I have 7500 Km on the oil in my 2002 2500 Dodge Cummins 4x4. It has been in there since Oct 25/05. It went all winter (temps down to -35*) on this oil. I wheeled the truck into the garage today to change the oil, and pulled the dipstick. The oil still looks fairly "clean". I can still read the printing on the dipstick through it. The oil is 0w40 synthetic D-Mo Oil made locally. It is Cummins 20078 certified, and is/was CH-4 or maybe even CI-4 (good oil anyway). I shut the hood, and figured I'd post the question here and see what you guys think.
In the manual, they recommend 6000 Km for the severe duty OCI, and 12,000 Km for the light duty OCI. The only thing I meet in the severe duty cycle is that some of my trips are fairly short (around 6-8 miles to work).
I plan to do some towing this next weekend, and plan to change it over to 15w40 dino when I dump it. I did a UOA with this 15w40 oil last fall, and it came out really good/clean. Wear metals were 8 ppm, that oil went 6500 Km, but I towed about 900 Km of that, and the cold weather was quickly approaching, so I switched over to the more expensive 0w40.
So, should I change it or leave it a few more weeks (about another 1200 Km)? It's mainly the clean appearance that has me wondering. I read so many posts about guys with diesels saying their oil is black as coal as soon as they change it. My 6.2L GM diesel was like that, this Cummins isn't. The Cummins does not have an EGR, and has 50,000 miles on it now. Truck has good quality oil filter on it, but no special bypass filter or anything like that.
I have a long trip planned in a month or two, then it will be changed for sure.
In the manual, they recommend 6000 Km for the severe duty OCI, and 12,000 Km for the light duty OCI. The only thing I meet in the severe duty cycle is that some of my trips are fairly short (around 6-8 miles to work).
I plan to do some towing this next weekend, and plan to change it over to 15w40 dino when I dump it. I did a UOA with this 15w40 oil last fall, and it came out really good/clean. Wear metals were 8 ppm, that oil went 6500 Km, but I towed about 900 Km of that, and the cold weather was quickly approaching, so I switched over to the more expensive 0w40.
So, should I change it or leave it a few more weeks (about another 1200 Km)? It's mainly the clean appearance that has me wondering. I read so many posts about guys with diesels saying their oil is black as coal as soon as they change it. My 6.2L GM diesel was like that, this Cummins isn't. The Cummins does not have an EGR, and has 50,000 miles on it now. Truck has good quality oil filter on it, but no special bypass filter or anything like that.
I have a long trip planned in a month or two, then it will be changed for sure.
