Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I have read that the secret to longlivity in a tdi is good service history and good quility engine oil, has anyone know or been told to try and not use shell oil in rover engines as it has to much detergent in it???. so what is the best 15/40 oil to use in the rover tdi???

Castrol Turbo max

Bazzle

Castrol

.....as it has to much detergent in it???.

thats a new one on me ! Heavy duty engine oils need a high amount of detergents/dispersant's, in the additive package, particularly full mineral oils, to keep the internals clean from all the soot generated by burning diesel.

Good mineral HDEO's are, in no particular order, Caltex Delo 400, Castrol RX Super, Fuchs Titan Ultralube, Mobil Delvac MX, Pennzoil LL (which is blended by Shell) and Shell Rimula.
Arguably the 'best' (horrible term as in reality there is no such thing, just best compromise) overall oil is Mobil's full synthetic, Delvac 1 5w-40. (although the Redline guys will argue, but $203 for a sump of oil is too rich for me)

I have talked to a bloke running Delvac 1 in a fleet of Detroit diesels. Their oil change interval is 100 000km, without a filter change.

"The Detroit Diesel valve/injector actuation gear is programmed for
adjustment at 200kkms. We no longer do it at all since using Delvac 1 as our
monitoring showed that these adjustments were no longer required.

As well, we have monitored the overall valve train wear and cam lobes and
this is now at almost zero. We are about to tear down and measure an engine
that has done 1m kms on Delvac 1 with only one valve train adjustment at
300kkms"

I've gone 20 000km on one sump of Delvac 1, (normally only 10-15 000km) and the oil tested fine, and the lab recommended to keep going on it, but i chickened and drained it.
It costs twice the price of most mineral diesel oils. ($181/20 litres)

I'm currently running Fuchs Titan Ultralube, as it delivered incredibly low wear metal numbers in our Patrol TD42T, just to compare it to Delvac 1.

Basically, any top shelf diesel oil will deliver good results. The other important factor is not so much the oil filter, but a bloody good air cleaner, and that means a paper one, and not a K & N. When I replaced my K & N with a Donaldson element, the silicon numbers, which usually indicate dirt, dropped appreciably, although the numbers weren't too bad with the K & N.

Rick.

RIck, where do you get your oil tested and how much does it cost you?

Australian Laboratory Services in Brisbane, Ben.

They can do any level of analysis, but they have a very basic service called e-monitor which costs $21.95.
A lot of the ag and heavy machinery crowds do their oil analysis through ALS using e-monitor, then a more thorough analysis if anything is flagged, particularly if you've already established a trend.

On the e-monitor package I get results back for Al, Cu, Cr, Fe, Pb, Sn, Si (which generally corresponds to dirt, except in new equipment or where RTV silcon has been used recently for gasketing where it skews it) Na (coolant), water, viscocity @ 100*C, Soot % PQ index (total Fe in sample, regardless of particle size) and Fuel %.
I was able to request/con a TBN once, but not since. I need to pay more for that.

One of the Aussies on the LRE board found his fuel dilution level at 5%.
As warranty was soon to run out he took it up with LRA/PAG. They really gave him the runaround, as no one there knew anything about oil testing ! but he was insistent, and ended up with a new cylinder head fitted. A common problem in the TD5 is that the casting is either porous or cracks as the the fuel rail is cast in the head.
Without the analysis, he would have eventually stuffed the engine.

Rick.

Thanks for the info Rick.