So at 3K miles I changed the oil, filter and the fuel filter. I am glad that I did, my '06 was built in Nov. of '05 so it had been sitting on that dealer lot a while. The oil came out Coal Black, which I guess is normal from what I read. I was shocked watching 12 qts pour out of it !! I installed my new oil-plug-valve. That thing is sweet and I tested it out. Oil change will be even easier next time. Then I pulled the filter and used the bag trick so I hardly spilled a drop. I filled up the new one and slapped it back in then got it hand tight. I then drew a striaght line on it and used a wrench to get a 1/4 turn. I then added 3 gallons of Valvolin 15w-40 Diesel Oil (says it's Cumming's Certified with the C logo right on the bottles).

I used the fuel DYI and it worked great, I had some water in my fuel but not too bad at all, but the filter was freakn dirty! Followed the rest of the DYI and she fired right up, no leaks.

I put the old oil back in the 1 gal bottles and in the bottom of my 5 gal catch pan was a thick sludge, is that normal? I am glad that I got that crap out of there!

Pretty damn easy and I don't even have to jack anything up.... I love it!

 

A little trick is to put some grease on the filter seal to help on the next change. Seems to work better than oil. Never heard of valvolin as cummins oil. Cummins always tells our shop to use 15w-40 chevron delo 400.

 

Which plug did you go with ??

Glad to hear that everything went well for ya. Hopefully I'll have an better experience next time myself.

 

How often does everyone here change their oil? Every 3k on the dot? What types of oil are you running?

 

I think the manual says every 3000 if you drive heavy, otherwise every 7500. I split the difference and do it every 5000 miles. Easier to remember anyway. I don't really beat on my truck at all, but I DO tow with it.

As far as the oil I use, I use the Rotella T oil. I haven't made the switch to the synthetic version. I dunno, still not entirely sold on it I guess.

 

I drive alot of miles but most of them are highway. I change my oil every 5k and use Valvoline Premium Blue Extreme 5w-40. No problem so far but i am only at 30k.

 

I also use the Rotella T and change it every 5,000. I was looking on a website a few years back and they were testing some synthetic up against all the conventional oils and the Rotella was supposed to be the better conv. oil just under the synthetic so I run with that.

 

I thought the manual said to change it at 7500 if driving hard and 15000 if not? I just turned 5000 on mine and will be changing the oil today or tomorrow, just bought my 3 gallons of rotella 15w40.

 

This is based on what I read in the book for my 06. FYI this is not a word for word copy

Schedule A: Change oil & filter every 6 months or 7500 miles for extreme conditions. Schedule B at 15,000 mile or every 12 months if not use under extreme conditions, most use their trucks shown in schedule A. Also for schedule A, you need to grease the front drive shaft every 3750 miles.

Extreme conditions are a lot of stop and go traffic, short drives under 10 miles so that the engine does not get up to operating temps, off road use, dusty roads, hauling/towing, commercial use like snow plow, and high speed driving when temp is over 90 or below 32 degrees. Schedule B, normal use anything not listed in schedule A.

This is from Cummins web site: http://www.cummins.com/cmi/content.j...=0&menuIndex=4

What maintenance is required on 2003 engines?
For 2003, the oil change interval has doubled to 15,000 miles for normal use, and 7,500 for severe use. California, Maine and Massachusetts engines remain at 7,500 and 3,750 for normal and severe use, respectively. The fuel filter change interval is 15,000 miles. Valve adjustment is not required until 150,000 miles.

Here is the URL for the newer Cummins engines: http://www.everytime.cummins.com/eve...cummins600.jsp

 

THats what I thought. I am changing mine at 5k because its the first one then I plan on doing 7500 after that.