oil change input
 

Hey guys I'm getting ready to do my first oil change on the truck and was lookin for some input. What tends to be the best buy for oil, I see lots of people say Rotela or the Mobil1 devlac. I'm changing it at 3k miles sense I got it and was also wondering about goin to synthetic oil or should I just stay with regular because there is no benifits to synthetic (hp gains or longer intervals). And lastley my dad works for Mopar and I can get both the oil and fuel filter for $15 or so or should I get Fleetgaurd filters instead as I see those being used a lot, are they better then Mopar or just cheaper and as good? I tried to do a forum search but got way to many hits that had nothing to do with this info, Thanks guys for any input :c:

If you can get a change for $15, it's hard to consider anything else unless you want to look at synthetics and the advantages they might offer. If you continue 3-5k oil changes, then your mopar product will work just fine.

Thanks Heath I wish the oil change was just $15, buts thats just for the Mopar oil and fuel filters. I'm still trying to figure out of the Fleetgaurd stuff is better then Mopar and what oil to use. I use synthetic oils in my car and Jeep so I concidered it for the truck but at $200 plus for oil its hard to look past the Rotela or Mobile1 for $35 to $40

Still, that's pretty good.
Ouch! What brand is that synthetic? Ours is less than half that shipped, but understand. You're still doubling it and it's only worthwhile if you use it like intended.

My self I would spend the extra $$ and buy either a Fleetguard Stratapore or Amsoil/Donaldson oil filter as they filter better then the Mopar filter.. IIRC Mopar is 35 micron, Fleetguard Stratapore is 25 micron and the Amsoil/Donaldson is 15 micron, the smaller the number the better it filters. As for fuel filter I would use either Baldwin PF 7977 a 5 micron the best or the Fleetguard Stratapore at 7 micron.

Heath when you say use it like it is intended what does that mean? I was actually looking at the Amsoil and I looked at it online and I made a mistake. I thought I was looking at the gallon for $86 but I really had it on 2.5 gallons lol, I guess I have to rethink this now that the price is not so different.

Everyone should use/change oil at a frequency that they are comfortable and satisfied with. I guess when I said that I was referring to our brand only. AMSOIL's whole philosophy is to run extended drain intervals. I use it in everything of course. Some things I can run extended and some I can't, but I still use it. That being, many shy away from amsoil or synthetics in general becasue of the cost. Yes it can run 2-3 times more than dino but if used as intended, it can actually save money in the long run. AMSOIL promotes 15 to 25 and beyond with oil analysis and this is doable if someone wants to take the time to test it, but you can run 15k easily without worrying about it. So if you normally run 5k on dino and now stretch it to 15, you're saving 2 oil changes. Maybe the same or less money as well as less waste.
Keep in mind, before going synthetic and spending the extra, that your engine should be in ready to run it. You don't want to be using or leaking oil too much as the condition will tend to get worse with synthetic.

I probably rambled more than I needed to but the point is a lot of times the price on the bottle shys people away until they realize how it can be used to actually save and be more "green".:tu:

From what I remember, the Mopar filter is a rebadged Fleetguard and the mopar oil (if bottled) should be Valvoline Premium Blue? Not bad stuff really, especially if you can get it at that price.

For the low miles you're changing oil at, you could run the cheapest API-rated oil and probably still reach a million miles on the engine. I ran Rotella dino (without a bypass) out to 5k OCIs...I have UOAs on Rotella CJ-4 (with a bypass) at 10k that look fine.

I put a lot of miles on a vehicle, on my 07 5.9; 13000 since Sept on a 32000 mi. motor. I have the 4 yr warranty and I know that if I can show changes at 5000 then I'd be covered. I'd love to run Amsoil if Warranty wasn't an issue.

I'm with Heath on this one.. I use Amsoil HD Diesel and Marine Motor oil.. and while it's close to $100 for a case, to me, it's worth the peace of mind I get, and I change my oil every 25k miles or 1 year, whichever comes first. Honestly for me, the 1 year mark comes before I ever hit 25k miles, since I don't drive my truck as much as I would like, but just having the peace of mind that the synthetic offers is great for me. As Heath said though, if you are getting oil and filter for $15, it's hard to argue that...
Scott

I thought the 3rd gen OCI was 7500 or 15000??

Not according to my dealer. I was kinda surprised, on my wifes Liberty CRD which is only a little 4 cyl the oci is 6500 or 9000. Since it holds only 7 qts, I've no problem running Mobil 1 which is recommended. I use synthetics in all my engines and would love to do the same for the 5.9, but at the current change schedule I cant afford it.

In my 2006 owners manual it shows under Schedule A that you can go 15,000 miles or one year on an oil change. I know some service manager will say you can't but if you back up your OCI with oil test its harder for Dodge to blame any problems on your oil change intervals.

Example I use Amsoil 5w30 HDD after 368 days, 10K of usage the oil I get rid of has never had a TBN lower then 9.15, with numbers like that its going to be real hard to say the oil was used to long or was junk when I changed it out. That is why IMHO its always a good idea if you have a warranty to have your oil tested no matter what brand you use. Also make sure your oil test gives you the TBN numbers as part of your oil report, some charge extra for it so that is why I like to use Amsoil as they do the TBN for you at no extra charge. I get my oil test kits from Heath our resident Amsoil man.