Opinions on Mobil Delvac 1300 Super 15W-40

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I spent 35 years in the lubrication industry so will offer a view based on my experience. I worked for one of the four major additive suppliers who supply the performance additive packages to all lubricant marketers. These companies are (in rough order of size): Lubrizol, Infineum, Chevron Oronite, and Afton. The additive systems provided by these companies give the wear, deposit, oxidation, and corrosion control of modern engine oils. The base oil, synthetic or otherwise, provide the base viscometric properties. Normally additive companies develop base packages to meet a suite of performance requirements and then adapt them to a customer's (e.g. Shell, BP, Chevron etc) specific base oils and marketing requirements. If you read on you will see this is a very expensive business.

A few points to be aware of

1) All base oils used in modern diesel engine oils are in effect 'synthesized'. I see people refer to 'dino-oil' which I assume refers to distilled fractions of crude. That isn't used anymore and hasn't for some time. I could spend pages on base oil alone but suffice to say that all modern base oils are extremely pure and all are synthesized via hydrocracking and isomerization. The term 'synthetic' is mainly a marketing term applied to higher viscosity index fluids which can enable wider cross grades (e.g. 5W-40)
2) The vast majority of the performance of current diesel engine oils (e.g. API CK-4) is determined by the test requirements set by the performance category. While each marketer has their own focus, these differences are relatively small. To give some perspective a test program to qualify a modern diesel engine oils (DEO) can cost from $5-15MM...yes that means millions. That does not include the R&D cost to develop the basic additive system used in those oils. The company I worked for spent hundreds of millions on R&D.
3) All the major suppliers including Chevron, Shell, XOM, BP, Total, etc supply comparable high quality products. All of these companies were customers of ours and I'm very familiar with all of them. As to XOM, they are highly respectable and demand high performance from their products, I would not hesitate to use their products.
4) It is important to make sure that the lubricant you use meets the performance and viscosity requirements of your engine. The API categories are, for the most part, sequential and backward compatible so if your engine calls for API CG-4 or CH-4 API CK-4 will exceed the requirements of your engine. Many OEMs have requirements that are roughly parallel to the API requirements, generally the use the same tests with slightly higher passing limits. This is especially true for US based OEMs, European oils are a bit more complex in this aspect.
5) Making sure you use the proper viscosity for your engine is important. Newer engines are designed to operate on lower viscosities, such as 5W-30 or 5W-40, for improved fuel economy. We are familiar with this in our passenger cars where we now see 0W20 or 0W-16 oils. However would recommend against putting a lower viscosity oil in an older engine, synthetic or not. I just don't see much upside.
 
I’m not impressed that a big time manufacturer would specify one specific brand of engine lube oil.

That would be like a car manufacturer recommending Bridgestone tires. Anybody could imagine a whole bunch of problems when thousands of customers, lawyers and others get together on a problem.
Nor am I. I was just responding to the guy who suggested asking Cummins what they would recommend.
 
I spent 35 years in the lubrication industry so will offer a view based on my experience. I worked for one of the four major additive suppliers who supply the performance additive packages to all lubricant marketers. These companies are (in rough order of size): Lubrizol, Infineum, Chevron Oronite, and Afton. The additive systems provided by these companies give the wear, deposit, oxidation, and corrosion control of modern engine oils. The base oil, synthetic or otherwise, provide the base viscometric properties. Normally additive companies develop base packages to meet a suite of performance requirements and then adapt them to a customer's (e.g. Shell, BP, Chevron etc) specific base oils and marketing requirements. If you read on you will see this is a very expensive business.



A few points to be aware of



1) All base oils used in modern diesel engine oils are in effect 'synthesized'. I see people refer to 'dino-oil' which I assume refers to distilled fractions of crude. That isn't used anymore and hasn't for some time. I could spend pages on base oil alone but suffice to say that all modern base oils are extremely pure and all are synthesized via hydrocracking and isomerization. The term 'synthetic' is mainly a marketing term applied to higher viscosity index fluids which can enable wider cross grades (e.g. 5W-40)

2) The vast majority of the performance of current diesel engine oils (e.g. API CK-4) is determined by the test requirements set by the performance category. While each marketer has their own focus, these differences are relatively small. To give some perspective a test program to qualify a modern diesel engine oils (DEO) can cost from $5-15MM...yes that means millions. That does not include the R&D cost to develop the basic additive system used in those oils. The company I worked for spent hundreds of millions on R&D.

3) All the major suppliers including Chevron, Shell, XOM, BP, Total, etc supply comparable high quality products. All of these companies were customers of ours and I'm very familiar with all of them. As to XOM, they are highly respectable and demand high performance from their products, I would not hesitate to use their products.

4) It is important to make sure that the lubricant you use meets the performance and viscosity requirements of your engine. The API categories are, for the most part, sequential and backward compatible so if your engine calls for API CG-4 or CH-4 API CK-4 will exceed the requirements of your engine. Many OEMs have requirements that are roughly parallel to the API requirements, generally the use the same tests with slightly higher passing limits. This is especially true for US based OEMs, European oils are a bit more complex in this aspect.

5) Making sure you use the proper viscosity for your engine is important. Newer engines are designed to operate on lower viscosities, such as 5W-30 or 5W-40, for improved fuel economy. We are familiar with this in our passenger cars where we now see 0W20 or 0W-16 oils. However would recommend against putting a lower viscosity oil in an older engine, synthetic or not. I just don't see much upside.
Yup, pretty much fully interchangeable among brands. Not a red hair difference.
 
The last time I purchased ( 1 yrs ago) the Valvoline Premium Blue 15/40 it is NOT a synthetic oil.


Ah. I searched on Valvoline Premium Blue... but then the first link I opened was apparently for Premium Blue Extreme.

Duh.

-Chris
 
I spent 35 years in the lubrication industry so will offer a view based on my experience. I worked for one of the four major additive suppliers who supply the performance additive packages to all lubricant marketers. These companies are (in rough order of size): Lubrizol, Infineum, Chevron Oronite, and Afton. The additive systems provided by these companies give the wear, deposit, oxidation, and corrosion control of modern engine oils. The base oil, synthetic or otherwise, provide the base viscometric properties. Normally additive companies develop base packages to meet a suite of performance requirements and then adapt them to a customer's (e.g. Shell, BP, Chevron etc) specific base oils and marketing requirements. If you read on you will see this is a very expensive business.

A few points to be aware of

1) All base oils used in modern diesel engine oils are in effect 'synthesized'. I see people refer to 'dino-oil' which I assume refers to distilled fractions of crude. That isn't used anymore and hasn't for some time. I could spend pages on base oil alone but suffice to say that all modern base oils are extremely pure and all are synthesized via hydrocracking and isomerization. The term 'synthetic' is mainly a marketing term applied to higher viscosity index fluids which can enable wider cross grades (e.g. 5W-40)
2) The vast majority of the performance of current diesel engine oils (e.g. API CK-4) is determined by the test requirements set by the performance category. While each marketer has their own focus, these differences are relatively small. To give some perspective a test program to qualify a modern diesel engine oils (DEO) can cost from $5-15MM...yes that means millions. That does not include the R&D cost to develop the basic additive system used in those oils. The company I worked for spent hundreds of millions on R&D.
3) All the major suppliers including Chevron, Shell, XOM, BP, Total, etc supply comparable high quality products. All of these companies were customers of ours and I'm very familiar with all of them. As to XOM, they are highly respectable and demand high performance from their products, I would not hesitate to use their products.
4) It is important to make sure that the lubricant you use meets the performance and viscosity requirements of your engine. The API categories are, for the most part, sequential and backward compatible so if your engine calls for API CG-4 or CH-4 API CK-4 will exceed the requirements of your engine. Many OEMs have requirements that are roughly parallel to the API requirements, generally the use the same tests with slightly higher passing limits. This is especially true for US based OEMs, European oils are a bit more complex in this aspect.
5) Making sure you use the proper viscosity for your engine is important. Newer engines are designed to operate on lower viscosities, such as 5W-30 or 5W-40, for improved fuel economy. We are familiar with this in our passenger cars where we now see 0W20 or 0W-16 oils. However would recommend against putting a lower viscosity oil in an older engine, synthetic or not. I just don't see much upside.

Very good information, thanks for the education.

Rob
 
I’m not impressed that a big time manufacturer would specify one specific brand of engine lube oil.

That would be like a car manufacturer recommending Bridgestone tires. Anybody could imagine a whole bunch of problems when thousands of customers, lawyers and others get together on a problem.


It's common for them to say "we recommend X oil", but then mention a bit further down "but really, anything that meets specs A, B, and C is viscosity D is approved for use"
 
I spent 35 years in the lubrication industry so will offer a view based on my experience. I worked for one of the four major additive suppliers who supply the performance additive packages to all lubricant marketers.........

Slowmo - thanks for taking the time to compose such an infomative post. Great info.

I have a follow-up question: For TF owners, 30+ year old diesels based on 50+ year old technology dominate. Back then, guessing the normal recommendation was 30W Delo (or similar). Not sure 15W-40 CD even existed and certainly the API ratings have been updated. How do us owners of old iron translate what to run? 25-years ago when I purchased Weebles with a Perkins 4.236 I ran Delo 30W as that's what was recommended by my mechanic. I now run 15W-40 because that seems to be the common recommendation (and is recommended by Perkins HERE for their newer engines).

Below is a 20-min Project Farm video comparing performance of a 1950's era can of Quaker State Motor Oil to a modern counterpart. At the time, I would not be surprised to learn it was the best motor oil available and likely recommended by OEMs. Clearly, technology has progressed by leaps and bounds as the old oil performs poorly in comparison. How do owners of old engines navigate current oils against engine manufacturer's recommendations that have not been updated for 30, 40, 50, or more years?

Peter

 
For my Cummins engines in the boat and the Duramax in my truck I take a trip to Wally World and see what is the cheapest of the name brand 15W-40 oils and that's what goes in. Simple as that. This time it was Delvac 1300. For seme reason there is always a significantly less expensive brand there and the choice is obvious.
 
I’m not impressed that a big time manufacturer would specify one specific brand of engine lube oil.

That would be like a car manufacturer recommending Bridgestone tires. Anybody could imagine a whole bunch of problems when thousands of customers, lawyers and others get together on a problem.


Cummins is NOT specifying the oil. They are endorsing it.

But any owner is still free to use ANY oil that meets the specs for their engines and there are lots of major mfgrs who do that including the reverse.
 
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