low ash oil

I have always used the official IH 30 oil in my Super C - but it"s real expensive. They say it"s "low ash" and thus required. Can"t I just use a current good quality 30 weight oil, as in Exxon XD 30, at about half the price?
Thanks

I've often wondered about this too..I've gotta believe the latest API-SM service oils (basically name brand engine oils from an auto-parts store) are light-years ahead of what the engines were originally designed to run on.

One issue, though is the amount of oil consumption...thru valve stems and past oil-control rings on the pistons. These engines are also "looser" in that respect than a modern vehicle engine IMHO. My belief is that the "low ash" feature has to do with what happens to the oil when it is burned in the combustion chamber.

Although there are also sensitive components in modern engines (O2 sensors, EGR valves, PCV systems, cat converters) that can't afford to be "poisoned" by a reasonable amount of oil consumption (and thus oil-combustion) either.

So..the mystery continues...

Yea the price of low ash has gone way up . The low ash oil was made for the I H gas engines to stop the exhaust valves from burning . And it is a MUST use in the later I H gassers or you will plum EAT exhaust valves . Now if you look around and get with a local petroleum dealer and take along a can of the I H low ash maybe he can come up with a oil that has the low ash along with the Zink that they are now taking out of oil and the Zink is needed for the cam and lifters in older gas engines with flat tappet cam's . So this is one other thing that needs addressed when looking for and oil . Now a lot of guys say that they just run any old 10W30 , hey it's there engine and there money as for me i have played the game and paid the price and now run what the book calls for BUT will not run a non Detergent in anything.

CliffordPaul writes:
> The low ash oil was made for the I H gas engines
> to stop the exhaust valves from burning . And it
> is a MUST use in the later I H gassers or you
> will plum EAT exhaust valves .

How late is "late"? I've put several thousand hours on my IH544 and not burned a valve yet using ordinary multiweight detergent oil.

most of the manafactures of lub products have a 1-800 number on the can. I have got some pretty good advise there

Yes, and I have burned valves in a few hundred hours in a recently overhauled H in the 50's that was pulling a full load, and I do mean full. Happened again 2 or 3 years later. I don't think low ash oil had been invented at that time. I imagine if you are not overloading it, or better if you are at something less than full load, it won't make much difference. My point is that burned vavles are nothing new, and it depends on how the tractor is used. With relatively light to moderate loads, along with occasionally full loads, I imagine they will run for years.

I have conventional plowed, disced, dragged and planted the same 40 acres since 1971 with JDA's and Farmall H's. I used the cheapest staight 30wt oil I could find. I never burnt a valve or rings, in fact I have never had to take a head off a tractor. They run smooth and do not burn oil.
I do not set the fuel too lean which is d*mned important.
I now have had 2 IH300U's for 10 years used for brush chopping and snowplowing and forklift. I run the cheapest 30wt. oil I can find and they both run excellant with great compression.
You can listen to all the hogwash theories you want on oils but I'm sticking to the way that's worked for me for 35+ years.
Dell

HEy like i said you run what you want . As for how late is later like about when they bbrought out the 460-560 on up . Now i suppose that you are a lets play on the weekend farmer and really do not work your tractor and you probably run reg gas in it alos and that is a nother NO NO even on a 544 gasser . And your going to tell ME that i get along just fine with it then go wright ahead and keep doing what your doing . I am just the one that spent years fixen tractors and not on here asken the questions as to why my tractor did this or that or why my tractor won't start. A lot of what i learned came the hard way . Take your 544 out put a set of 3X16 behind it load the tire and hang three and a half sets of weights on her plus 6-700 lbs on the nose And go plow in some hard ground and work her or grind a batch of feed with it and then tell me how any old oil works for ya . When that tractor was built they had multi grade oil out back then BUT why did they tell you to use a straight weight oil in the owners manual and why did they tell ya to us low ash , maybe that the boys that designed it knew a little more about it then you did.

What you are looking for is .5% ash, that is what is in IH low ash oil. Most oils will be 1% or greater. IH no 1 for example is 1.45% ash.

I always though you used a low ash oil in natural gas and propane engines. In the oldfield they use it in all the nat gas compressor engines. The natural gas makes it own ash. Noel

The Mobil1 ESP listed is 0.6 percent.
With all the new particulate filter diesels coming on the marke, LOW ASH may be getting easier to find soon.
MB sheet 229.31 approved oils; LA "low ash" Oils
Mercedes pioneered this new spec for passenger cars with diesel engines with exhaust particulate filters, e.g. W211 E200 CDI, E220 CDI. The spec was introduced 7/2003. They are called LA "low ash" or "low SAPS" oils, low on sulfated ash, phosphorus and sulphur to limit exhaust particulate filter pollution. In 2004 the ACEA introduced the new C3 spec (mid SAPS, normal viscosity) based on it. Change intervals extend to 15,000 km.

30
Aral Tronic 229.31 5W-30
BP Visco 5000 MB 5W-30
Castrol FORMULA SLX Turbo Diesel 0W-30
Castrol TXT Softec MB 5W-30

Liqui Moly TopTec 7000 LA
Low SPAsh Motorenol 5W-30 (Daimler)
Midland Synqron 5W-30
Mobil SHC Formula LA 5W-30
Mobil 1 ESP Formula 5W-30 (from 3/2005)
Q8 Formula Special 5W-30
Pento High Performance 5W-30 LA
Shell Helix Diesel Ultra AE 5W-30
Shell Helix Ultra AE 5W-30
Wintershall ViVA 1 topsynth alpha LA 5W-30
Valvoline SynPower MST 5W-30

40
Aral SuperTronic 0W-40 LOW SAPS (ACEA C3)
Castrol GTD Magnatec 5W-40

Liqui Moly TOP TEC 4100 5W-40
Midland Synqron 5W-40
Motor Gold Mid SAPS 5W-40
Motul SAE 5W-40 Vollsynthetisch
Pento High Performance 5W-40 LA
Valvoline SynPower MST 5W-40

We use 15w-40 diesel rated oil in everything from the C, H's, A, W-9, 544, up through the 4450 JD. Never have had a problem.