Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/634023
February 2016 | EquipmentWorld.com 36 GO CHEAP ON THE OIL "Everybody I've talked to says you need to use a quality oil," LeFran- cois says. "You can't start with cheap oil." While the goal of extending oil drains is to save money, the oil must still be robust enough to go the distance and protect your engines. Inexpensive oils generally have less robust base oil and additive packages, and these are what protect the en- gine from wear. That being said, the most ex- pensive oil may not be the right solution either, says Jami Mel- ani, fi eld engineering/technical services manager for Castrol. "The key is that whatever oil you buy, you want to get the most useful life out of it," Melani says. "Full synthetic oil is expensive, and our experience is that a semi-synthetic provides excellent protection and extended drain capability." Financially, it is counterproduc- tive to use the most expensive oil if a lower cost product will do the job. Many of the full synthetic oils are designed for over-the-road trucking, where their low viscosity formulas can improve fuel econo- my by 1 or 2 percent. However, in off-road equipment fl eets, the vis- cosity/fuel effi ciency advantages have not become a concern yet. Some heavy equipment contrac- tors, however, will use full syn- thetics in extremely cold climates where higher viscosities may make equipment hard to start. SOLUTON: Consult with your lube oil supplier for recommendations, and ask him if other contractors have had good results with extended drains on semi-synthetics or other less expensive formulas. You may also want to run a test trial on just one machine to see how far you can push a medium priced oil before wear metals show up or the oil starts to degrade. IGNORE NEW ENGINE TECHNOLOGY Don't assume that because you have two machines of the same brand, size and engine that they will perform the same in an extended oil drain environment. If the age of these two machines varies – sometimes as little as just a few months – they may have different injectors, different horse- power and torque bands, and radi- cally different emissions controls. These can alter the results you get back from your oil samples. "At one point, when I was work- ing with Cat 3406 engines, we could cover most of the applica- tions with about three different injectors," says Melani. "Today, you have to have a specifi c injector for almost each horsepower class for that engine." Some manufacturers also use different alloys and materials in their engine blocks, says Melani. "Components in the engine block will leach out into the oil and give you a bunch of false positives. You may think its coming from error or something else, but it's actually leaching out of the block." This does not hurt the engine or the oil, but it does create what Melani calls "noise," or false positives in the oil samples early in the engine's life. Soot can be a factor, and is often the fi rst element to condemn an oil, says LeFrancois. "Soot is worse than it used to be, and you can't trap soot in a fi lter because it's a half-micron in size," he says. Once soot reaches the saturation point, the oil becomes thicker and harder to pump through the engine. Soot levels increased dramatically in Tier 3 and Tier 4 Interim engines when manufacturers increased ex- haust gas recirculation (EGR) rates. The newest engines using selective catalytic reduction (SCR) tech- nology have lower rates of soot formation, but soot levels still vary widely depending on the manufac- turer and idle rates. Tier 4 Final engines also tend to run hotter than their predecessors, and that may shorten the life of your oil as well, says Corey Taylor, senior development technologist for Castrol's global lubricants technol- ogy team. Different OEMs' engines will run at different temperatures. As a result, some fl eet managers are dialing back the hours between oil changes, he says. Heat increases oxidation in the oil, causing it to get thicker. "When you are extending drains, you don't want to come anywhere near 2 3 maintenance | continued The fi eld tech- nicians, fuelers and oilers are ground zero for the machines because they're touching the machine almost every night. " – Richard LeFrancois "