Whats a Good Break In Oil For the Cummins Standard Output Engine?

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Goose55

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I have just ordered a 2023 Longhorn 3500 Standard Output Cummins 6.7. What the best break in oil I can use? Before I drive it home I want the dealership to drop the factory oil, install my magnetic drain plug and refill.
 

turkeybird56

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I would run the factory for 1,000 miles, than find the spec oil in Full Synthetic and Full Synthetic filter and change. Just IMHO...
 
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Goose55

Goose55

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I would run the factory for 1,000 miles, than find the spec oil in Full Synthetic and Full Synthetic filter and change. Just IMHO...

What's a Full Synthetic filter?
 

crash68

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Why bother you barely have driven your current '19 (has it broke 20K miles yet?). Your doing more damage to the engine short driving it than worrying about a mag drain plug and break in oil. Any of oils that meet the specs, use Fleetguard filters and try driving the wheels of this one.
My buddy had 10K on his '23 in less than 6 months, needed an oil change before loading his fiver up to head to Florida for the winter. Truck will probably need it's second oil change by the time he gets back home.
 
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Goose55

Goose55

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Why bother you barely have driven your current '19 (has it broke 20K miles yet?). Your doing more damage to the engine short driving it than worrying about a mag drain plug and break in oil. Any of oils that meet the specs, use Fleetguard filters and try driving the wheels of this one.
My buddy had 10K on his '23 in less than 6 months, needed an oil change before loading his fiver up to head to Florida for the winter. Truck will probably need it's second oil change by the time he gets back home.

No, the 2019 has only 17,000 miles, with brand new Bridgestone Duravis tires and an extended Factory warranty to 75,000 miles and 1/31/2026. It will bring top dollar when I sell it, before the 2023 is delivered.

I do no damage at all because I don't "short drive," as you say. In winter, the block heater gets plugged in, and I gear down when in town. No cold starts, no low rpm cold running, and no cold shut downs. So, how am I damaging it? Please be specific in your answer. Thank you. We all here look forward to your reply. :rolleyes:
 
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turkeybird56

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What's a Full Synthetic filter?
Made with synthetics as opposed to strictly paper, I read real quick and looks like most now use more synthetics, and Fleetguard is a popular choice, but I DEFER to the Big Diesel GUYS on this one, as all I have ever run was the baby 3.0 ED. (Not counting Military 2 1/2's and such.
 

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You can run the factory oil for 2-3000 miles without any problems, have rad of many who have run factory oil for 10K, then use a quality synthetic oil & quality oil filter like Fleetguard Strapore LF16035 or the Donaldson DBL 7949 then your OCI is every 12 months or up to 15K miles, depending on if you use high amount of Bio Diesel fuel....
 

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I have no intention of dropping the factory fill on my 22 6.7 until I meet the requirements listed in the owners manual for an oil change. In my case, it will undoubtly be the 12 month requirement. Neither Ram or Cummins suggests otherwise, and I've never seen any evidence that it's either helpful or a good idea.
 

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A few things here

- cummins engines are all "broken in" at the factory before shipping to Chrysler. It's already had its break-in oil change

- use whatever meets the spec requirements in the appropriate weight for your climate. Cummins is in bed with valvoline so that is what they recommend. The new engines are roller cam engines and have more stringent requirements than the flat tappet engines, so don't just dump whatever 15w40 you have laying around in there like you did with your older 6.7's.

- don't bother with a magnetic drain plug. The things that might plague the engine oil sump are non-magnetic. Keep the factory plug, torque to factory spec, don't worry about it. If you start getting iron in your oil pan the engines already dead anyway. I generally use valvoline 5w40 in the winter and rotella T6 15w40 in the summer in mine. You should peruse bobistheoilguy if you really want to nerd out on HDEO. Personally I don't think there's much to it beyond using whatever meets the appropriate spec.

- if you need something to worry about, it's the fuel system. Be militant about your filter changes, water draining, etc. Use factory fleetguard or Mopar filters only.
 
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Goose55

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I have no intention of dropping the factory fill on my 22 6.7 until I meet the requirements listed in the owners manual for an oil change. In my case, it will undoubtly be the 12 month requirement. Neither Ram or Cummins suggests otherwise, and I've never seen any evidence that it's either helpful or a good idea.
15,000 miles? Your oil filter will be plugged and your oil will have turned into sand paper.
 

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No, the 2019 has only 17,000 miles, with brand new Bridgestone Duravis tires and an extended Factory warranty to 75,000 miles and 1/31/2026. It will bring top dollar when I sell it, before the 2023 is delivered.

I do no damage at all because I don't "short drive," as you say. In winter, the block heater gets plugged in, and I gear down when in town. No cold starts, no low rpm cold running, and no cold shut downs. So, how am I damaging it? Please be specific in your answer. Thank you. We all here look forward to your reply. :rolleyes:
All those things are fine but diesels are designed to work not drive around the city all their life. All you are doing by driving it around the city is going to cause the emissions to plug up and fail. These trucks need to be worked and that is from experience of working in several different shops over the years all the diesel veh that never seen the open road or were worked always had issues, the ones that always seen the open road and were worked we never see unless it is for a service..

I also never understood why someone would buy a new veh make all those payments, put no millage on it and then turn around and sell it for the latest model.. To me that is just throwing money away..
 

zrock

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A few things here

- cummins engines are all "broken in" at the factory before shipping to Chrysler. It's already had its break-in oil change

- use whatever meets the spec requirements in the appropriate weight for your climate. Cummins is in bed with valvoline so that is what they recommend. The new engines are roller cam engines and have more stringent requirements than the flat tappet engines, so don't just dump whatever 15w40 you have laying around in there like you did with your older 6.7's.

- don't bother with a magnetic drain plug. The things that might plague the engine oil sump are non-magnetic. Keep the factory plug, torque to factory spec, don't worry about it. If you start getting iron in your oil pan the engines already dead anyway. I generally use valvoline 5w40 in the winter and rotella T6 15w40 in the summer in mine. You should peruse bobistheoilguy if you really want to nerd out on HDEO. Personally I don't think there's much to it beyond using whatever meets the appropriate spec.

- if you need something to worry about, it's the fuel system. Be militant about your filter changes, water draining, etc. Use factory fleetguard or Mopar filters only.
Who told you they were broke in? They are dyno'd to make sure everything is working as it should but i have never been told from Cummins that they break in the engines.
 

Choupique

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15,000 miles? Your oil filter will be plugged and your oil will have turned into sand paper.

No, it most likely won't. While I personally am not a fan of 15k mile OCI without some analysis to back it up, Cummins clearly is. As stated earlier, the engine is broken in at the factory and then both coolant and oil are drained and replaced. The engine does continue to wear in a bit, but almost all of engine break-on occurs during the first few seconds of running.

You should send some oil samples off for analysis. You are clearly paranoid about oil change intervals and the way you address that is to send samples off at regular intervals and chart the results vs the condemning limits of the oil vs gallons of fuel burned. It's the only way to establish a true accurate OCI for your vehicle the way you use it. You'll likely be surprised to find out that it's possible to go much longer than the recommended interval in the right conditions. While changing it early and often is great for the engine, it is bad for your wallet and the environment.

Qualifications - I do big diesel engineering stuff for a living
 
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Goose55

Goose55

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All those things are fine but diesels are designed to work not drive around the city all their life. All you are doing by driving it around the city is going to cause the emissions to plug up and fail. These trucks need to be worked and that is from experience of working in several different shops over the years all the diesel veh that never seen the open road or were worked always had issues, the ones that always seen the open road and were worked we never see unless it is for a service..

I also never understood why someone would buy a new veh make all those payments, put no millage on it and then turn around and sell it for the latest model.. To me that is just throwing money away..

You are assuming too much. Have thrown no money away at all. It was a brand new, year end clearance and I drove it home for $15K below the sticker price. The 36 monthly payments I did have were 0% interest. It's worth more now than I paid for it. I factory ordered the new 2023 for 12% below msrp. How is that throwing away money?
 

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I ran our '23 standard output Cummins 5k miles with the factory oil in it before changing. Cummins states in the owners manual that they're already broken in, so there's no need for special oils or anything. Myself and the owner just wanted to be cautious with this new truck, it'll get 10k changes after this since we almost exclusively tow with it. 15k is what the book calls for for intervals but since we're towing and by the owners wishes, I'll be doing 10k.
 

Choupique

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Who told you they were broke in? They are dyno'd to make sure everything is working as it should but i have never been told from Cummins that they break in the engines.

I guess it depends on your definition of broken in. The engine has made full power and had all its fluids changed out by the time it goes in a truck. Cummins doesn't recommend you do anything special with it other than use it, and that it may take a while to get to your best fuel economy. This should be even less of a factor with the new body style engines. It does technically "break in" for quite a while if you don't use it hard.

In my world, dyno tested = broken in, even for very large very expensive locomotive engines. The engine plant will take whatever precautions are necessary to properly break in the engine before trying to pull full power out of it.

Moral of the story is don't worry about any of this stuff. If you aren't trending oil health vs operating conditions, it's all mental ************. The truck is going to fall apart around the engine whether you use rotella T6 or valvoline premium blue or .........
 

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15,000 miles? Your oil filter will be plugged and your oil will have turned into sand paper.
Hopefully that was posted in jest. The factory would not recommend it if there were any danger. I've read numerous posts from folks that had their used oil analyzed at 15K, and it was still good. Modern synthetic oil is great stuff.
 
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