purchased 2007 Damon Outlaw on the W24 chassis with the 8.1l Vortec engine about a month ago. Hauling motorcycles, a BMW R1200GS and a BMW F650GS, or ATVs (Arctic Cat and Honda), together with permanent residents 'Zorc' and 'Hanna,' our GSDs.

Wondering... What types of oil are y'all using in your engines? Mine's brand new, so I'm using regular oil (and tranny fluid) for now. I am using Amsoil in all my other vehicles and plan on switching to it for the Vortec and Allison as well. Any recommendations as to how long I should wait before switching? (Note: I plan on continuing to change oil and filter every 3000 miles, even with Amsoil...)

[DonavonP]

Welcome to Alain and Michele!!! Zorc and Hanna Too!!

Your transmission should already have synthetic oil called Transynd. I've been using ordinard dino oil. 5/30

I use to fly my airplane over that section of Iowa and wondered about it. I went to this site and read about. Very interesting.

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K9amz:
I am using Amsoil in all my other vehicles and plan on switching to it for the Vortec and Allison as well. Any recommendations as to how long I should wait before switching? (Note: I plan on continuing to change oil and filter every 3000 miles, even with Amsoil...) </div></BLOCKQUOTE>K9amz, Thank you for joining us here on iRV2.com your complete source for everything Workhorse.

Now about that oil ... we've been tossing that around here quite a bit and before all the other folks have a chance to tell you to change to synthetic oil right away, I would like you to run your 8.1 out to about 13K to 15K miles before you change over.

Let's get that 8.1 all scuffed and broken in and then we'll switch over. Once you switch over the engine won't wear any further and I think this is the best way to break-in your engine.

Amsoil Series 2000, 0W-30, Fully Synthetic, motor oil is the way I would recommend that you proceed. Use it all year round and in those colder winter days your engine will spin right over without any problems.

Now - Don't go and throw away that load of Amsoil at 3,000 miles! Using the Amsoil filter for the 8.1 and the synthetic motor oil, I see no reason why you can't schedule a drain and refill at minimum twice a year with approximately 7,000 miles in between changes.

You're also going to want to pick up a cartridge of Amsoil synthetic grease and that will also get you by on twice a year service intervals. If you run in a lot of moisture and dirt - "off roader" you might want to re-grease at 5,000 miles.

Welcome to the fracas and I hope to see you visiting us often!

[K9amz]

DonavonP-

Thanks for the welcome, and hello from a fellow pilot (PVT-ASEL/PRH); yes the Loess Hills are 'something else' Only drawback living here is the very fine dirt/dust that penetrates everything...

Interesting on the TranSynd; will have to check that out as I wasn't aware it "came with" synthetic off the bat. If that's the case, and after reading the Allison Web site, I will probably stick with TranSynd instead of switching to Amsoil.

DriVer-

Thanks for the welcome as well. I waited until 15,000 miles in my Cummins Turbo Diesel (Dodge 3500) before switching to Amsoil; I am definitely going to allow this engine to 'break in' before switching... 13,000 to 15,000 miles sounds reasonable, thanks for that information.

As to the oil changes every 6,000 vs 3,000, Amsoil does recommend doubling the OEM (dyno) intervals, and I change oil/filter in my Cummins every 6,000 - I may consider changing oil and filter every 6,000 on the Vortec; I'll probably change it every 3,000 a couple of times and have the oil analyzed before I decide (I'm paranoid, and, considering the cost of the coach, spending a little more on frequent oil changes seems 'negligible' to me )

[Joe Gilbert]

DriVer is correct, all of us "synthetic nuts" will chime in.

I think most agree, stay with the TranSynd. Allison has not approved the Amsoil (even if it is a good oil).

I switched to Moble 1 at 4000 miles and it uses almost zero oil. Drove 5300 miles last fall and it was only down 1/2 qt. (now have 24K miles and always use 10W/30.

Also, I don't buy into waiting for the engine to break-in, though this of course is not a problem. New Corvettes leave the assembly plant with Moble 1.

I also think 0W/30 is not a great choice year round. If you were qualifying for a NASCAR race you might use 0W but on a 95' day crossing Iowa----I'm not so sure.

What the heck, you asked for opinions and you'll get what you asked for.

Wishing you many trouble free miles.

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K9amz:
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>I forgot 1 little thing, Change your Allison spin on filter at 5,000 miles. Refill the filter with Transynd and replace the donut magnet on the center of the filter and hand tighten.

That's the "first" thing you most likely will have to do.

[DriVer]

Click on the Graphic!

[oemtech]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Amsoil Series 2000, 0W-30, Fully Synthetic, motor oil is the way I would recommend that you proceed. Use it all year round and in those colder winter days your engine will spin right over without any problems.

Now - Don't go and throw away that load of Amsoil at 3,000 miles! Using the Amsoil filter for the 8.1 and the synthetic motor oil, I see no reason why you can't schedule a drain and refill at minimum twice a year with approximately 7,000 miles in between changes. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

DirVer have you been out in the sun to long today, I can't belive what I am seeing!!!!!

Amsoil/Amsoil filters and not AC Delco, there is hope for you yet son!

[Easyrider]

Thanks for the web address DriVer! I always said Amsoil was the best and now I can prove it!
I bookmarked it so I can refer back to it when needed. I run Amsoil in all my toys except our motorhome tranny, since Allison wants me to use Transynd I did have that put in recently.

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Easyrider:
I run Amsoil in all my toys except our motorhome tranny, since Allison wants me to use Transynd I did have that put in recently. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Initially when I did my first change I used Amsoil Torque Shift. The second change was a power flush and that was filled using Transynd.

So as we can see I have a pretty good concentration of synthetic in my tranny.

[FrontRangeRVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Joe Gilbert:

I switched to Moble 1 at 4000 miles and it uses almost zero oil. Drove 5300 miles last fall and it was only down 1/2 qt. (now have 24K miles and always use 10W/30.

Also, I don't buy into waiting for the engine to break-in, though this of course is not a problem. New Corvettes leave the assembly plant with Moble 1.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bingo! You can change your oil to synthetic when you want to.....the manufacturer of your engine says there is no "wait 'till it's broken in" before you change to a synthetic oil.

I changed mine to Mobil 1 5w-30 at 5,000 miles...no oil burning issues here (and wasn't expecting any either).

[Tom N]

Amsoil does not recommend extending the drain interval for gas engines that have had the ECM modified, modified exhaust or modified air intake systems.

Stick with Workhorse's severe 3000 mile drain interval if using Amsoil and you have any of the above modifications.

-Tom

[K9amz]

Wow

It never fails - nothing like synthetic oil to get a discussion going

Thanks for all the replies!