OK, I am the guy from the Rotella forum Gary mentioned. Thanks, Gary for your help. This thread, and the other one you referred me to were helpful, as well as other threads on this board.
First, let me clarify. When I said "old bus" I meant old in the sense that it is old enough to have come from the OEM with a 6V-92 DD 2 cycle engine, as opposed to newer busses that come with real engines. Actually, it has rather low miles for it's age, which is just over 20 years old, just a pup for a bus, and not much older than some of my personal vehicles out in the driveway.
Second, it is a seater, with three huge luggage compartments, so I can carry more oil than most jobbers stock in the grade I need.
But that is the problem. When I have enough spare cases of oil, I can and do carry several gallon jugs at a time. I use Shell Rotella. This is because I never see 40 wt in the truck stops any more, and believe me, I look.
When I run low, however, and I can't find it at my retailer, (who doesn't stock it) and he can't get any from his warehouse (who doesn't stock it, either) or the jobber they buy from, (he doesn't keep much of it) then I am stuck, which doesn't happen often, but it does from time to time. 40 wt just seems to be harder and harder to find.
That is why I wanted to know my alternatives, and based on the replies given above, there aren't many. As a last resort, I do still see 30 wt. in the truck stops, so a gallon of this from time to time would be better than running it low on oil.
The third point, I did see in writing somewhere, and I don't care to retrack the research to find it again that the "rated" oil consumption for these types of DD engines is one gallon for every 10 hrs of operation. Operation was not specified as driving at the speed limit, and in a bus operation situation, a 600 mile RT to take the youth to a theme park, with the associated (high) idling time at rest stops, meal stops, and even at the park so the driver can get a nap (to keep the AC or heat running) can easily exceed 10 hrs of engine operation. So it can be a lot less than 1000 miles, which does happen from time to time as well. (Love those ski trips out west)
This is our fourth bus with a 2 cycle DD, and the gallon per 10 hrs has been pretty consistent throughout that history.
While you would think that a bus frame is a cavernous place, actually there is really very little usable space for a "oil storage place". Additionally, I would love to buy bulk oil in 55 gallon drums, but alas, the church lacks a freight loading dock, so getting a heavy drum off the back of a freight trailer is problematic.
Hence the reasons I am stuck with carrying adequate individual gallon containers of 40w, and am (was) seeking alternatives.
I am going to have to do some more research on the Auto-RX, as I was not familiar with that product. Sounds like I would benefit from it.
Any input anyone wants to give me on this would be appreciated. I went to their website link from this forum last night, but could not tell if it was available through retail outlets or not.
Any downsides to Auto-RX??? The parts of the engine I have had open (valve covers off, air box covers off, etc.) don't show a lot of sludge build up, but that doesn't mean that the deep internals aren't sludged up.
Thanks Gary for putting me onto this website. I found a lot of valuable information while waiting for my registration to be approved.
rmw
