Motor oil $$ Up or down?

nyone · Sep 15, 2022

DieselBound said:
There's PRICE and then there's AVAILABILITY.

I use the same oil across the board (except for my riding lawn mower, which only rarely sees an oil change).

I DID buy a fair amount a couple months back as the oil I get is often not available at WM: at one point I had thought they no longer were going to carry it. NOTE: I spec'd a near-direct replacement for the Rotella T6 CJ oil, an oil that I'd found to be the best for my use: nothing else out there; dragging my feet on ever going with the newer CK oils.

IF, however, you want to live life on the edge then hold off. IF you're risk adverse then just preempt the emotions (except the one that comes from paying the bill) and buy now.

Regarding filters, this one is where AVAILABILITY can be the larger concern. I always try to have filters to carry me over for a while: hydraulic filters in which I change every 400 hrs really only requires I have a set for the next change; oil filters like for my cars I tend to have enough for several changes; in general, I'm pretty good for at least a year or two.

What oil are you buying at walmart that isnt t6 and also buying at walmart? T6 does have wet clutch additives so you can use it in quads and motorcycles with wet clutches.

DieselBound · Sep 15, 2022

nyone said:
What oil are you buying at walmart that isnt t6 and also buying at walmart? T6 does have wet clutch additives so you can use it in quads and motorcycles with wet clutches.

T6 was changed for the newer emissions specs. Motorcraft HD Diesel* is what I'm using: per The Petroleum Quality Institute of America the specifications are almost a dead-ringer for the older T6. Newer spec oil significantly drops the phosphorus levels, something that I wasn't comfortable doing with older equipment. Yes, all claim to be "backward compatible," but I'm not willing to take that risk. This is the one thing I'm fine with going a bit overboard on. Autozone carries it for about $32/5 qt; I think I bought it at WM for $28 last time.

nyone · Sep 16, 2022

DieselBound said:
T6 was changed for the newer emissions specs. Motorcraft HD Diesel* is what I'm using: per The Petroleum Quality Institute of America the specifications are almost a dead-ringer for the older T6. Newer spec oil significantly drops the phosphorus levels, something that I wasn't comfortable doing with older equipment. Yes, all claim to be "backward compatible," but I'm not willing to take that risk. This is the one thing I'm fine with going a bit overboard on. Autozone carries it for about $32/5 qt; I think I bought it at WM for $28 last time.

When did they change t6?
That's about the same price as T6.

LD1 · Sep 16, 2022

nyone said:
When did they change t6?
That's about the same price as T6.

Dont know about formulation changes.....

I have always used T-6 all my diesels. Was easy to just tell the wife to grab the blue jug 5w40 stuff whenever she went shopping. Walmart and rural king usually had the best prices.

But after the "pandemic" issues the past few years.....lots of empty shelfs where the T6 normally is. And recently have been seeing it but its 15w40 T-6. Im not too sure about it yet.....dont really like change

nyone · Sep 16, 2022

I also use t6 in alot of stuff not even diesel. However supertech 5w30 full synthetic is my other go to oil. A 12qt bag in a box was about $30 when I loaded up.

DieselBound · Sep 16, 2022

nyone said:
When did they change t6?
That's about the same price as T6.

This is all part of the changes to emissions standards. Changed a couple of years ago. Tell-tale is it's CK rated: previous standard was CJ.

NOTE: My newest diesel, my Kioti, specifies CJ oils (I'm sure that CK would be fine, but at the time [2016] CK wasn't out yet). Most of my oil usage is by my cars [VW TDIs] and there is little question that CJ oils are far superior to what was spec'd at the time of their manufacture (early 2000s).

Gale Hawkins · Sep 16, 2022

I'm still finding Shell Rotella T6 5W40 of $25 at WM.

I'm assuming motor oil shelf life is greater than many of our shelf life so stocking up would be fine for ourselves or the ones that survive us.

LD1 · Sep 17, 2022

Gale Hawkins said:
I'm still finding Shell Rotella T6 5W40 of $25 at WM.

I'm assuming motor oil shelf life is greater than many of our shelf life so stocking up would be fine for ourselves or the ones that survive us.

Wish I could find some. It's all t6 15w40 here