Propane fuel Oil change interval

Status
Not open for further replies.

RLL

Joined
Apr 26, 2015
Messages
4
Location
La.
I am driving a 2013 GMC 3500 with a 6.0 gas engine converted to propane. I have always heard that propane does not contaminate the oil as soon. Does anyone have any recommendations as to how long one could safely go? It is a farm truck so used in a lot of off road on farm duties. Probly 50% off road, 50% on road.
 
Hi RLL, Welcome to BITOG!

welcome2.gif
welcome2.gif
welcome2.gif



I would suggest running the oil down to the end of the oil life monitor, then send in a sample of the used oil you drain from the engine to Blackstone labs or another used oil analysis facility and they can give you a really good idea of how much further if any you should go or if the oil life monitor is good.

There are other companies that do used oil analysis i just like Blackstone but they will send you a free sample kit and have good prices too. You pay $25 for the sample when they process it and you want the extra TBN test for $10 to know the Total base number of the oil, which helps determine if the oil was near the end of its life or not.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

One of the other popular labs are Wearcheck

https://wearcheck.com/
 
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Hi RLL, Welcome to BITOG!

welcome2.gif
welcome2.gif
welcome2.gif



I would suggest running the oil down to the end of the oil life monitor, then send in a sample of the used oil you drain from the engine to Blackstone labs or another used oil analysis facility and they can give you a really good idea of how much further if any you should go or if the oil life monitor is good.

There are other companies that do used oil analysis i just like Blackstone but they will send you a free sample kit and have good prices too. You pay $25 for the sample when they process it and you want the extra TBN test for $10 to know the Total base number of the oil, which helps determine if the oil was near the end of its life or not.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

One of the other popular labs are Wearcheck

https://wearcheck.com/
+1 !! I worked on propane fueled forklifts for 23 years. Propane does different things to the oil as compared to gasoline.
 
Last edited:
901Memphis gave some very good suggestions. Back in the day on the taxis, we doubled the OCI using LPG. LPG certainly is cleaner, but we're not comparing carbs to LPG any longer, either.
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: RLL
I am driving a 2013 GMC 3500 with a 6.0 gas engine converted to propane. I have always heard that propane does not contaminate the oil as soon. Does anyone have any recommendations as to how long one could safely go? It is a farm truck so used in a lot of off road on farm duties. Probly 50% off road, 50% on road.


We ran a fleet on LP during the 70's. GREAT for cleanliness, never a hint of carbon or anything and VERY clean oil.

OA is a great idea to establish a baseline, the oil will go a lot farther than with gasoline. The engines used to last a long time as well...
 
Hoping the engine was specced for propane with hardened valve seats. I ran propane trucks in the 80s. Nothing but valve problems and poor running - admittedly in a cold climate.
If it was my truck, I would run a synthetic 10W-30, and change the oil every 5,000 miles - max.
As per CT8, "Propane does different things to the oil as compared to gasoline."
 
The valve seats aren't as much an issue anymore thanks to unleaded fuel becoming the norm. When leaded fuel was much more common, LPG vehicles had more issues. When unleaded fuel became the norm, and required for all vehicles, the valve seat issues disappeared for us.
 
Thanks for the replies. I had a little experience with propane back in the '80s and needless to say I am impressed with the performance of the new systems. All computerized and auto changing from gas to LPG. This system has a vaporizer that is hot water warmed so it doesn't freeze up. So it always starts on gas then switches when it gets warmed up.
This is a company truck and the boss isn't too worried about it, I just want to do the right thing and not throw away a lot of good oil. I may do an UOA on it sometime on my own $ just to see.
 
My last propane truck was a '81 Ford 4.9L. changed the oil once a year regardless of mileage. Sold it a few years ago with almost 400k on the original engine and it's still running around town. Oil was always clean at change time. That's an average of almost 13k a year.
 
The propane is dry so there is no wash down of the cyl walls.Less carbon as well.
 
Had a Kohler comand10 that ran lp fuel. It came of a floor scrubber with 5,800hrs. I ran it a few months powering a belt drive genhead. Ran it for a week at a time, service every seven days(168hour). It drained dark but was never black. I never tested though. I used pyb 5w-20/30. The OO used pyb in 5w-30, ounce a year.
I miss her still. It walked away from cabin, people.


Harvey

P.S. been thinking propane in a project geo in barn. Just mount used forktruck carb system.
 
We too used to run propane/dual fuel vehicles. 75, 92 Dodge 150 and a 85 D250 8 passenger van. The trucks were dual and the van came with the factory propane only system. This was back years ago living in BC, where the climate was somewhat milder....

Admittedly I cannot recall what the change interval we used on the riot van was. I recall the oil always looking honey brown, the van never burnt any. [censored] I cant even remember changing it....

We decommissioned her in 2006 with over 280,000km on the odo. we ran larger tires on it for its life so the speedo was off 10% so no telling what the true mileage was. It did eat the valve seats and a valve or two began to stick near the end of its life.

I still have respect for a properly set up propane vehicle. Too bad the price of auto propane and the conversion cost killed it for us. Gone are the days of 17cents a liter.
 
Last time I ran by a Coop they were advertising it for about 75 cents/liter. Now that was maybe a year ago. Way overpriced!
 
I should check the independent here and compare to the Co-op. They used to be close, back when I drove cab, but in the intervening years, a huge margin spanned between them. The independent was over 15 cents per litre cheaper last time I checked. The Co-op annoys me with gas pricing, too. They're the last to lower their price and the first to raise it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top