Anyone here still using 15w40?
- Thread starter 53' Stude
- Start date
Just looked up what the newer gm 3.0 duramax calls for as I recently heard it's well known for oil consumption. It calls for 0w20 diesel oil. That's a bit of a jump from 10w30 though.
Sell tens of thousands of gallons a year of it here... like 80k+ gals. Maybe 10,000 gallons of 5w40 and 10w30
I guess your customers are uneducated.
True, and there's Youtube videos on the subject. I just bought 3 jugs of Mobil Delvac 10W30 FA-4 just in case I have to do an oil change on a 3.0 Duramax. FA-4 5w30 and 10w30s are a baby step above the SAE 20 grade.
Manufactures can recommend whatever grade they want for whatever reason. I believe that the XW20 and XW30 grades are fuel economy driven. Personally I'm not interested in a 1.5% fuel economy improvment at the risk of increased wear and/or oil consumption that can't be good for downstream emission control equipment and sensors.
Pails of 15w40 are the best bang for the buck for use in everything IMO in ambient temperatures above freezing. Below that I move down to 10W/5W and 0W40 depending where the vehicle is operated.
Case in point, 10W40 GTX API SP in a 2022 3.6L Acadia that is operated on the west coast between Whistler and Vancouver and will never see colder than -20C.
If I owned a 3.0L Duramax, it would get 15w40 in the summer and XW40 in the winter.
Does that make me a "thickie"? No, because I'm not using redundant thick engine oils like 20w50 except in a JD lawn tractor.
When I start using it for snow blowing and I have the attachment, I'll use a XW40 appropriate for winter use.
Exactly why I will not use an xx-30 in my Cummins equipped pickup.
And not really an HDEO application. It’s more of a PCEO application much like Euro diesel rated oils.
I’m more so referring to class 6-8 truck engines and off road/marine engines - so 7L to 32 cylinder. Etc.
If anything consumption has gone down in my opinion.
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2020
- Messages
- 371
15w40 for 6.4 Powestrokes and ATVs as well as the generators/ mowers
5 gallon buckets
First choice Lucas Magnum
Second choice Mystyk
Third Delo
5 gallon buckets
First choice Lucas Magnum
Second choice Mystyk
Third Delo
After following this discussion, I became curious enough that I took an informal inventory of 15W-40 and 10W-30 at the local Walmart. It isn't even a competition. There must be 7-8 times as much 15W-40 as there is 10W-30. And 2-3 times more variety. 15W-40 has it's very own section on the motor oil aisle, while I had to hunt down the 10W-30, hidden amongst the other viscosities and brands. 15W-40 is available in 1 gal. jugs, 2.5 gal. jugs, and 5 gallon pails. 10W-30 is available in 5 quart jugs. (I didn't waist time looking at what is available in quarts, as it seemed that only VW/Audi and such would be buying diesel motor oil in quarts.)
Your market may be different. But if Walmart is any indicator of what the DIY'er is using for diesel engine oil changes here in Northern Utah, 15W-40 is king of the hill.
Still use it in a lot of farm equipment and OTR trucks. A fleet I maintain uses it almost exclusively in anything from lawn mowers to forklifts to OTR trucks. Forklifts with Mazda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi engines will run 10-20k hours and we ran an old Cat with a Peugeot engine to 45,000 hours.
People use it because its 1. readily available nearly anywhere and 2. it simply works.
People use it because its 1. readily available nearly anywhere and 2. it simply works.
Used SAE 30 or 40 in my 50 something model 8N. Went to 40 grade when the oil pressure started going down in hot weather.
I noticed Lucas has two offerings in 15w40, Magnum and synthetic; I had no idea they had both.
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2020
- Messages
- 371
Yes they even offer a FA-4 Max Fuel 10w30 for the newest stuff
It can get confusing I may consider going to the 5w40 if the old school Magnum gets dropped
Synthetic 15w-40 is hard to find in my area. 0w-40 and 5w-40 synthetic seem to be the most popular synthetic CK-4 offerings.
Similar threads
- Sticky