Oil Change intervals?

[1Mech]

If you work your equipment 8 hours a day, that is only 50 days to reach the 400 hour interval, 2 hours a day is only 200 days, a little over 6 1/2 months between changes. 50 hours seems a bit too often to change oil unless you only run your equipment for short periods, never letting it warm up proper.

 

[1Mech]

I just asked my son who drives over the road for Pepsi, he says the oils in his 18-wheeler truck get changed every 30 to 40 thousand miles, every 3 to 4 months. But of course, he has only one cold-hot-cold cycle per day with many miles in between. It really does depend on your driving style!

 

[DarkBlack]

….but.. if you’re not bringing your engine up to temperature..,evaporating out the H20 condensation, you’re building up H2O in your crankcase. Happens, if your oil is a day old, or a year old.

 

[Rockbadchild]

….but.. if you’re not bringing your engine up to temperature..,evaporating out the H20 condensation, you’re building up H2O in your crankcase. Happens, if your oil is a day old, or a year old.

yes but it's cumulative therefore the justification to change your oil.

 

[DarkBlack]

yes but it's cumulative therefore the justification to change your oil.

That’s kind of an old wives tale. Even short trippers occasionally get their engine up to temperature, and the water evaporates out, “resetting” the crankcase to water free. Happens regardless of the oil age.
If not, you’d have inches of water at the bottom of your pan.
New oil has no magic way of preventing condensation. It’s simply a matter of having a working PCV system, storage, atmosphere conditions, and engine temperature

 

[Rockbadchild]

That’s kind of an old wives tale. Even short trippers occasionally get their engine up to temperature, and the water evaporates out, “resetting” the crankcase to water free. Happens regardless of the oil age.
If not, you’d have inches of water at the bottom of your pan.
New oil has no magic way of preventing condensation. It’s simply a matter of having a working PCV system, storage, atmosphere conditions, and engine temperature

I agree that it happens with new oil as much as old or vise versa, I was replying to your comment

''if you’re not bringing your engine up to temperature..,evaporating out the H20 condensation, you’re building up H2O in your crankcase.''

Old wives tale ?? but, but their are your words ...

My point is if this is done over and over it is cumulative and it will take longer and longer of operation time to evaporate the water in your oil and if you are not going to make that long operation time up at temperture to evaporate the moisture then changing your oil remove that moisture.

 

[repete]

Every 100 hours on engine oil and filter. 30 minutes max and maybe $25.
Over 6300 hours on my L2550DT. Beyond valve adjustment, no covers off my engine and runs strong.
Maintenance. Pay me now or pay me later.

 

[DarkBlack]

I agree that it happens with new oil as much as old or vise versa, I was replying to your comment

''if you’re not bringing your engine up to temperature..,evaporating out the H20 condensation, you’re building up H2O in your crankcase.''

Old wives tale ?? but, but their are your words ...

My point is if this is done over and over it is cumulative and it will take longer and longer of operation time to evaporate the water in your oil and if you are not going to make that long operation time up at temperture to evaporate the moisture then changing your oil remove that moisture.

I think you mistook my point that you quoted. I meant if you were to never bring your engine sufficiently up to temperature, you would have water build up in your crankcase.
You would be seeing water first from your drain plug during a cold oil change. Your oil level would also be increasing during the year.

Every cold start your pickup sump would be sucking pure water up, and your engine would soon expire.

This doesn’t happen to 99.9% of the population, because water concentrations in the crankcase are self limiting by proper running with a functioning PCV system , storage, and environmental conditions like humidity , and dewpoint.
Change your oil because the additives are depleted, and you have high suspended solids, not because you think you’ll temporarily remove water

 

[WinterDeere]

I change my engine oil strictly based upon hours. It ends up being about every 3 years or so between changes.
I will add that I am religious about ensuring that the engine gets up to operating temperature and worked every time it is started. It also gets run regularly throughout the year.

I think most of us follow practices based more on religion than science, when it comes to our oil changes. Every January, I change the oil on every piece of equipment used in the prior year. Less-oft used equipment gets tagged with the date of the last oil change, and I'll skip that equipment if it was not used at all since the last oil change, but everything that's been used since last year's oil change gets an oil change.

My reason for doing this comes from old-timers asserting that, even if the hours are not at recommended change threshold, corrosive combustion deposits build up in the old oil that will damage internal parts over time. The more I think about this, the less it makes sense to me, as anything exposed to this supposedly-contaminated oil is also coated in oil. Also, if hours are low, corrosive content should also be low.

I sure would like if I could have peace of mind, backing off to 400 hour oil changes on my tractor, as I'm only doing an average 100 hours per year on that machine. But as long as oil is cheap and tractors are expensive, I'll probably just keep doing yearly changes.

 

[WinterDeere]

Have a Deere tractor and Zero mower. Annually I run them each about 50 hours. I Change Oil and filters every September when weather still nice.

I enjoy working in the barn with the music cranked! Then celebrate with a beer and cigar.

We have the same procedure, other than timing. Oil changes are done in a heated shop in January, while enjoying the cigar. Beer usually comes with lunch.