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View Poll Results: What oil would you use?
Valvoline 10W-30, got it this far. 4 14.29%
I'd change to Delo 15W-40 8 28.57%
I'd use synthetic and watch it leak 8 28.57%
I don't like any of the above, and here's what I suggest! 8 28.57%
Voters: 28. You may not vote on this poll

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  #16  
Old 12-05-2001, 10:58 AM
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fryerpowered:

How do you recycle the 40 gal of oil every year?

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  #17  
Old 12-05-2001, 10:58 AM
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Hi Benz lovers,

Use whatever oil you're comfortable with! Why? I use Redline 10-30 (cost $6.75/Qt) and change it IAW the "book" FSS, which has been averaging 11,500mi. Cost for oil is 6.5Qt times $6.75 or $43.88. Divide $43.88 by 11500 and the result is $.003815 or the cost per mile for oil. If I changed dino at 3000 miles (I know it's not recommended for my C230, but just a calculated basis.) Oil cost $1.30 per Qt, so $1.30 times 6.5 divided by 3000 is $.002817 per mile. The difference is $.001 per mile. Gas or Diesel runs $.06 per mile or more. The increased cost of synthetic is not particularly significant. Even if you changed synthetic at 3000 mile the cost per mile is only $.0146 and that's the equivalent of $1,460.00 per 100000 mile. This is with the most expensive synthetic I know of! Wow, what a bunch of number crunching! Roger
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  #18  
Old 12-05-2001, 01:11 PM
LarryBible
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Many oil additives functions are to keep the engine clean. I have seen engines that have come apart after their twilight miles were stretched awhile by using STP to cut oil usage and keep the oil pressure up. These engines are so gunked up inside they look like one from the sixties that had been running Amalie or Havoline, nothing but parafin inside.

Actually I can't remember ever knowing anyone who used STP as a preventive maintenance additive. I've only seen it used in a challenged engine to stretch it a little further.

There again though, if you're changing it often enough as you should, it should not cause any problems.

Have a great day,
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  #19  
Old 12-05-2001, 01:27 PM
fryerpowered
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recycled oil

I ususally take my oil to Crystal Flash and put it in the recycle pickup container.( I have to be there every day to pickup my papers anyways so it's not even out of my way. Occasionally I will give some to the Garage down the street ( to keep me on his good side in case I need to borrow a "specialty tool" or something)

I've thought about recycling it myself, but I'm too busy with making biodiesel and playing with different experiments on WVO conversions on different vehicles that I really don't have time for another project like that.

You thought I was going to tell you that I dumped in a gallon of used oil when I filled up my car didn't you!??!
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  #20  
Old 12-05-2001, 01:32 PM
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<<
You thought I was going to tell you that I dumped in a gallon of used oil when I filled up my car didn't you!??!
>>
I thought you were going to tell me you dump it into the diesel fuel tank and drive away.
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  #21  
Old 12-05-2001, 08:32 PM
fryerpowered
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well

The thought has crossed my mind, but the biodiesel makes for NO-SMOKE and if I put the used oil in I know it would leave a trail. We used to put used oil in the big trucks when we changed fluids. Five gallons of used oil into 150 gallons of fuel. The next day we would dump in the other 5 gallons into another 150 gallon tank of fuel. The trucks really made smoke on those days! They were bad enough seeings how we had them turned up as far as we could go. You know that little screw on the I/P that you "back out" on a 1406 Cat. to get more fuel? ( mechanical 425hp, not the stinking electronic newfangled POS) Well, we just took that little screw right on out and put in a "plug" to seal the hole.

Even though I dearly love the 425 Cat. It won't run with the big dogs that are out there today. The only place I had any advantage was "in-town" type of driving. When I was working in Grand Rapids there wasn't another truck on the crew that could keep up with the old Peterbuilt I was driving, it would only run about 90mph. flat out, but didn't need a lot of road to do it. It was a good "short haul" rig. I really liked the 60 Series Detroit for over the road...I hauled milk from Mi. to Ashville, N.C. for the last summer olympics when they were in GA. Nothin' like 470hp to pull grades , cruise control, climate control, good stereo, air ride and a double bunk! I tried to get one with a 13speed tranny , but they said it cost too much and it was too heavy. ( good grief it was only 190lbs heavier than the 10speed. Glad I didn't push for the 18!

There was some old drunk telling lies downtown one night about using rolls of toilet paper and "stages " of funnels to filter used oil. He tried telling me that when it came out the last time through it looked like brand new oil....hey , it was his story!:p
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  #22  
Old 12-05-2001, 09:40 PM
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Fryer:

That's how he got to be an old drunk, waiting for that first quart to trickle through!

Can-do:

Synthetic will indeed scrub up your engine internals -- the base fluid has considerable detergent power in it's chemical makeup. You will only run into trouble if the engine was run for extended milage on cheap oil -- any modern detergent oil will keep the engine pretty clean unless it is run until the detergent additive dies.

If you are concerened, pull the valve cover -- if there is any hard scale up there, it will float off and end up in the oil pump and filter. If there is only varnish, it will dissolve.

The only engines I've seen in the last few years with lots of sludge were one run with vacuum leaks (i.e. no air filtration) and/or run on non-detergent oil. I've heard of a few that never had the oil changed, just topped up -- had to punch a hole in the sludge to drain them! May be an exaggeration.

Leaks are a different story -- I personally haven't every had an appear, but I didn't use synthetic before I moved back from Canada -- all the cars I had leaked some, and I didn't see dumping expensive oil on the road. Some will leak more, some less with synthetic -- my 285,000 mile Chevy box van stopped using oil when I started adding Mobil 1 instead of Valvoline!

My presonal feeling is that if it doesn't leak now, changing to synthetic won't make it leak UNLESS you have bad o-rings in the oil recovery system sealed with varnish -- when the varnish is dissolved, they will leak, probably permanently. Gaskets won't usually leak (except the valve cover gasket, and that is easy to replace). Lip and rope seals won't, either.

You will get similar longevity with dino oil so long as you change it often.

Peter
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  #23  
Old 12-05-2001, 10:22 PM
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I voted for the Synthetic for a very simple reason (I've said this before)


I put Mobil One Synthetic because:
a) it says on the bottle it's good for Diesels and Turbocharged engines (good for my 82 300D-T on both counts)

b) if Mercedes Benz says a brand new S600 should get Mobil One synthetic then my 300D deserves Mobile One Synthetic.
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  #24  
Old 12-06-2001, 01:08 AM
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Don't let this turn into an oil war, PLEASE!

Greetings All, and Thanks for all the input,

I guess asking a simple question would depend on who you are, where you are, how you drive, where you drive, how long you drive etc.

My basis for asking this question in the first place wasn't to ruffle anyone's feathers about what they use in their Benz, that's a personal choice like toilet paper. I was just overly surprised that a Benz dealer endorsed Valvoline 10W-30 for use in a diesel. Any ideas on why this is? I have personally used Rotella initially in my 300TD but switched after the second oil change to Delo 400 because of I think what others on this post had mentioned about it's success. I can't say it was better or worse than Rotella, but I switched brands anyway. I figured if I was changing oil and filter every 3000 mile, or 2.5 months for me, it probably really didn't matter which oil I used as long as I kept the weight within the outside operating temp range and for added cleanliness I chose a multigrade to keep soot particles suspended to drain out the next time around. Any way I looked at it, one commute to work had the oil looking black as used oil.
Going into Winter with my first oil change on this car only weeks away, I wonder if using a 15W-40 will affect it's easy starting capability? I can't say I was ever convinced that a 5 or 10 weight ever achieved it's second weight such as 30 or 40 if your starting pour point was so low. Hard to imagine an oil changing it's viscosity when it gets hotter. I would be mainly concerned with a lack of lubrication where parts start making contact with excessive heat and start causing undue wear on internal engine parts. Hasn't anyone ever wondered about this? What would the engine wear be given the same ambiant temp year around running a 10W-30 verses a 15W-40 or for that matter a 5W-30 do the two 30 weight oils react the same ?
So you see where I am really heading with this thread. Less wear with the hightest weight oil I can get away with. As far as synthetic are concerned, what were the studies back in the '80's on these oils and weren't most gaskets that are still applicable to those year vehicles designed for dino oil useage?

Charles
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  #25  
Old 12-06-2001, 01:56 AM
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I have seen it before, where someone once asked why one dealer uses one brand and another uses something else. It all comes down to $$$$$. That dealer who mentioned, probably gets that brand and weight for less. Maybe that dealer doesn't see enough diesel business to warrant him stocking oil for them. I don't know all of Valvoline's available weights, but maybe Valvoline doesen't have a diesel rated oil. Possibly the dealer in question has a contract with Valvoline and is obligated to use their products. I use Valvolines Synpower 5W-40 full synthetic in my Passat. For my Benzes I am using Delo 15w-40. Per my owner's manuals for those cars, 15W-40 is good down to 23 degs. It does say though, that 10W-40 or 10W-50 are "year- round use multigrade oil" weights. These two weights are good for temps from -4 to 86+. Again, this is per the manuals for both diesels, 10W-30 is only good for temps. from -4 degs to 50 degs. So if that dealer says they only used 10W-30, year-round, then they are flat out wrong. Granted the engine could run on it, but we also can live off of bread and water, but what is best?
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  #26  
Old 12-06-2001, 02:17 AM
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BILL, BILL, BILL!!

Not 10W-30 but 10W-40 was used in Eduardo! 10-40, IMHO makes for the perfect year-round oil, at least in Ohio's climate.

I think maybe I used 10W-30 in Eduardo once or twice back when I first acquired him, but switched to 10-40 afterwards.

Anyhow, I use Agip Super 10W-40 in all of my cars except for the 380SE which gets synthetic. I made the mistake of switching it to synthetic when I put the new timing chain, rails and tensioner in at 110,000 miles, and now I have a leak at the right head and at the rear main. Now, the car doesn't get driven much, maybe 2,000 miles a year but it never leaked with synthetic. Sorry to those who think switching will not make an engine leak, but I believe it does. Besides, these engines were made to run on dino oil and if it's changed every 3,000 miles, you will not have any problems. Just stay away from Quaker Mistake! Anyhow, I've kept with the synthetic in the 380SE since I already switched, and change it every 3,000 miles (or once a year if the car doesn't cover 3K in that time). I formerly used Castrol GTX, but I found the Agip distributor is right near my workshop in Cleveland, and I'd been wanting to switch over to it, so I finally did! In fact, I stock my workshop with all Agip products. Good stuff. Hey, I figure if it's good enough to be factory fill for Ferrari and Lamborghini, it's good enough for Mercedes!
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  #27  
Old 12-06-2001, 07:24 AM
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Now that it's been mentioned, I use relatively cheap toilet paper. I figure the economic considerations at this stage of maintenance do not warrent premium-grade materials. I try to be more careful with the quality of the personal fuel input, sometimes using additives and on reasonable intervals using an alcohol-based injection cleaner.



Ken300D
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  #28  
Old 12-06-2001, 09:57 AM
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Are there any good heavy duty diesel rated oils for winter? I'm really skeptical about putting synthetic into my car because of the leaking possibility and the fact that I change my oil once a month. I'm also really skeptical about using a 15W40 oil in the winter but I've never seen a diesel rated lighter weight oil out there (I currently use Delvac 1300). What do you guys use in the winter? Do you suck it up and use oil not meant for diesels like Castrol GTX? Or, I thought about mixing 4 quarts of something like Castrol light weight oil with one gallon of the Delvac.

Or, does anyone use the 15W40 weight year round?

Thanks

Alex
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  #29  
Old 12-06-2001, 09:58 AM
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I also mix oils. I use four quarts of Rotella and four quarts of Mobil one with some Lucas oil stabilizer thrown in. Both the 82 300 SD with 280k miles and the 86 300 SDL with 240k both get oil changes at 5000 mile intervals. Neither car leaks a drop. I also run the same mix ratios in my Ford Navistar diesel, Ford tractor diesel and John Deere diesel. I've used this combination for years with good results.
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  #30  
Old 12-06-2001, 10:08 AM
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I plan to use the Shell Rotella 15W40 year round.

In extreme cold (like 5 degrees F or lower, if that even happens this year) I'm going to use the block heater.

Ken300D

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