Caterpillar C15

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Does anyone know the oil change interval for a 2006 caterpillar c15 engine? The truck probably falls under severe duty.High temperatures in the summer and -20 in the winter,lots of idling,hauls 110,000lbs full time,dusty roads.thanks.
 
Originally Posted By: skyactiv
Go by hours, 500 to be safe.


That probably a little conservative.

NO WAY TO REALLY know without an oil analysis sent in after 300-400 hours and every 100-200 hours after.
 
Is it an ACERT engine? And if so what version? (does it have the "spark plug" after the 2nd turbo?) If it is...500 hours is about as far as I would want to go...those things with the fancy valvetrain and 2 turbo's can be nightmares. If it's a good old style 6NZ then 500 in those conditions is likely OK. I'd do some sampling tho.
 
Back when I was in trucking we never had C15s but had Cummins N14 which was the equivalent.
We would change the oil every 250 hours but that was in severe conditions such as strip cuts and ash. My cousin has C15 Cats in trucks and he said they don't have hour meters and change every 10,000 miles.
My dad used to get oil samples done on the oil and I asked him are you really going to tear the motor down if you get a bad sample back, he said no.
I said then quit sampling the oil because they aren't either under warranty. So he did. Total waste in my opinion.
 
We put 10k on the next service stickers on c15s at work. Rule of thumb has always been 1k miles per gallon in my world.
 
See how easy it is to get back to 3K changes
laugh.gif
 
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
That would call for an oil change every 3000 miles on my cummins.


Quite a bit of difference between a baby diesel in a pickup compared to a 3000 lb 15L working engine in big truck. The Cat manual on the C15 calls for 25,000 miles / 500 hrs for normal service. For severe service, the manual suggests 250 hrs. It recommends oil sampling at these intervals also. For the OP's use, 250 hrs would be a good starting point and you could work your way up a little each time and do sampling to see when things start to show you have reached the maximum length you can go. Change and do a sample at 250 hrs, then next time do a change and sample at 300 hrs, etc until you reach the point where things look like it is deviating from the trend pattern. I have typically taken heavy diesel engines to 50% longer than the OEM recommended drain interval and still been well within any safety margins. And that is on regular CJ-4 conventional oils.

Far cry from the newer engines. Some of them at least 35,000 miles with a few in the 50,000 mile / 1250 hrs category for OEM recommended oil changes.
 
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