Kubota engine oil recommendation

number two · Oct 7, 2009

I believe you can order stuff from Wal-Mart they don't stock.You can ask the associate to order it for you and they'll call you when it's in.Or check out Wal-Mart online-it may be offered there.I know 10W30 diesel spec oil makes sense for me.

RWEST · Oct 8, 2009

Notice my signature. Nope. Not for another 40 miles.

A Yooper!!

Dunno if there's any help for ya'..

You'll just have to move closer to civilization...

bp fick · Oct 8, 2009

RWEST said:
You'll just have to move closer to civilization...

Nope, ain't gonna happen.

Oh, and nope, we're trolls.

Rebel · Oct 21, 2009

Wow, Must say I'm surprised by some of the comments in this thread. Mostly good but some just wrong IMHO.

I encouage anyone who is interested in knowing more about motor oils to read this Motor Oil Basics by Dr. Ali E. Haas (AEHaas)

I found it to be a very interesting reading, helping to separate the real world info from all the marketing hype and other misinformation. It's kind of long but isn't too technical, I found it to be rather easy reading and VERY enlightening.
Enjoy

rScotty · Oct 22, 2009

Thanks for the link, Rebel. I've just started reading it and so far so good. It is very readable. I'll have to work my way all the way through it and then let the info settle for a couple of days. Good stuff and fun to read.
rscotty

Rebel said:
Wow, Must say I'm surprised by some of the comments in this thread. Mostly good but some just wrong IMHO.

I encouage anyone who is interested in knowing more about motor oils to read this Motor Oil Basics by Dr. Ali E. Haas (AEHaas)

I found it to be a very interesting reading, helping to separate the real world info from all the marketing hype and other misinformation. It's kind of long but isn't too technical, I found it to be rather easy reading and VERY enlightening.
Enjoy

Rebel · Oct 22, 2009

rScotty said:
Thanks for the link, Rebel. I've just started reading it and so far so good. It is very readable. I'll have to work my way all the way through it and then let the info settle for a couple of days. Good stuff and fun to read.
rscotty

Glad you like it

The test at the end always kicks my butt

pearson1662 · May 15, 2012

Thanks for the link, Rebel! Very good stuff. Answers a lot of questions being raised on this thread.

Grateful11 · May 16, 2012

My wife uses Case IH No. 1 15W-40 Engine Oil in all 4 of her diesel tractors including the Kubota. She didn't want to stock 2 brands of engine oil.

brucew44guns · May 16, 2012

piller said:
This link on the kubota web site:
Kubota Tractor USA - Lubricants Schedule
does not mention 15W-40 anywhere. The link says 10W-30 is good up to 77 degrees F, above that it recommends 10W-40.

My kubota operators manual also says 10W-30 or 10W-40, it does not mention 15W-40.

The person at Kubota headquarters in Atlanta, GA that I spoke with said to use 10W-30.

Yesterday I changed my oil and used Kubota 10W-30.

I see you guys quoting info here a lot about using a "10-40" oil. That viscosity has been obsolete since back in the 80's as I recall, and I honestly know of no blender putting out a 10-40 in Diesel Service oil. I know of no CJ-4's or CI-4's in 10-40 available by anyone. (now--someone prove me wrong!!:laughing

I have a 72 inch Kubota mower, the 31 HP model I think it's a Z331 or 336, the biggest dude they make. I just gave it the first oil change. I put in Chevron Delo 400 10W/30, CJ-4. That baby mowed 5 hours the other day at 3/4 throttle, it was 90 degrees, real heavy grass, and it purred like a tomcat, burning 4.3 gallons of fuel. Don't be afraid of 10W/30 in a premium oil, or the 5W/40 synthetic either, year round. Delvac, Rotella, Delo or even Conoco or other such products---they work and are excellent.. No need to fret.

thatguy · May 17, 2012

Dont worry about the 10w-40 oil being obsolete, when this thread was started 10-40 could have been the cats meow - this thread had been dead since 2009 until it got bumped up a few days ago..

Brian

brucew44guns said:
I see you guys quoting info here a lot about using a "10-40" oil. That viscosity has been obsolete since back in the 80's as I recall, and I honestly know of no blender putting out a 10-40 in Diesel Service oil. I know of no CJ-4's or CI-4's in 10-40 available by anyone. (now--someone prove me wrong!!:laughing I have a 72 inch Kubota mower, the 31 HP model I think it's a Z331 or 336, the biggest dude they make. I just gave it the first oil change. I put in Chevron Delo 400 10W/30, CJ-4. That baby mowed 5 hours the other day at 3/4 throttle, it was 90 degrees, real heavy grass, and it purred like a tomcat, burning 4.3 gallons of fuel. Don't be afraid of 10W/30 in a premium oil, or the 5W/40 synthetic either, year round. Delvac, Rotella, Delo or even Conoco or other such products---they work and are excellent.. No need to fret.

lindnova · Mar 16, 2013

I had never heard of 10w40 diesel oil cc/cd since the 80's either, but Petro Canada now has a 10W40 in their Duron synthetic lineup. I think it is farely new.

I know of a local construction company that switched to it from Duron 15w40. They were extending intervals to 400 hours for the past 7 years with Duron. They actually had engines lasting longer with this oil after doubling the intervals. They have Cat D6R's with engines getting rebuilds at 15,000 hours. The techs at Ziegler Cat find 15k wear comparable to what they normally find at 10k. They have extended the interval with the syn 10w40 to 600 hours. Of course they do oil analysis and tested a few pieces with the new oil before changing the fleet to a new oil and schedule. This is with a fleet of Cat & John Deere excavators, artic trucks, dozers, Mack dump trucks and misc equipment all getting this oil and schedule. They usually buy used at 2-4k hour and run some pieces for the long haul before trading. Many times rebuilding engines rather than selling at 12-16k hours depending on the oil analysis. With previous oils used Mobil Delvac at 200 hrs, most equipment needed rebuilds by 12k except for some komatsu excavators that used to last longer. There is an ingersoll rand DD16 roller with a kubota 24 hp 3 cyl with over 10k hr on the clock still going strong with 400 hr service interval.

Petro Canada is hard to find except for bulk oil distributors. They sell mainly in Canada as the bottles come in liters.

For us homeowner Kubota tractor owners we don't run so many hours or see the savings on a large scale to extend intervals so much. I use 5w40. I used fleet farm rated 5w40 two years ago and ran 100 hours and did an analysis with great results. I currently have Valvoline 5w40 in the crankcase I found at walmart for $14.50/gallon! They priced it at conventional prices and I got lucky. It is not there anymore. My next change will be Delo 5w40 - I found that walmart recently for $19.95 / gal. I had used Mystic Jt8 10w30, but had some consumption in hot weather mowing. 1/2 quart in 50 hours. I didn't want to use 15w40 in winter and only run about 90 hours a year, so one change a year with 5w40 is my answer. No problems or oil usage. Starts great and gives me peace of mind. I would recommend any synthetic 5w40 as my oil of choice for Kubotas.

WilliamBos · Mar 16, 2013

I have heard that Petro Canada has quite a few distrubutors throughout the USA.

We will be running Duratran synthetic in our trans on the next change. It is not hard to tell that Permatran is not synthetic on cold winter days.

lindnova said:
I had never heard of 10w40 diesel oil cc/cd since the 80's either, but Petro Canada now has a 10W40 in their Duron synthetic lineup. I think it is farely new.

I know of a local construction company that switched to it from Duron 15w40. They were extending intervals to 400 hours for the past 7 years with Duron. They actually had engines lasting longer with this oil after doubling the intervals. They have Cat D6R's with engines getting rebuilds at 15,000 hours. The techs at Ziegler Cat find 15k wear comparable to what they normally find at 10k. They have extended the interval with the syn 10w40 to 600 hours. Of course they do oil analysis and tested a few pieces with the new oil before changing the fleet to a new oil and schedule. This is with a fleet of Cat & John Deere excavators, artic trucks, dozers, Mack dump trucks and misc equipment all getting this oil and schedule. They usually buy used at 2-4k hour and run some pieces for the long haul before trading. Many times rebuilding engines rather than selling at 12-16k hours depending on the oil analysis. With previous oils used Mobil Delvac at 200 hrs, most equipment needed rebuilds by 12k except for some komatsu excavators that used to last longer. There is an ingersoll rand DD16 roller with a kubota 24 hp 3 cyl with over 10k hr on the clock still going strong with 400 hr service interval.

Petro Canada is hard to find except for bulk oil distributors. They sell mainly in Canada as the bottles come in liters.

For us homeowner Kubota tractor owners we don't run so many hours or see the savings on a large scale to extend intervals so much. I use 5w40. I used fleet farm rated 5w40 two years ago and ran 100 hours and did an analysis with great results. I currently have Valvoline 5w40 in the crankcase I found at walmart for $14.50/gallon! They priced it at conventional prices and I got lucky. It is not there anymore. My next change will be Delo 5w40 - I found that walmart recently for $19.95 / gal. I had used Mystic Jt8 10w30, but had some consumption in hot weather mowing. 1/2 quart in 50 hours. I didn't want to use 15w40 in winter and only run about 90 hours a year, so one change a year with 5w40 is my answer. No problems or oil usage. Starts great and gives me peace of mind. I would recommend any synthetic 5w40 as my oil of choice for Kubotas.

noshoes1951 · Apr 2, 2013

I

piller said:
I've got a new Kubota M8540 tractor and was unsure which engine oil to use so I submitted a question using the kubota web site.

I received a call today from a service representative at Kubota headquarters in Atlanta, GA (I'm in Tennessee). I was told that I should use 10W-30 engine oil which has the CE or CF API rating. I was told not to use 15W-40. I was told that I do not need to use Kubota brand oil, I would not void my warranty by using another oil as long as it had the correct weight and API rating.

My operators manual says 10W-30 or 10W-40 with the CD, CE, or CF ratings. What is interesting is that I contacted two local kubota dealers and they both said to use 15W-40 which contradicts the operators manual and the advice from kubota headquarters.

So I went today and bought 3 gallons of Kubota 10W-30 engine oil, it has the proper API CF rating, actually it goes up to CI-4 I believe.

I was also told by Kubota headquarters not to use synthetic oil in the new motor, it had something to do with the rings. Kubota headquarters did not see much value in using synthetic oil but said if I really wanted to use it I should wait until the engine has 150 to 200 hours on it. I think I'll just stay with the standard oils which apparently are very good quality these days.

I have the hydraulic shuttle wet clutch transmission on my tractor and was told by kubota headquarters that I should use the Kubota SUDT fluid for the transmission/hydraulic fluid.

Finally Kubota headquarters also said I should use heavy weight 80W-90 gear oil in the front axle instead of the SUDT fluid. He gave me a tip on changing the front axle fluid, he said to open the drain holes at each of the outer hub gear assemblies and drain the fluid and then to use the front end loader to lift the front end a little and then to push down on the tire/wheel to tilt the axle to get more fluid to drain out.

I put a new Kobota motor in my 1782 400 hours back,i run 10+40 Mobil One Turbo Diesel the 722 20.5 hp and Mobil One oil filter never ANY problems and using a UNI foam 2 stage air filter.

tamu94 · Apr 9, 2013

noshoes1951 said:
I

I put a new Kobota motor in my 1782 400 hours back,i run 10+40 Mobil One Turbo Diesel the 722 20.5 hp and Mobil One oil filter never ANY problems and using a UNI foam 2 stage air filter.

Kubota has updated their specs. They say you can use CJ-4 now and you can use 15w-40. However, they say not to mix different colors of antifreeze (which is bunk and says so on most antifreeze bottles).

Kubota Service Lubricant Maintenance

kozman · May 7, 2013

What do the numbers mean on the oil anyway???

number two · May 8, 2013

Which numbers are you refering to?The 10W30,15W40,5W40 ,etc.refer to the viscosity(thickness)of the oil.
Or the CJ-4,CI-4,etc,which refer to the service applicaton of the engine?

CanuckPT · May 12, 2013

Wow - who knew it'd be so stinking hard just to choose an oil!!! I have a 2011 Kubota B3300SU with 32 hours. I'm pulling the trigger on my 50 hour service early as I'm suspicious that I may have some water in my hydraulic fluid. I've ordered up a full set of filters, Kubota SUDT2 but now there seems to be way too many choices for oil!! Some of the replies on this thread extoll the virtues of going synthetic - but not too soon (??). The vast array of weight combinations becomes mind numbing. I live in NH so I do need a winter weight to what ever I choose. There seems to be a lot of good feedback for Rotella Rotella Synthetic 5W-40 Motor Oil Get the Shell Rotella Motor Oil for less at Walmart.com. Save money. Live better. $21.36/gallon at Walmart. Is this a good choice for my situation?

rScotty · May 13, 2013

CanuckPT said:
Wow - who knew it'd be so stinking hard just to choose an oil!!!

Congratulations on that B3300 tractor!
Oil's not a difficult subject, although take what I say with a grain of salt because after nearly half a century of being a mechanic, I am still not sure that I have ever seen excessive or minimal wear in an engine that I can be sure was due to the type or brand or weight or type of oil.

IMHO, most of the wear comes from a these sources:
1. Repeated cold starts
2. Not paying attention to good filtration of the air and oil.

I wish it were as simple as selecting a type of oil, but my experience says it isn't. As near as I can tell, if you decide you don't like the oil you've picked, don't worry. If you've come anywhere close to being right it isn't going to harm the tractor in the next hundred hours. Ignoring #1 and #2 above will.

However, selecting an oil of the proper viscosity and type is easy to do with a bit of education. That sounds to me what you are wanting, and if it is, you can learn a lot if you got back up to message # 64 and follow Rebel's link to the article posted about 4 years ago. It's "Motor Oil Basics" by Dr. Ali E. Haas (AEHaas).

BTW, your picture shows a tractor in the snow....which means cold starts..... Do you have a block heater and use it religiously? That's probably as important as choosing an oil.
FWIW, in my own tractors I use 15w-40 Shell Rotella T - which is a refined oil - not a synthetic. That's just what I'm used to; I've nothing against synthetics....but also no experience or need. It's interesting that all of our other tractors - including right now our JD530 and both Yanmars all came stock with a more sophisticated air and oil filtration than the Kubota M59 has...although Kubota does offer an upgraded centrifugal air filter at extra expense.
Enjoy!
rScotty

CanuckPT · May 13, 2013

Thanks kindly for your response rScotty. I do not have a block heater for my tractor. I keep it garaged (unheated). What's your opinion on the magnetic block heaters?

Walmart has the Rotella for $12.97/gallon. It seems that this would be a prudent way to go - both as a quality oil and a decent price?

Shell Rotella T 15W40 Motor Oil, 1 Gal - Walmart.com

rScotty · May 13, 2013

CanuckPT said:
Thanks kindly for your response rScotty. I do not have a block heater for my tractor. I keep it garaged (unheated). What's your opinion on the magnetic block heaters?

I think the magnetics are way better than no heater, but some do take a long time to heat the oil.
Best of all is a warm garage! But who wants to sacrifice warm workshop space to a machine that is made to live outside?

Next best is probably something like the venerable Red Devil inserted in the coolant hose.
Third best is the standard 110v. block heater that replaces a freeze plug - that's what I use, but these can leak if poorly installed (if you check it and no leaks they last decades) and they also have to be the one specifically for that particular motor so that it will clear the internal casing inside the block.
Last in line comes the magnetic oil pan type - easiest to attach but external so has lower heat transfer. My machines are outside and a tarp or blanket over the hood helps in the wind.