I bought a 1999 2500 CTD a couple weeks ago. I'm going to change the oil, filter, and trans fluid pretty soon, but I'm having a hard time deciding what to use. I'm thinking about Amsoil, Mobil Delvac 1, Scheaffer 9000, or Rotella Synthetic for oil. I bought a Purolator PureONE Premium filter yesterday and wondered if it is a respectable filter or if I should find a FleetGuard, Baldwin, or Mobil 1 fitler. I've heard John Deere has a line of automotive filters and my brother works at a Deere dealer, so I might consider it also. Finally, does anyone besides Mopar and Valvoline make ATF4? I would like Royal Purple, but they only make Dexron/Mercon fluid. Any opinions/facts would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

Not knowing how many miles are on the truck it may or may not be a good idea to use synthetic oil in it. As for the filter Pureone, Wix, AC Delco are Ok to use but the Fleetguard Stratapore oil filters and Baldwin are the top filters IMHO. Do not use any Fram filters, as they don’t hold up very well in Cummins engines.

Also if you can stay away from the new CJ-4 oil as I’ve read a lot of posts about it not holding up as well as the older CI-4 oil will in the older engines and many having to cut there oil change interval by up to 50%. As for oil I say Mobile Delvac, Valvoline Cummins Blue are the best dino oils to use. As for Schaeffer oil I don’t know very much about it. Amsoil makes an AFT-4 trans fluid that you can use in your transmission, in fact that is the only ATF I run in my transmissions.

 

Thanks for the info. My truck has just over 100k on it, so it's broken in good enough by now for a syn oil. I also bought a Mobil1 oil filter today since it was $5 less than the PureONE and I'm more familiar with Mobil1 products. Would I have to get a FleetGuard from a Cummins dealer or should NAPA or a heavy duty truck repair shop/parts warehouse have it?

 

I’ve used a Mobile 1 oil filter in a pinch for 3300 miles and then I got took it off. My self I would rather use Fleetguard Stratapore, Baldwin, Wix, PureOne or AC Delco oil filters, as I know they will hold up for at least 7500 miles and not fall apart inside. As for synthetic I was not worried about it not being broke in, as long as you don’t have any big leaks you should be Ok to use it and that is the main concern on older engines is leaking gaskets. Yes you can check to see if your local Cummins shop has Fleetguard in stock and see if it’s cheaper then buying them on line at Genos Garage.

 

Royal Purple is making a +4. I talked with them last week. It should be out in Aug.

 

Why did you only use the Mobil1 for 3300 miles? Did you get bad results from an oil analysis or does it just not have a good reputation? I'm looking at Amsoil right now for ATF. They say theirs meets the requirements of ATF-4 as well as Mercon and Dexron. Sounds amazing, but I guess it's given you good service, DBLR. Has anybody ever tried Amsoil 15W40 heavy duty diesel oil? I don't think I would go their 25,000 mile interval since most of my driving is local and pulling a commercial mower, but I could probably go 15,000.

 

i work at mack trucks and the guys that come in with schaeffers oil when itg ets drained it globby, honestly i wouldnt run schaeffers...im gonna run royal purple everything when its time for my first oil change since iver owned it...the dealer did it for me when i bought it at 51k miles. its an 02 with an auto tranny. i hear royal purple is some good stuff man. and ill probly get fleet guard filters through work.

 

Thanks, 02cummins. I had kind of ruled out Schaeffers, but my friend's dad runs the synthetic blend in his 2 Kenworths and his 2006 CTD and as far as I know hasn't had any problems. He's the kind of guy that if he had prblems with it, he's want them to go out of business, but he seems pleased with it. The closest distributor is 50 miles away or more. There's an Amsoil dealer about 10-12 miles away that I might talk to. Royal Purple is still on my mind, too.

 

The reason I only used it 3300 miles is that I was unsure how well it would hold up in a diesel engine that and I saw oil drip on the side of it so off it came. At this time I use Amsoil 5w30 HDD oil and like it much better then the 5w40 Rotella synthetic I used for 3800 miles. The only reason I used Rotella was I need an oil change while away from home and could not get any Delo or Delvac oil. Amsoils 15w40 oil a dam good oil but being my engine is new I can get by with using the ligher oil because Dodge/Cummins has ok'ed the use of 5w40 synthetic oil for my engine.

Being you don't have any warranty to worry about you can run it for 15K with out any worry and if you wanted to go a full 25K I would still change out oil filters every 7500-10,000 miles. I still can't bring my self to trust any oil filter past 10K, that and they don't cost that much money to replace every 10K and for peace of mind.

FYI, I have used Amsoil ATF in every Dodge car, truck and Van I've owned for the past 7 years and have never had a transmission problem. As for Royal Purple I don't know much about it either except what the local Napa boys say about it, but I do know I can buy Amsoil at perfered customer prices a lot cheaper then what Napa sells it for in my area.

 

Well, thanks for all your help, guys. I'm pretty sure I'll run Amsoil 5W40 Premium with a Wix filter. My brother and I recently bought similar 1999 and 2002 CTDs and we want to change all the fluids and filters to make sure everything is in good shape. DBLR, do you order your ATF from Amsoil or through a local dealer? I was wondering how long it takes for delivery if you order from Amsoil's website. I think I'll buy the 6 month preferred membership for $10 and save a good bit. I priced everything I need with membership and without and saved $139.59 with membership. That's like getting 2 free oil changes!