Five Questions to Help You Pick the Right Diesel Engine Oil

Our editors are on vacation, so we're posting some of our favorite stories from the previous year which we thought worth repeating.

Viscosity control? Shear stability? TBN retention? Confused? Best to start your search by understanding your application; tractor pulling, drag racing, stationary, street, off-road, etc. Let's take a look at these five simple questions.

What are your engine oil specifications? 

It’s important to follow what your original equipment manufacturer recommends. Reading your owner’s manual is the key to maximizing your equipment’s performance. Your manual contains vital API information about caring for your engine, including which oil grades are best suited for them. For example: SAE 15W-40, 10W-30, 5W-40 oil? Mineral, semi, or full synthetic base stock needs to be considered.

How important is fuel economy? 

If you’re keeping an eye on your miles per gallon, the right lubricant can help your equipment achieve its maximum fuel efficiency. By squeezing a few extra miles from each tank, you can see major savings over time. A semi or full-synthetic diesel engine oil is your best option to deliver maximum fuel efficiency without compromising engine performance, improving fuel economy by up to 2 percent under normal conditions and by up to 3 percent during cold starts.

Does your diesel engine run in a range of temperatures? 

Speaking of cold starts, temperature is another important consideration when choosing an engine oil. Extreme temperatures, whether hot or cold, can be brutal on moving parts in your equipment. Heat can quickly turn an engine into an oven, and the cold can thicken some oils until they’re practically jelly.

How old is your diesel engine? 

Most diesel owners want to stretch the life of their engine as long as possible. To perform their best, older diesel engines require attentive care, and a quality lubricant can go a long way toward maintaining them. For example, is your diesel running a DPF or no? Rebuilt for performance? Out of warranty?

Are you looking for more horse power or torque? 

Be sure to look at the oil’s data or spec sheet to see if it addresses increased performance, or is high in anti-wear protection, etc. Look for semi and full synthetic diesel engine oils that use shear stable synthetic base oils that are also high in film strength, have viscosity control, work with high compression, have a higher TBN retention, and if needed, designed to address demands of turbo or super-charged diesel engines.

We hope this has helped a little in your decision. Need a place to start? Take a look at these eight diesel engine oils: https://www.championbrands.com/diesel-engine-oils/

THIS STORY ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN SEPTEMBER 2020

Mack Releases a Fuel Savings Calculator for Its New Engine & How To Improve Fuel Economy

As we've noted many times, the primary drivers for technological change in the automotive and transportation industries for the past half century have been fuel savings and reduced emissions. In the automobile side of the equation, fuels savings have been achieved through a variety of ways including the use of lighter materials or making cars smaller, fine tuning aerodynamics,  (See 10 Ways Automakers Are Helping You Spend Less Money On Gas)

The trucking industry has also been on a decades-long effort at continuous improvement in these areas. Even if advanaces are only incremental, they add up over time, much like compound interest in the Warren Buffet portfolio. 

Last fall Mack Trucks introduced a 13-liter Mack MP8HE engine that the company says improves fuel efficiency by up to 3% compared to the current MP8HE. One of the new features on this new engine is a fuel savings calculator for this MP8HE+ powertrain package. The fuel savings calculator can be accessed on its website here:
https://info.macktrucks.com/mackonomics

The article that drew our attention to this was David Sickels' piece in Fleet Equipment last week. He wrote:

The fuel savings calculator allows Mack website visitors to select fleet size, number of trucks in their fleet and the average cost per gallon of diesel fuel. The information is used to calculate the average amount a customer could save over one, three or five years with the Mack MP8HE+ powertrain package, the company says.Mack said that the next generation of its 13-liter MP8HE engine improved fuel efficiency by up to 3% when compared with the former MP8HE engine. Included in the MP8HE+ powertrain package are the MP8HE engine, Mack mDRIVE automated manual transmission, Mack Predictive Cruise and multiple aerodynamic enhancements.

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Since we're on the subject of fuel economy, here's another good article How to Improve Fuel Economy in a Truck. As noted above, it's all about incremental improvements in every facet of the truck, including the manner in which you drive it. According to Rowe, optimizing fuel use can reduce operating costs by as much as 20%. Considering that the trucking industry spends as much as 105 billion dollars on fuel alone, imagine the savings if every carrier cut 20% off their fuel costs. That's over 20 billion dollars a year.

Here are the 10 recommendations. A link to the full article follows. It's worth your time because it goes into details on each of these points.

1. Stop Speeding
2. Reduce Aggressive Driving
3. Cut Down on Idling
4. Stay Tuned Up
5. Keep Tires Inflated
6. Get More Efficient Routes
7. Cool It With the AC
8. Ditch Extra Weight 
9. Turn Down the Heat
10. Get Fleet Management Software

Many of these we know already. Most also apply to Owner Operators.

Actually, later in the article Rowe states that these tips can save up to 30% on fuel costs and improve MPG from 6 to near 8.5 MPG per vehicle. You can probably calculate how many trips to the moon and back you'd get on those savings.

Here is the link to the full story:
https://tech.co/fleet-management/truck-fuel-economy

5 of Top 10 Fastest Growing Alternative Technology Vehicles of 2020 Were Diesel-Powered

This past weekend we read a news story that had a fairly striking statistic. It said, "Sales of pickup tucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) with diesel engines grew 28 percent during 2020, even as overall auto sales declined by over 14% for the year."

Sometimes we can't even see what's right in front of our faces because of all the other distractions. Of course, this is one of the tricks of the magicians trade. It's called misdirection. While we're watching his left hand he pockets the coin that he'd transferred to his right.

This, however, is what's interesting: "Among alternative fueled vehicle offerings, vehicles with diesel engines held 5 of the top 10 rankings for fastest growing sales (2019-2020), according to the Diesel Technology Forum based on data and analysis provided by Alan Baum and Associates."

Monday's Street Insider story drew from information released by the Diesel Technology Forum earlier that day. 

That diesels have been popular is nothing new. Full-size pickups have been among the best-selling vehicles in American for years. What's noteworthy, according to Allen Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Diesel Technology Forum (DTF), was the 28% growth in sales last year, which shows how much consumers are embracing the new generation of diesel technology.  

Schaeffer pointed out several stats that some people would find eye-opening, especially in this period in which we're striving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy. The fuel economy savings on the more than 140,000 new diesels sold last year helped boost fuel efficiency by 16 to 25 percent. If every full-size pickup sold in the U.S. were equipped with an advanced diesel engine, the U.S. could save 500 million gallons of fuel per year. "Greater fuel economy from diesel engines means using less fuel, saving money and fewer greenhouse gas emissions, benefits everyone can value." 

The trend toward SUVs and pickup trucks has been picking up for more than a decade. "What is new," Schaeffer said, "is the growing number of more fuel-efficient offerings for car and truck buyers than ever before, ranging from battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, full hybrid and even hydrogen fuel cell options, although diesel continues to dominate in the alternative fuel segment. That five of the top ten fastest selling alternative fuel vehicles sold in 2020 are diesel-powered, is a very strong statement that consumers value what the new diesel engines offer.”

The article went on to describe the 13 diesel options available in mid, full-size and heavy-duty pickup trucks beginning in 2020. “In the vehicle segments more Americans now prefer, more diesel options are turning out to be a win-win because diesel is a fuel-efficient choice that requires no compromises in fuel efficiency, vehicle utility or performance. With readily available fuel at more than two-thirds of all stations, highway ratings of as much as 33 mpg along with driving ranges that can exceed 500 miles on a single tank, the diesel option presents great overall value for consumers in these larger vehicles,” said Schaeffer.

In short, one of the primary strengths of diesel at this point in time is the ready availability of fuel. The infrastructure is in place and the benefits are many. You can read the full Street Insider story Here.

Diesel Technology Forum is a not-for-profit association representing manufacturers of diesel engines and equipment, key suppliers of emissions control and other technologies, and fuel producers. The press release that the Street Insider story drew from has additional information and a great chart at the end which you should check out. The DTF release is titled DIESEL SALES UP 28% IN 2020 BOOSTING TRUCK SEGMENT FUEL ECONOMY. Read it HERE.

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Do you have diesel news or good diesel story?
Tell us about it. Send it to our Blue Flame director Karl Dedolph III @ kdedolph@championbrands.com