So this is my first diesel ever. I have always changed the oil in my gas vehicles at 1000 miles, again at 3000 miles and then every 3000 miles there after. Someone told me that the new diesel engine may have some sort of break-in oil in it that would require me to leave the factory oil in if for much longer than 1000 miles. Has anyone ever heard of this? My new truck has 750 miles on it and I have to go on a 400 mile trip tomorrow. I was going to change it tonight before my trip but I don't want to do something that could potentially alter the break-in of the engine.

Also, i see most folks use Shell Rotella 15w40 oil. It was out of stock at my local parts store so I purchased Valvoline 15w40 CJ-4 oil. Is there any reason I shouldn't use Valvoline?

Tony

I used Valvo for years. Great stuff. Just as good as Rotella or others. People on here use every different brand out there and none have reported any failures from their oil(s).

I am a synthetic fan myself. I always ran Mobil-1 10/30 in my last dually (454). I went with DelVac-1 (Mobil-1) 5/40 CJ-4 in this one.

For break-in, I bought a case of gallons (6) of DELO400 LE (CJ-4) from Costco. I changed at 1000, 3000, and then at 6000 went to DelVac-1 synthetic.

I am at 8800 now and starting to see some more mileage increase. It will be on syn from here on out.

It would be fine to change it now. It would also be fine to change it after the trip. If the trip will include any loading (trailer, camper, whatever) I would probably change it before going.

Lots of peeps on here went to syn within-or right at- 1000 miles. Won't hurt a thing to change the oil. Syn or not is up to you. They are all good oils, so run what you will be happy with.

No preference on oil as long as it is CJ-4 compliant. Many here say do a 500mile change. After that it is up to you. Dealers say you can go by the Oil Life left info from the DIC if you have the DIC. If not most of my change interval says about 10,000 before change based on info from the OnStar report. I perfer 7000 to 8000 and get the oil and filter, fuel filter, Allsion spin on filter, and rotate tires all at the same time. Fuel filter say about 15000 miles but first one lasted 12,000 before noticing acceleration issues. You can get the filters needed here from some of the vendors pretty cheap. I get about 3 or 4 at a time of each.

If you don't have the DIC option you can get a module that plugs in a spot on the SLT and get the DIC features for about $100 some bucks. Can be found on gm web site. Have to search here for the web site using the search tool.

Brian

Yeah, I have decided to go by the DIC on mine. I figure the truck is smarter than I am, so it will tell me when it's good to go. Especially since it's synthetic and the DIC is set up for ground oil.

Thanks all for the info. I won't make the oil change before the trip now (as usual stuff came up...) but right after I plan to change the oil. The truck should be around 1150 miles. Except for about 10 miles pulling a 3000lb or so trailer the truck has had very light work.

I do plan to go with synthetic at some point. I will probably wait until at least 12,000 miles on this motor though. I put synthetic in a new motor once and it used oil at roughly 1 quart every 1500 miles the entire time I owned. it. Blue Oval dealer said that was acceptable... Synthetic use at the first oil change could just be a coincidence, but this truck is a keeper and I don't want to take any chances.

Thanks again for the info.
Tony