This is my work van, and it gets driven a lot. I put between 500 and 1k miles on it almost every week. We have some customers that are 100-150 miles one way, so its not uncommon for me to do 5-6 hours of driving to do 2-3 hours of work.
I run the thing pretty hard. I have a tune on it thats supposed to bring the stock 154HP engine up closer to 200HP. It also disables the EGR function.
Recently I bought a handbuilt Scangauge type device. Its a Arudrino Mega with a touchscreen and a couple of CAN bus interfaces. It shows me a lot of information on the health of the engine I wouldnt otherwise know.
What Ive discovered is that the oil temperature on this engine runs about 220-240F pretty much all the time Im on the road. I believe thats pan, and there is a OTW cooler after the cartridge oil filter so thats knocking it down somewhat. Hills or long periods of high load raise that temperature easily. Theres a real nasty hill I climb on occassion. 12% grade, about 5 miles long and posted 50mph. I always keep it in 3rd gear with engine load between 80-90% all the way up maintaining 55mph. When I crest the top of the hill, pan temperature is 260-265F.
With that in mind, Ive converted to the new Rotella T6 15W40 for improved HTHS and NOACK. So my next change will be with that.
I did have to add 2qts to the engine over the course of this change. Thats another cool feature of the Arduino, it reads the oil pan level and displays it in mm, so I always know when my engine oil is at, and when I need to add some top off.
Total run was 14,266 miles, and that was determined by the Mercedes ASSYST function. It starts at 10k miles remaining after a change, but usually ends up stretching it out farther, as that is I guess a worst case scenario.
Lab is OAI
Code
Iron 46
Chromium 4
Aluminium 9
Copper 1
Silicon 9
Sodium 15
Potassium 3
Boron 146
Magnesium 98
Calcium 2394
Phosphorus 1052
Zinc 1267
Fuel
Water
Soot 0.2% - E2412
cSt@100C 15.5
TBN 5.01
Oxidation 15 abs/cm
Nitration 9 abs/0.1mm
I run the thing pretty hard. I have a tune on it thats supposed to bring the stock 154HP engine up closer to 200HP. It also disables the EGR function.
Recently I bought a handbuilt Scangauge type device. Its a Arudrino Mega with a touchscreen and a couple of CAN bus interfaces. It shows me a lot of information on the health of the engine I wouldnt otherwise know.
What Ive discovered is that the oil temperature on this engine runs about 220-240F pretty much all the time Im on the road. I believe thats pan, and there is a OTW cooler after the cartridge oil filter so thats knocking it down somewhat. Hills or long periods of high load raise that temperature easily. Theres a real nasty hill I climb on occassion. 12% grade, about 5 miles long and posted 50mph. I always keep it in 3rd gear with engine load between 80-90% all the way up maintaining 55mph. When I crest the top of the hill, pan temperature is 260-265F.
With that in mind, Ive converted to the new Rotella T6 15W40 for improved HTHS and NOACK. So my next change will be with that.
I did have to add 2qts to the engine over the course of this change. Thats another cool feature of the Arduino, it reads the oil pan level and displays it in mm, so I always know when my engine oil is at, and when I need to add some top off.
Total run was 14,266 miles, and that was determined by the Mercedes ASSYST function. It starts at 10k miles remaining after a change, but usually ends up stretching it out farther, as that is I guess a worst case scenario.
Lab is OAI
Code
Iron 46
Chromium 4
Aluminium 9
Copper 1
Silicon 9
Sodium 15
Potassium 3
Boron 146
Magnesium 98
Calcium 2394
Phosphorus 1052
Zinc 1267
Fuel
Water
Soot 0.2% - E2412
cSt@100C 15.5
TBN 5.01
Oxidation 15 abs/cm
Nitration 9 abs/0.1mm
Last edited:
