Synthetic oil for TAMD41pa

I have a pair of TAMD41PA's with 850 hrs on them. I have been changing the oil once a year or 100 hours whichever comes first. Normally I only put 50 hours a year or less on them. I have been using Shell Rotella 15w40 oil. I am planning a long cruise next year and am considering switching to synthetic oil mainly to reduce the requirement for oil changes. I have and will continue to use an oil anaysis service. Anyone have any thoughts on this subject. What about the transmission oil? I have the HS1A transmissions which also use the 15W40 oil.

John Scott

My only question is why do you use an oil analysis service if you change your oil every year anyway? Shell Rotella is good oil and should be good for 500 hours at least. Synthetic oil is better in that it last longer. Also, over the long haul, it will keep your engine cleaner. Shell Rotella will also do a good job keeping your engine clean, just not as good as synthetic.

If you are intrested in the environment or less maintainance, go with the synthetic and do an oil analysis once a year and follow the advice of the oil scan. You will see that the scan will likely tell you to keep using the same oil for a long period of time. I personally use regular oil and change it at regular intervals according to the manufactuers guidelines. Hope this helps.

I use oil analysis to tell me if I have any issues going on with the engine. IE bearings, antifreeze leaks etc. Volvo says to change the oil every 100 hours or annually so I do. So you are saying that Rotella is good for 500 hours I could stay with it. The oil analysis like you say will tell me when I should change the oil. The only issue I have with this is getting the oil sample for the oil analysis. Not an easy job without doing a full oil change. Anyway to suck the oil out through the dipstick tube?

There are simple oil change pumps that suck the oil out of the dipstick hole. Personally I wouldn't be looking at 500hr oil changes (or even close to that) on that engine. They burn too dirty to keep the ash levels in the oil at acceptable levels over a long period, even though the oil itself may be OK. Go to a good electronic engine however and 500hr oil changes are a real possibility. My electronic 4000hrs old Ivecos still have oil that appears clean (still 'golden') after about 300 - 350hrs. I do the changes at around 350 - 400hrs (spec says 600hrs).

So maybe if the engine is a dirty burner going to a synthetic oil to lengthen the time between oil changes may not be the smartest move? Maybe I should just continue what I do and do the oil changes every 100 hours on my trip. I also recall a long time ago when synthetics were new on the market switching an older engine to synthetic could be problematic due to the wear on the engine and synthetic oil, being thinner than normal oil, would cause the engine to burn oil etc. Is this still an issue that should be considered?

Synthetic oil isn't necessarly thinner oil, but switching an older engine to synthetic may cause excessive blowby because the detergents in the synthetic may clean the old deposits in the crankcase and cause smoking.

I may have jumped the gun on stating a 500 hr service. Agriculture engines can go 500 hrs and Rotella is good oil. I am not that familar with the TAMD41. I have a couple of TAMD40s.

A good place to start is to read the Shell R T-6 spec sheet and comparison sheet on line - comparing it to their own T-5. T-6 Full synthetic is clearly better in several categories of performance. I run T-6 and noticed several things immediately: 1. Volvo TAMD41P-A in my trawler runs more quietly. 2. It runs about 5 degrees cooler. 3. It smokes less at start up. All three seem to be good things. The T-6 info sheet shows that
T-6 removes particles and sludge better compared to the T-5 synthetic blend. That's a big deal, presuming that we do "warm" or "hot" oil changes before the sludge precipitates and hardens. By the way, read the spec sheet on both T-6 15-40, and T-6 5-30. The 5-30 T-6 does not compare as well as the 15-40 T-6, so be sure that you are carefully when you buy - get the viscosity that is right for your engine. Also, look at the API ratings and see if the oil you are considering "back tests" to the OEM engine recommended oil. T-6 15-40W does back test for my 2005 TAMD41P-A and the 15-40 oils recommended at the time.

Having said all of that, we all get to choose, and I am not inferring that my comments apply to your engine and your personal preferences.

I have personally had syn oil cause a massive increase in oil consumption, back to cold school mineral and it was all good again.
This was on a landrover 300tdi engine, tough onld unit, 2 valve per cylinders, bosch ve pump, direct injection, ring any bells?

Around the same time the large fleet I worked for started to run their trucks on syn oil, we lost several engines.
These were larger Volvo td102 10 litre engines, 2 valve head, direct injection bosch inline pump.