One oil for all engines

Karl Townsend · 2008-10-12T13:02:43+00:00

I just got a graco drum pump with an oil quart meter. Set the number of quarts you want. Put it in the fill hole and pull the trigger. You're done.I want to get a 55 gallon drum of oil for all my engines. the seven tractors, fork lift, big truck, and lawn mowers can easily use a 10-40 rated for diesel engine use. Now, my new pickup calls for a very light 5-20 oil. My son says the V8 engine is still made the same way they've always done it and a 10-40 will be fine.Anyone know the story on these very light oil specs? Is this just done for slightly better fuel mileage? My new pick 'em up truck cost damn near 30K and I don't want to hurt it.Karl

Oct 12, 2008 24 Replies

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clare at snyder dot ontario do 17 years ago

My recommendation would also be Rotella T. Depends where you are and how cold it gets whether the synth is an advantage (OK, always better, but not necessarily ENOUGH better to make it adviseable) for you. In the southern states you could very well get by with 15W40 conventional all year round on all your engines - but 5W40 will definitely do the job for all of them.

The ONLY thing to be carefull of with "all fleet" oils is some still have zinc in them at higher levels than recommended for todays gasoline engines (which is really only an issue if they are burning oil) The new api spec only applies to 5 (or 0)base oils (and possibly

10W30), not 15 base and above. Why? becuase 5 base oils are more likely to be consumed, depositing the zinc in the catalytic converters which would possibly cause them to fail before 100,000 km. ** Posted from

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clare at snyder dot ontario do 17 years ago

10W30 or 10W40 should both be satisfactoy for that engine - the more critical thing is the oil filter - does it have an effective anti-drainback valve? If not, the lifters will clatter on startup just about every time. With a good filter, they are generally quiet regardless because they are filled almost immediately.

Have never seen it happen. Now 20W50 at zero degrees - yup, quite possible.

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Jim Wilkins 17 years ago

Me, too. This graduated pouring container from Harbor Freight makes it easy to measure out the right amount of oil from 5 gallon jugs;

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I traced the molded lines and numbers with a laundry marker to make them visible. You could use water from a kitchen measuring cup to graduate it more finely than full quarts & liters.

Jim Wilkins

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