Costco oil

[Gbinterim]

Thinking of using the oil sold at Costco for my Ford Lehman, any comments?

 

[Al]

They are tractor engines, feed them straight 40 weight oil, nothing fancy. Costco reputation for house brands have proven quality products, why not oil??

 

[Tator]

I have purchased the Costco oil to use in my Lehmans for my oil change at the end of the summer. I did a little bit of research online and decided it met my needs.

Tator

 

[IRENE]

I communicated with Blackstone labs about Kirkland 15w-40 diesel engine oil. No derogatory information reported. We have plenty of it on hand now, and in use, but nothing back from analysis to report on.

 

[koliver]

I bought Costco Synthetic oil for my cars (not diesel).
After a close reading of the label I decided against using it in my diesels as it doesn't disclose meeting all of the diesel requirements.

 

[mvweebles]

I bought Costco Synthetic oil for my cars (not diesel).
After a close reading of the label I decided against using it in my diesels as it doesn't disclose meeting all of the diesel requirements.

Blending of oil for API specifications is a highly controlled science that is constantly improving. If an oil is rated as Combustion (C), it will definitely say so. If it isn't rated "C", don't use it in a diesel unless an emergency. Costco or otherwise.

Peter

 

[Tator]

To be clear, the Costco non-synthetic oil that I purchased was rated for diesels.

Tator

 

[KnotYet]

To be clear, the Costco non-synthetic oil that I purchased was rated for diesels.

Tator

I'm not a lube oil specialist but I avoid using non-synthetic oil in a
turbo engine.
One of the best features of synthetic oil is its stability at the higher
temperatures that the oil can be exposed to in a turbocharger.

 

[catalinajack]

They are tractor engines, feed them straight 40 weight oil, nothing fancy. Costco reputation for house brands have proven quality products, why not oil??

No, not straight weight oil. Any 15W-40 is a superior lubricant for the same price.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. c. IIRC the lehman manual specifies single weight oil. 30 or 40 depending on temperatures.

 

[Comodave]

American Diesel recommends straight weight oil. Depending on temperature in the area either 30 or 40 weight. Our last boat had been using 15W40 in it for the previous 15 years so I went ahead and used the 15W40 in them. Never had any issues.

 

[BruceK]

Greetings,
Mr. c. IIRC the lehman manual specifies single weight oil. 30 or 40 depending on temperatures.

But does it predate multigrade oils?

 

[catalinajack]

Greetings,
Mr. c. IIRC the lehman manual specifies single weight oil. 30 or 40 depending on temperatures.

I am aware. The manual is woefully out of date. Lubes have seen multiple iterations of improvements in the last fifty years. Straight grade oils are inferior to today's multi-grades.

 

[catalinajack]

American Diesel recommends straight weight oil. Depending on temperature in the area either 30 or 40 weight. Our last boat had been using 15W40 in it for the previous 15 years so I went ahead and used the 15W40 in them. Never had any issues.

As to oils American Diesel is living in ancient times. The AD folks are expert in engines, not so much in the science of lubes.

 

[catalinajack]

But does it predate multigrade oils?

The manual does indeed predate the development of multi-grade oils, by decades.

 

[slowgoesit]

My Gardner manual specifies straight 30 weight . . . . Do you have any idea how hard nowadays it is to find straight 30 weight?!? I had Delo 30w for the last 32 years, after this trip, we're going to Shell Rotella 30w.

 

[Nomad Willy]

My same old song .. just as valad now as in the past.
We don’t need MV oil in boats that are floating in the water. Their engines never get below 40 degrees .. and 40 degrees causes absolutely no problems.

I’ve used Castrol oil in my cars and motorcycles many years. I don’t shop at Costco but do something similar. About two decades ago I discovered NAPA oils are the same as Valvoline brand oil. They just pump Valvoline oil into NAPA bottles. And they do have single vis oil like 30w. But it’s for gas powered cars and trucks. Much less money and other re-branded products are out there.

Re the straight wt. oil Chevron has it and it shouldn’t be hard at all to find a Chevron Dealer where there’s lots of boats. Same I’m sure for Shell Rotella. I used Chevron 30w for about 12 years or so in SE Alaska and started right up cranking smartly but I had a small electric heater in the engine compartment. I just made sure it didn’t get too cold … like below 35-40 degrees. It may have gotten colder but the engine .. Mitsubishi 40hp always cranked easily to start.

 

[KnotYet]

My same old song .. just as valad now as in the past.
We don’t need MV oil in boats that are floating in the water. Their engines never get below 40 degrees .. and 40 degrees causes absolutely no problems.

I’ve used Castrol oil in my cars and motorcycles many years. I don’t shop at Costco but do something similar. About two decades ago I discovered NAPA oils are the same as Valvoline brand oil. They just pump Valvoline oil into NAPA bottles. And they do have single vis oil like 30w. But it’s for gas powered cars and trucks. Much less money and other re-branded products are out there.

Re the straight wt. oil Chevron has it and it shouldn’t be hard at all to find a Chevron Dealer where there’s lots of boats. Same I’m sure for Shell Rotella. I used Chevron 30w for about 12 years or so in SE Alaska and started right up cranking smartly but I had a small electric heater in the engine compartment. I just made sure it didn’t get too cold … like below 35-40 degrees. It may have gotten colder but the engine .. Mitsubishi 40hp always cranked easily to start.

And the same old misconstruing. No one has said that marine diesels need
multiviscosity oil. The point is that there is no need to avoid them either.
If someone has difficulty sourcing whatever they believe is better, a
more readily available multiviscosity oil will work as well or better.

 

[SteveK]

Oil today must have improved. About 1973 I was working mechanical and there was a fleet of trucks. (18 wheeler type) that ran just fine on straight 30w when 10-30 was introduced as the best thing since sliced bread.
Each truck returned after their first foray into the mountain passes and changed back to straight 30. Why, at times they were unsure if they would reach the top of the hill, no kidding. Back on 30 no problems
A boat at sea level does not have that issue, unless over burdened by operator.

 

[catalinajack]

Oil today must have improved. About 1973 I was working mechanical and there was a fleet of trucks. (18 wheeler type) that ran just fine on straight 30w when 10-30 was introduced as the best thing since sliced bread.
Each truck returned after their first foray into the mountain passes and changed back to straight 30. Why, at times they were unsure if they would reach the top of the hill, no kidding. Back on 30 no problems
A boat at sea level does not have that issue, unless over burdened by operator.

I think, sir, that there have been some improvements made in the last 50 years or so.

 

[TowLou]

A multi grade oil is more for extreme temperature operations. Especially for cold weather starts. In the warm climates straight weight oil is still good. My aircooled generator still specs 30wt oil its less then 20 years old.

 

[Bacchus]

I'd rather not get in the middle of an oil debate but on my Bacchus website - Useful Links section is an article by Cox Eng re Yacht Oils that is better than most you find re trucks / vehicles that have emissions control systems.

https://dkloeber.wixsite.com/bacchus/links

 

[mvweebles]

A good friend of mine works for one of the notable marine engine manufacturers. He owns mid-80's Roughwater 37 with a Perkins 6.354 natural, located in the Southern California area. I traditionally ran single-weight but asked what oil he runs - his response: "Delo 400 15-40 (API rated CK-4 or CJ-4); or equivilent. Shell Rotella T 15-40 is equivilent."

Peter

 

[jgwinks]

The only problem, if it even is a problem with house branded products, oil, groceries, or anything else is you never know who actually made it. Stores don't "make" anything, they just have it contract packaged for them. They usually won't tell you who made it and even then it might change from year to year. We all have our favorites, be it Rotella oil or Jiff peanut butter and you never know what actual brand a house labeled product is. Even some of the well known brands are actually contract packaged by some other company you never heard of. If a house branded oil has the proper certifications on the label, it is just as good as the name brands. You just don't know what name brand it is.

 

[smitty477]

I'd rather not get in the middle of an oil debate but on my Bacchus website - Useful Links section is an article by Cox Eng re Yacht Oils that is better than most you find re trucks / vehicles that have emissions control systems.

https://dkloeber.wixsite.com/bacchus/links

A great article really - it's a shame most will not read data.

 

[NCheaven]

Oils and science

This subject came up around February, 2021, and numerous times before that. Winter provides fewer alternative uses of our time, so I went deep then and before on lubricant research, a minor obcession - family member headed up a major oil companies specialty chemicals division, which included things like oil for manned spacecraft gyroscopes, open cockpit world class racing cars, additives and base stock for motor oils, etc., plus my own lifetime obcession in keeping cars a long time (22 years on my Silverado, 260,000 miles, long but not really unusual), reading Tribology Research from time to time, etc. (Yes, I do have a life - wife, church, golf, yard, consulting, expert witness work, volunteering, etc, although my reading Tribology Research might cause one to think otherwise.....)

Here's my bottom line: Do your own research. Read the back of the oil jugs. Go to Shell and Exxon diesel oil web sites, and others if you like. Read trade industry sources on trucking engine lubrication research, search for marine diesel lubrication research, etc. I suspect that TF friends who are still in the Straight 30 or 40 Dino oil world will have to read the research to be convinced that tribology science and application has progressed in the last 60 years. In the late 1960s working summers in a gas station we still had customers asking for straight 30 long after multi-viscosity and API ratings (SAE - Society of Automotive Engineers earlier) came out. Some things never change.

Of particular interest and easy to find are Exxon's and Shell's product information on their web sites. What is notable is how they compare performance of full synthetic multigrade oils to blended dino/synthetic and dino multigrade oils for shearing at high temperatures, deposits, engine cleanliness, acidity, and much more. I reviewed Shell's product info this morning - amazing how much better performance is attained by Shell's T6 over their blended T5, and how much better the T5 is than dino T4. No opinion here - just a referral to the research based product claims by the manufacturers of two of the largest diesel oil companies in the world. Trust them over any opinion I might offer.

Here is the site for blended T5, for instance: https://rotella.shell.com/en_us/products/synthetic-blend-oil/t5.html

Look at that, be sure to hit the "for more information" tab at the bottom for specific comparisons, and do the same for T6.

Lastly, look up your engine manual recommendation for oil grade. Track how that grade rolls up into more recent grades - what older grades are covered by current grades. American Petrolem Institute has that information on their site, and most oil manufacturers do, too. (I have a great Volvo engine and they sell Volvo brand oil, and their grades can be traced from decades ago up their current grade, I think it's VDS4.5, and it covers the grade recommended for my 2005 TAMD41P-A.)

So, the information is out their from tribology research groups, the oil manufacturers, the American Petrolem Institute, trucking fleet managers, and all sorts of other groups and sources if you take the time to look it up.
I wouldn't admit to this in a bar or with my golf buddies, but it's actually fun.......

My conclusion for my diesel: Shell or Exxon full synthetic for heavy duty diesel engines, 15-40 viscosity (from the engine manual), most advanced grade that rolls down through the original grade in the engine manual.

Happy Researching!

 

[alormaria]

For the first 15 years the previous owner ran Sears 30wgt motor oil.

I switched her to Shell 30wgt diesel motor oil in 1993.
Seems to be fine.

 

[Nomad Willy]

No, not straight weight oil. Any 15W-40 is a superior lubricant for the same price.

No multi-vis oil needed for inboard boat engines ….
UNLESS …. it’s for a fireboat or other such craft that requires heavy engine loads right after startup.
Stationary engines operated by engineers use single vis when multi-vis is not required. Any engine that gets warmup time dosn’t require multi-vis.
Exception; Engines w turbos should run synthetic multi-vis lube oil.
I’m agreeing w another poster and couldn’t find the post.
Opinion

I see “Tow Lou” agrees w me. Thanks

 

[Delta Riverat]

Last oil change I used the 2 gallons of Costco 15-40 that were on the boat and 6 gallons of Rotella that I bought. No problems.

 

[Nomad Willy]

We choose our presidents with a popularity contest.
Why not oil?