Occasional users: how often do you change oil?

[rScotty]

I put about 10-15 hours each year on my tractors.
I change oil every 2 or three years.
My tractors would likely be just fine if I never changed the oil.
Both my tractors, and I, are too old for me to be concerned with oil change frequency.

I hear you. I do the same. I had a mechanical repair shop for years, and saw engines come in where the owner probably didn't change the oil oftener than every ten years if that. That made me curious enough to look closely at the innards.

After years I have to say I've seen plenty of engines damaged by loosing coolant, and a fair amount from running too low on oil, but I cannot remember a single engine where I saw wear that I could say was caused by infrequent oil changes or old motor oil....or even by the grade and brand of oil used. And I've seen oil so old that the whole inside of the bottom of the engine was coated with tarry gunk.

Lots of diesels came to the shop with oil so old and black that it hardly seemed like motor oil at all. Same story though...., no rubbing or frictional wear in the engine that I could attribute to the old oil.
just sayin'.....
rScotty

 

[EddieWalker]

You bring up an interesting point. I like to watch some of those car shows and American Pickers, and it's amazing how they can get a car to start after it's been sitting for decades. I've never seen any of those shows do anything about the original oil that's in the engines. They just use fresh fuel and jump the battery.

 

[JWR]

I hear you. I do the same. I had a mechanical repair shop for years, and saw engines come in where the owner probably didn't change the oil oftener than every ten years if that. That made me curious enough to look closely at the innards.

After years I have to say I've seen plenty of engines damaged by loosing coolant, and a fair amount from running too low on oil, but I cannot remember a single engine where I saw wear that I could say was caused by infrequent oil changes or old motor oil....or even by the grade and brand of oil used. And I've seen oil so old that the whole inside of the bottom of the engine was coated with tarry gunk.

Lots of diesels came to the shop with oil so old and black that it hardly seemed like motor oil at all. Same story though...., no rubbing or frictional wear in the engine that I could attribute to the old oil.
just sayin'.....
rScotty

Amen.

 

[diesel85]

My oil change logic: As long as the engine isn't operating odd (rich, using coolant, etc), I stick to the hours. Sometimes a machine won't get it's oil changed for 3 years.

I do the same with my motorcycle's oil and gearbox lube. Every 5000 miles on the nose I change it. Sometimes that takes me 2-3 years to reach that. Been doing that for a long time.

With today's lubricants, as long as water, fuel, or other harmful contaminants get in the oil, time doesn't matter.

Again, been doing this all my life. Even on two farms I worked at.

 

[Looking4new]

I have two cars (oil changed annually in spring), a generator ( change it every two years), ride on mower gets changed annually and the Kioti and it gets changed in spring. I always change filters when I do oil changes. Everything gets greased twice a year EXCEPT the loader which gets greased once a week. The ho gets greased before I use it.