Just changed my engine oil and filter at 700 miles. I put in Rotella 5W-40 synthetic oil. I live in the deep south with temps sometimes reaching 100. I know this oil is good for winter but is it too light for summer service. I don't tow much. I figure Rotella is pretty good, so I trust them, am I wrong?

Probably a mistake putting synthetic oil in at only 700 miles. Your engine is not broken in yet. You shouldnt break it in on synthetic oil. I plan on switching to it after 5000 miles.

Yea, I'm from the old school also, wait till the motor is broke in before adding synthetics. But the new Vette's and most high performance cars come from the factory with Mobile-1 already added.

I too would wait until you have a lot more miles, like maybe 10,000 before going to synthetic.

wait to 10,000 Miles


From the Royal Purple pages:


Royal Purple® recommends waiting until the manufacturer's first scheduled oil change or a minimum of 2,000 miles in new gasoline engines before using Royal Purple®. Allow 8,000 to 10,000 miles before use in diesel engines.


http://www.royalpurple.com/prodsa/rpmoa.html

And just what break in are you guys referring to? I hope you don't still think that we are running solid cast iron rings that have to seat into the cylinder walls before they will seal. The days of burning three quarts of oil in the first 2000 miles are long gone. Later! Frank

right on Frank!

The break in procedure is not the issue with me, is 5 weight oil to light to run in the summer? Or is it OK to run because its synthetic?

It works for me. Later! Frank

Lots of opinions on this one so I'll toss mine in too... http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif


As Frank said today’s new engines are “broken in” when we get them. I prefer to do several short interval oil changes with DINO oil to flush the engine of manufacturing debris before switching to the higher cost synthetic. On my Duramax (and recently my new ImpaIa) I did three 1000 mile changes with DELO 15W40 before switching to Synthetic (currently running DELVAC-1). It's also not necessary to change the filter during these short changes. You can use synthetic from day one as long as the oil meets the CI-4 (or CH-4) diesel oil spec.


Regarding the 5 in 5W40 ... The 5 is an indicator of the oils cold temp viscosity while the 40 is the oils viscosity at operating temps. So 5W40 and 15W40 should behave the relatively the same once they are warm. The best way to compare oils is to reference the data sheet…. Look for the VI – viscosity index. For much more detailed info on oils try www.bobistheoilguy.com (http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/) ….. those guys are REALLY into oil …


http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Geek.gif Edited by: jbplock

Thanks JBPLOck, you said what I really wanted to hear. I will sleep better tonight!

Excellent post jbplock. I like to clean mine out also with $6 a gallon oil. Later! Frank