Yearly Oil Changes - Opinions

[Gale Hawkins]

I changed the oil last fall in the F-150 and it has not seen many miles but has been ran some in the driveway as I am converting all exterior lighting to LED.

I was going to drive it for about an hour yesterday so I checked the oil because I thought it was a quart low because I only filled with 6. When I went to add the final quart the filler cap was milky looking. WelI just checked it was bone dry.

This is why I don't like to start any engine in cold weather that is not going to run for 30 minutes.

 

[crashz]

Just a perspective thing:

My father gave me a new-ish generator (very generously) that is diesel and of some no-name brand. I assume a Chinese generator / engine. I don't know what kind of oil was in it (maybe my father added it or maybe it was in it from the factory). He had it for a few years before giving it to me but barely used it at all. The hour meter states 12 hours now and have used it a little in the past (a couple of power outages). I decided to change the oil last weekend.

What came out was a material that looked like swamp sludge. It was chunky, thick, sort of muddy feeling, greenish brown and speckled with chunks of shiny metal.

Miraculously - it still runs. And less surprisingly, it runs much quieter.

 

[DEWFPO]

Note : This is just my opinion and how I do it, I am not suggesting this to anyone else.

I know many if not all will cringe and say I'm stupid for doing this but I believe (under certain conditions) that yearly oil changes on infrequently used equipment is like the old 3,000 OCI recommendation. In my case I have equipment that is only used in winter or only in summer or sometimes not for 2 or 3 years or only every 3 - 4 months.

When I do use that equipment, it is run for an extended period of time so the crankcase is up to operating temp for quite a long while burning off any condensation. I live in a dry climate (not Arizona but dry) and I use top quality oils and filters.

Depending on the equipment, I change oil/filters in those pieces of equipment every 4-9 years. I also use fuel stabilizers in all of that equipment.

I've never seen any indication of condensation in the oils or filters, valve cover caps, etc... Yes it would be smart to do an oil analysis every so often on all of that equipment but that is expensive and time consuming, and so are unnecessary oil/filter changes. All of my equipment is in excellent running condition and most all of it is stored in unheated buildings. My 2004 Silverado only has 29K miles on it and I've changed the oil in it 4 times (the last being in 2015). It starts on the 1st crank even after sitting 4 months in the dead of winter (it's also on a battery maintainer).

I've been doing this going on 19 years now. Other equipment or vehicles used on a regular basis get their fluids changed as per manufacturers recommended intervals whether that be miles or hours accrued. I never change it on a 'time' basis. I also use synthetic oils/filters in everything. Yes that's right. I know, I'll don my flame retardant suit now.

DEWFPO

For those interested ..... (Oil Analysis)

Recently I changed the oil in my Bobcat. It had accrued only 91 hours over the last 8 years and 8 months since the last oil change. The Bobcat is stored in an unheated barn. It's primarily used in the winter to plow and blow snow. When it's put away it's usually coated in snow that melts between uses. But as I stated above, once the engine is running it's typically run for about a hour or more.

After reading this thread and all the concern that some have over 'condensation', I thought I'd send a sample into Blackstone for analysis.

The engine in the Bobcat is a Kubota V2003 turbocharged Indirect Injected diesel.
The oil was Amsoil HDD 5W30 diesel oil last changed on 04/08/2010.
Zero oil was added over that time period and ~7.8 qts was removed of the original 8.0 qts installed.
The Oil Filter was OE Bobcat.

The Blackstone results are :

SUS Viscosity @ 210F was in range at 61.4
cST Viscosity @ 100C was in range at 10.62
Fuel % was <0.5% (avg. is 2.0%)
Antifreeze % was 0.0%
Water % was 0.0% (avg. is <0.1%)
Insolubles % was 0.2% (avg. is <0.6%)
TBN was 10.6

Time does not appear to be as important as we have been lead to believe.

How the equipment is used, and the condition of the equipment seems to be the more important criteria of concern regarding OCI's, in my opinion.

That's why some vehicle manufacturers have gone to elaborate algorithms to calculate OCI's for their equipment.

DEWFPO