Never look a gift horse...

[Gadget Man]

Considering the price to maintain and heaven forbid, replace a large diesel engine, I decided sevral years ago to have my engine oil analyzed every year when I changed it. I realize this isn't for everybody, but it did help me one year when the analysis showed a high amount of contaminants. The lab tech suggested I examine the engine air filter for an element failure. Sure enough, even though the filter should have been good for another year, the element had torn and was allowing a small amount of unfiltered air into the engine.

Oops, I got off topic, sorry... During my first couple of years of engine oil testing, I discovered that Shell Rotella T motor oil retained it's viscosity better than Chevron Delo motor oil, so I started using Rotella T. Delo isnt bad oil, it just didn't hold up as long in my engine.

My youngest son works for a company that services forklifts. He specializes in large diesel units. Since his company provides a mobile service, he must keep his work van fully stocked. He called me the other day and told me that his company's motor oil vendor had excess diesel motor oil that they needed to get rid of. More specifically, the motor oil boxes had become greasy and dirty and were no longer "marketable." I thought this was funny, since they would get greasy and dirty riding around in the back of my son's work van anyway. So my son showed up at my door with six cases of Delo 15/40 motor oil. I looked at the brand name and said "oh." My son of course said, what's wrong? I told him I had switched brands, to which he replied, "are you kidding me? This is free dad, I told my vendor I'd take it...I have no use for it myself."

My son reminded me of the old saying of never looking a gift horse in the mouth. Considering the amount of money I will save on oil changes over the next three years, I guess I am temporarily switching back to Delo!

Sorry for the boring story...

Craig

[sidewinder2]

Craig,

Your son is a wise young man! My neighbor gave me a case of Valvoline MAX LIFE motor oil which I have never used before but on my next oil change I'll be using Valvoline.

[SarahW]

Free is good!

[deandec]

Some oil is better than No oil!

[rvrepairnut]

delo 15-40 is not a very high rated oil

[Midniteoyl]

Free, so just change a little sooner..

[Wayne M]

Originally Posted by Midniteoyl

Free, so just change a little sooner..

x2 (You beat me to saying that)

[jofo777]

Delo is fine oil but will require a change sooner. See what they say at the next analysis. I would certainly run it to 5K or 6K without a problem.

[vsheetz]

Maybe sell it on Craigslist and buy Rotella - I use only Rotella in diesel.

[R2Home]

If you do not want the Delo, send it North as I will use it. I not only use it in my three Cummins diesel engines, but we used a 'whole lot' of it in our motor pool vehicles. We were required to sample our engines every 6 month and very seldom did we get a bad results from sampling.

[Gadget Man]

As I said, I've run both Delo & Rotella in my MH and have had both brands analyzed at the end of the year. The only difference between the two is the Rotella retained its viscosity better. Other than that, Delo is a ok. My son, who works on large diesel engines for a living, said his company uses nothing but Delo, but my guess is because it's cheaper than Rotella. I told him about my viscosity concerns, so he dropped off three quarts of Lucas motor oil treatment today, courtesy again of his vendor. He told me to wait until spring (warmer weather), drain off one quart of the Delo (which is much easier to do now with my handy-dandy Fumoto oil drain valve), and replace it with a quart of Lucas. I normally don't use oil additives, but he said the Lucas additive will help with viscosity. Once again it's free, so what the heck. I average less than 8k miles a year, so I'm good to go.

Craig