ISX 550HP Cummins

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Flatbed 80,000 lbs a load.
2500 hundred miles a week and 2 gallons of Rotela a week.
No oil leaks and not excessive blow by.
No signs of oil burning out the stack.
Oil Pressure good

Oil change.......
Because the old head driver begged me to went to Delo 400 and added a Gallon of Lucus oil syrup which I have never used before.

Now truck uses 2 quarts in 2500 miles which is most acceptable.
Truck has about 800,000 miles so I'm thinking valve guides maybe. Not going to go into it now. It runs to good to do that.
What does the board think?
I have heard complaints in the past about Rotella and high oil usage but I cannot find anything on the web about it anywhere. These complainers were not on a board of any kind.
 
2 gallons a week at 2500 miles seems a bit much based on my experience. The ISX powered trucks at my work only use a couple gallons through an entire 30,000km OCI. We gross 136,000lbs each load. The owner buys Castrol Hyperion semi-syn 15w40 in bulk delivered to the shop.
 
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I'd rater add 4gal/week of Rotella than mess with a modern day DEF injected, check engine light special like the FreightShakers we have at work.

More power to ya n5!
 
2007
No DEF

It's a distinct possibility that the 2 gallons of Rotella oil are not going into my tuck to begin with but I'm assuming for now that it is being used in my truck.

It's in a 387 Pete
 
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I work for a commercial truck leasing company and we use the Rotela-T exclusively. Most of our fleet is running Volvo D-13 / Mack MP8 but we have a fair amount of Cummins ISX 500hp/13-Speed & ISX 450hp/10-Speed powered Volvos. We have had zero issues with out of the norm oil consumption on any of the engines with the Rotela-T.

Only issues with the ISX have been false low oil pressure readings causing the engines to de-rate and shut down. This has been due to Donaldson oil filter issues. They clog and cave in on the ISX. We also have issues with the crankcase breather filters that seem to get dirty easy and wind up clogged on the pre-DEF ISX models. These are the 2008 through 2010 model engines that only have the DPF.
 
Could be a turbo problem burning the oil. ISX has issues with the variable geometry turbo, check the charge air pipe for excessive oil.
 
Originally Posted By: n5ifi
2007
No DEF

It's a distinct possibility that the 2 gallons of Rotella oil are not going into my tuck to begin with but I'm assuming for now that it is being used in my truck.

It's in a 387 Pete


I take that to mean, someone else is doing the actual oil checking/topping, and 2 gallons a week were going.......Somewhere. It seems like maybe some shrinkage control may be in order.......More so than lucas motor syrup.
 
I have checked the breather tube. It's open. There is a little bit of oil where tube goes into the motor but nothing major.
 
2 gallons added between OCI's was a stretch for my Cummins ISX that had 968,000 on it when I sold it. Using Mystik JT-8 15w40. My previous Cummins N-14 used 1 gallon in 8000 miles at 1.4 million on the engine, using Kendall 15w40. My Detroit 60 12.7 I have now uses 1/2 gallon in 25,000 miles and it uses Schaeffer 7000 15w40.

As was stated, the VG turbo on the ISX can really slobber the oil. I replaced the VG turbo on my ISX at around 900,000 when it started slobbering too much. Need to check. It can lose oil out the exhaust or send it to the CAC. That latter is a very bad thing.
 
The good old days a 318 Detroit 2 cycle would Use a gallon on a turn around from San Francisco to Los Angeles Calif approx 800 miles . The Cummins Would get 3,000 miles per gallon towards the end of the oil change.
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
The good old days a 318 Detroit 2 cycle would Use a gallon on a turn around from San Francisco to Los Angeles Calif approx 800 miles . The Cummins Would get 3,000 miles per gallon towards the end of the oil change.


smile.gif
 
Seems like most of the Ford diesel boards I'm on guys swear up and down that Rotella burns off faster than anything else.

That's not been the case though with my truck. I tried delo once though about 2 years ago and my oil consumption more than doubled.
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
The good old days a 318 Detroit 2 cycle would Use a gallon on a turn around from San Francisco to Los Angeles Calif approx 800 miles . The Cummins Would get 3,000 miles per gallon towards the end of the oil change.
ha! That was leaking it though!
 
I had a Cummins N14 425hp (believe or not) that did not use any oil between oil changes. I never had a diesel of any kind do that and I've had a lot of different types of diesel motors in my time.
I ran Rotella in it and changed the oil at 12000 miles.
 
May have seen that myself somewhere.
I have a 99 7.3 that has virtually no blow by and it uses about 2 or 3 quarts between oil changes running Rotella. I may try a different oil in it next time I change it to see if it stops.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: CT8
The good old days a 318 Detroit 2 cycle would Use a gallon on a turn around from San Francisco to Los Angeles Calif approx 800 miles . The Cummins Would get 3,000 miles per gallon towards the end of the oil change.
ha! That was leaking it though!
Lol ya, they sure did leak oil! The engines never got rusty on the outside due to all the oil leaks. Poor gasket quality I think was the issue with them. Tough engines those old Detroits were, run them wide open all day in the quarry in the rock trucks and they just keep on going.
 
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The Delo 400 is excellent oil. Sometimes the different chemistry of a different oil causes a short term oil consumption issue. Use either Delo or Rotella and watch the level.

Tell that guy to keep the Lucas stuff for his waffles.
 
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