Importance of oil filter with extending oil change intervals

We are hearing a lot lately that trucking companies are going to longer oil change intervals in order to save money. We have been asked if the oil we sell will perform at these longer mileage intervals. Actually our oil should be of least concern in this plan, the most important factor is the oil filter you are using. If the oil filter plugs due to the soot from combustion in your engine or the pleats lay down because of the construction of a cheap filter, the oil will bypass the filter and the carbon in the oil will begin to wear away at the bearings and crank journals. If you are changing the oil at 35,000 miles as some are doing and your filter is plugging at say 25,000 miles you are subjecting the engine to wear for 10,000 miles at every pm service. Then when a bearing failure occurs you will most probably believe the oil or the bearing is at fault. To avoid arguments, expensive repairs and downtime I would like to suggest that you consider using a quality oil filter to begin with and cut it open to determine the condition at various mileage intervals as you go along. Maybe replace the filter midway thru the oil change if it is more cost effective compared to the engine manufacturers filter. Also of importance are your maintenance records, if you somehow miss an oil change you could be running 70,000 miles without realizing it. Just some thoughts on the matter of extended oil change intervals for your consideration.

These thoughts brought to you courtesy of Hollon Oil Company. We want to be your maintenance partner.

Radiator Caps

When performing maintenance on your truck be sure to test the performance of the radiator cap. If the cap will not hold the correct pressure on the cooling system the coolant will boil at 212 degrees when the engine is under load. Since the manufacturers have engineered the engines to operate close to this temperature to improve fuel economy it doesn't take much to push the temperature past the boiling point. When the coolant boils the dca protecting the engine from coolant bubbles is destroyed and turns to a brown rusty residue. With the protection provided by the dca diminished, the liners are susceptible to pitting which leads to very expensive engine damage.

This important maintenance tip comes to you free from Hollon Oil Company. We want to be your oil supplier.

Help for customer with engine troubles

Customer Problem

I have a question I hope you can help me out with. I have a driver who is in a peterbuilt 387, the mileage is roughly about 485,000 miles. The driver is telling me while he was driving the truck; the truck shut off for about 1 or 2 seconds then turn right back on. Prior to this, the truck was running a at a normal temp of 180-190. The truck is now running at 200--210 temp. The driver now feels he has lost some pulling power and feels it is driving a different than what it was before. Can you tell me what I might look for or need to do to try to diagnose this problem? I hope I have provided you with enough information. If not please let me know.


Gary's Reply

The normal temp on the cat is 200 to 205, any lower and it affects the fuel mileage . There should be a code recorded in the ECM for the momentary cut out . Tell him if it does it again to see if all the gages fall back to zero at the same time. Also if he toggles the cruise control switch back and forth when it happens it will take a snapshot of the event.
Let me know if this helps .
Gary

Importance of Dipstick Calibration

I was reminded while visiting a customer of an important maintenance practice. He commented that that one of his trucks with low miles uses a lot of oil. I asked if he had calibrated the dipstick as the operators manual suggests. He didn't know anything about it so I thought I would pass this along. If the mark on the dipstick is high, too much oil will be put in the engine at oil changes. The excess oil is picked up by the crank and thrown on the cyl walls and the rings will not be able to wipe it off sufficiently. This causes the oil to burn off and the level to go down which in turn causes the operator to add more oil to bring it back up to the mark. Then the process starts over again and a lot of oil is wasted. Also on later engines with PDF filters the ash from the oil will be causing a restriction in the exhaust and cause the fuel mileage to decrease.Any comments or questions, just post them and I'll get back to you. Thanks, gary

Hollon Oil

Thanks Steve, I am excited about being a part of Hollon Oil Co. and your team of oil professionals. I look forward to meeting my friends and customers in the trucking industry again. I knew of Hollon Oil Co., but had no idea of the depth of professionalism and just plain old desire to personally attend to their customer needs. I am very proud to be associated with such an organization, thanks for welcoming me aboard. Gary Bryant