Oil question for the farmers on the forum

onefarmer · Mar 14, 2013

Both side of the family always used a straight 30W oil in our tractors in the summer and my uncle would run 10W in the winter since he wanted to tractor to start easier and he didn't work them hard. My dad would run 15w-40 in the winter.

Question: What oil do you use in the summer and What oil for winter?

rrlund · Mar 14, 2013

I'm just running Kendall SuperD 15-40 year round in everything.

Bob Bancroft · Mar 14, 2013

I have 15-40 in a barrel that gets used in everything on the farm(gas/diesel/small engine/etc.) except the car and pickup which call for 5-30.

Jeremy McNary · Mar 14, 2013

I run 15-40 in our tractors here in SD year round. My case 2294 has almost 13000 hours on it and the engine has never had anything done to it. Regardless of what weight oil you use the most important thing is making sure it gets changed on a regular basis.

RGMartin · Mar 14, 2013

(quoted from post at 10:26:54 03/14/13) I run 15-40 in our tractors here in SD year round. My case 2294 has almost 13000 hours on it and the engine has never had anything done to it. Regardless of what weight oil you use the most important thing is making sure it gets changed on a regular basis.

If for no other reason than preventative maintenance, it should have had a couple sets of rod bearings by now. You might want to think about that before you ruin your engine over $60 worth of parts and an afternoon of work.

DeltaRed · Mar 14, 2013

15/40 in everything.All year ,for 35 years...Changed every 100 hrs,or annually wich ever comes first.

farmer boy · Mar 14, 2013

Normally use Rotella 15w-40 all year around. I've thought about using something lighter in the winter such as 5w-40, but never have.

JayinNY · Mar 14, 2013

15-40 in the diesel tractors and diesel truck, guy told to use straight 30 weight non detergent in my farmall H for whatever reason. ?? 10-30 in the gas cars, trucks, lawnmowers ect. Then that special oil for the ATV transmission.

Leroy · Mar 14, 2013

No common sence reason for using straight 30 non detergent in a Farmall H. The 41 H was bought in 49 and first years use that oil in summer and 10 weight in winter, but that was before the multi weight oils, as soon as they were avaible it went to the 10-30 detergent that was used in everything else, when 10-40 became avaible that is what it went to and that is all I use now. Never seen a reason for paying the extra high price for a 15-40 oil. No diesels tho.

onefarmer · Mar 14, 2013

There is no way I'd use a non-detergent in an engine these days. Maybe a gearbox.

El Toro · Mar 14, 2013

I run straight 30 wt oil in my garden tractor and if it gets too cold in the Winter I use a dipstick heater. It's 42 years old and has never been rebuilt. I just used it this past Monday to plow the garden. It was below freezing here in MD the past 2 mornings. Hal
PS: I run 10w40 in the cars and one is a 1981 Mercury Cougar. I have a 27hp Kohler 14k generator and they recommend 5w30 synthetic oil in it. It's programmed to start once a week and runs for 20 minutes. When we lost power during that storm Sandy that hit the east coast in late Oct the generator started and ran 26 hours. It didn't use any oil. I did shut it down after about 12 hours use to check the oil level.

David G · Mar 14, 2013

I run 15W-40 in everything.

Part Time Pete · Mar 14, 2013

I run 15-40 Rotella in everything year round, exept one gas tractor that I have to start every day for feeding round bales. I put 10-30 synthetic in it this year, and it seems to start alot easier. Not sure if it will find some oil leaks for me though.

Dick2 · Mar 14, 2013

Toyota says 5W-20 year-around in their engines. My Dad was always a believer in using detergent light oil the year around. He blamed some engine problems on previous owners using too heavy viscosity oil and non-detergent oil.

Dalex · Mar 14, 2013

And air compressors .You don't want the dirt to stay in suspension in them.

mkirsch · Mar 14, 2013

The deal with using non-detergent oil in an old H is because you don't know what was used in it before.

The fear is that the engine is full of sludge and the detergent oil will loosen up the sludge and cause it to clog up oil passages. This will starve the engine of oil and ruin it.

Chances of that happening are SLIM. Non-detergent oils are not common and haven't been common in decades. Odds are good your old tractor has probably been using detergent oil for the past 20-50 years and didn't even know it.

Before the Internet people didn't have anywhere to ask, so they just went ahead and did what they thought was right. The tractor is still around.

Even if somehow the tractor managed to sneak through with nothing but non-detergent oil, for what little we use them these days the detergent isn't going to hurt anything. Maybe if you used it 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week it might eventually loosen up something nasty, but for puttering around the yard... Nah.

Gambles · Mar 14, 2013

15W-40 for all tractor gas and diesel engines. 30W oil that still has the ZDDP additives in it for the lawn mower. (Remember, a lot of 30W oil has had the good additives taken out and not all of it is acceptable for a lawn mower) 5W-20 for the car because that is what Ford is now recommending, although I'll use 10W-30 in some of the higher mileage cars. A lot of people do it and get by with it, but 15W-40 is a no-no is newer gasoline engines.

Ted in NE-OH · Mar 14, 2013

I use 10W-30 in all my gas tractors.

Gambles · Mar 14, 2013

While we are on the subject, I've got a buddy that has been in the oil business for over 30 years. He (supposedly) knows his motor oil inside and out. A couple of years ago, he overhauled his John Deere B. He had the entire engine apart, put in a lot of new parts and he did it right. I asked him what oil he used and he told me non-detergent 30W. What??!!! Yep, he put in non-detergent 30W because it was good enough to make the original engine last 60+ years, so it was good enough now.
I did a mental face-palm but I said nothing else except "okay" and told myself that he did NOT do it right.

JayinNY · Mar 14, 2013

Ya I thought that dident make sense. from now on I'm just gonna use 10-30 in it, tractor dosent get used much, so I only changed the oil in it once since I bought it.

the tractor vet · Mar 14, 2013

We run a 30 weight in the tractors year round . The diesels get Case I H #1 Diesel oil in 30 weight and the gas tractors get Case I H Low ash 30 weight year round . My Dodge Cummins gets 15-40 Delo and the Durango gets Casteoil in 10-30 .

Fordfarmer · Mar 14, 2013

15W40 in everything, year-round, in n/w WI.
edit: 15W40 in everything that I change the oil... Cars and pickup get 5w20 or some such - whatever it is that Ford recommends.

hd6gtom · Mar 14, 2013

15W40 in all diesel, gas tractors and HD pickups. 10W30 in the Dodge Caravans and Chev cars and light duty pickups. 10W30 in the gas powered skid loader, straight 30 in the air cooled 4 cycle engines in the summer.

jm. · Mar 14, 2013

15W 40 Shell in 27 pieces and 5W20 Mobil s in two late model FORD car & truck 10w30 Kubota in the Kubota equipment.

36 Coupe · Mar 14, 2013

15/40 Rotella has a cold pour point like 30 weight oil.

souNdguy · Mar 14, 2013

in in florida.. but I pretty much use 15w40 in all my gas and diesel tractors, with very few exceptions. 1 gasser I did some top end work to has synthetic 10w30 in it.. and my truck has 5w40 syn in it

DoubleR · Mar 14, 2013

15-40 year round in three diesel tractors.
5-30 in my old gas tractor that I don't work hard.
5-30 synthetic in my gas car and HD gas pickup.
I live in mid Michigan and it does get cold.
I use two of the diesels during the winter. My daily user just has a preheater and has started at -15 degrees with no problem. The other has a preheater but I plug it in for an hour or do before I start it in the cold.

flying belgian · Mar 14, 2013

Straight #30 year around in all the diesels. Only run one in the winter and that is kept in 40 degree shop.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 14, 2013

15-40 in every thing that has oil in it year around from the lawn tractor to the 6 yard wheel loader about 25 engines and we get weather to -30

Texasmark1 · Mar 15, 2013

Rot T 5W-40 syn in the newer cummins/Branson tractor, 15w-40 Rot in the rest of the diesels. 10w-30 syn, viscosity as recommended in the gas lawnmowers. 0W-30 Mobil 1 in the GM p/u.

I change oil in everything once a year whether it needs it or not and the syn stays put and pretty clear as compared to paraffin oils allowing me to do this.

Mark

Oil question for the farmers on the forum

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