Cold out, what oil are guys running in diesel trucks

white6

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what about the oil in your diffs? I assumed GM put 'winter rated' oils in there vehicles, but im wondering maybe not with my truck. It's from Salt Lake City UT.

After sitting outside in minus 30's for about a day and a half, let it run for about 30min and when i tried to leave the truck hardly wanted to move. I mean rpm's up to about 2700 to just start to coax it to roll. And it wouldnt go in reverse until i had driven it for fifteen minutes. It continued to require over 2200rpm to move until after that about 15min time period. I actually had 2 shift solenoids fail (triggered engine light), with a third one on the verge of coming in (code reader)

09 dmax
 

Oilboy

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ya i also have a 500watt oil pan heater, but it gets fa(kin hot so i dont use it unless its below -35
question for the guys with the silicone pad heater do yours get really hot?
mine gets to the point i think it could almost start a fire if there was any fuel/oil residue around, i layed under the truck for a while the first couple times i tested it just to make sure, it'll melt plastic and burnes fingers on contact found that out
 

sirkdev

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Cool idea, but what about when you're away from AC power somewhere?

I remember on one of our old farm trucks running a detroit (no idea what oil - sorry) , we had a block heater, pan heater, and a battery blanket all plugged in the night before we would haul grain. Started good but pretty sure the power meter was spinnin' good too! :D

Webasto or preheat is all you can do
 

sirkdev

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ya i also have a 500watt oil pan heater, but it gets fa(kin hot so i dont use it unless its below -35
question for the guys with the silicone pad heater do yours get really hot?
mine gets to the point i think it could almost start a fire if there was any fuel/oil residue around, i layed under the truck for a while the first couple times i tested it just to make sure, it'll melt plastic and burnes fingers on contact found that out

Mine is only 150w and that heats 14L of oil up smokin hot all the wolverine heaters have recommended sizes for volumes of fluid being heated
 

sirkdev

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what about the oil in your diffs? I assumed GM put 'winter rated' oils in there vehicles, but im wondering maybe not with my truck. It's from Salt Lake City UT.

After sitting outside in minus 30's for about a day and a half, let it run for about 30min and when i tried to leave the truck hardly wanted to move. I mean rpm's up to about 2700 to just start to coax it to roll. And it wouldnt go in reverse until i had driven it for fifteen minutes. It continued to require over 2200rpm to move until after that about 15min time period. I actually had 2 shift solenoids fail (triggered engine light), with a third one on the verge of coming in (code reader)

09 dmax
Quite likely that is a transmission issue if shift solenoids are failing something I do is shift to neutral for a minute or so before taking off in brutal cold gets everything rotating with little to no stress on components
 

grizzlydave

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I have run 5w40 rotella T synthetic for the last 3 years, My duramax starts great all the time. In the last 4 years i have never plugged it in. The Gm service manual say's that 5w40 synthetic is good to run all year.
 

mxz sledhead

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i run 0-40 esso in my Ford it is a little rich we also use it in all of our equipment and some of our machines have 41000 hrs and no oil burning with good oil eliminate one oil change a year so i actually save money
 

tasco

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I use shell rottela or Chevron synthetic 5-40 oil in all my diesels and gas pots. this way they start easier when it is cold and also since i am a litttle lazy in my oil changes I can be confident that it is not to critical because the oil does not d=break down as fast as fast as conventional oils.
 

05Cummins

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The Dmax applies the TQ conveter at idle a little to increase load on the engine to speed warmup No need to shift to nuetral.

But anytime you cant shift to reverse is a problem I would be looking into that further ASAP.

I run 0/40 year round in the cummins.

the Rocker barrels get to scratched up with the 15/40
 

pwdrhnd

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0-40 coop all year-round , 400,000km on my 97 cummins and no oil use on 10,000 km oil changes. The best thing I ever did was add a maintenance charger under the hood, wired into a plug with the block heater. The truck always starts good and saves needing battery blankets plugged in.
 

pistonbroke800

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Shell Rotella 5W40. Have about 900,000km on two Dmax's (total) that have ran it since new, never had trouble with either engine.
 
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