Maintenance: New Year, New Engines, New Oils
TITLE HEADING
MAINTENANCE
by x
by Tom Jackson
Heading
NEW YEAR NEW ENGINES
Subhead
x. EW
NEW OILS
Today’s emissions compliant engines
require new lube oil technology
D
iesel engines are well known for
their rugged durability. But there
is a layer of new technology in
today’s diesel engines – having to
do with reducing exhaust emissions – that you can’t abuse or neglect.
These Tier 4 interim engines produce much
less air pollution than their Tier 3 predecessors. But they generate more heat and soot.
They require ultra low sulfur fuel and they
have a big soot trapping device called a diesel
particulate filter that has to be cleaned out
periodically.
To keep engines
healthy and maintain
drain intervals in
this tough new
regime, the oil
companies
developed
a new and
more robust lube
oil, the American
Petroleum
Institute’s
CJ-4. The onhighway truck
market got the first
taste of CJ-4 and
the new emissions technology back in 2007.
Now, four years later, off-road engines are having to
come up to the nearly identical standards.
There’s good news in all this. After four years, the
on-road diesel engines, have established a track record
and the CJ-4 oils have proven their worth. But make
no mistake, the demands placed on these new emissions compliant engines are tough, your maintenance
protocols need to change, and your lube oil choices
are more important than ever.
Avoiding ash
The DPF, which greatly reduces the exhaust
pollutants in these engines, is typically a
honeycombed ceramic filter
fitted into a long, torpedo
shaped canister, and
plumbed into your exhaust system between the
exhaust manifold and
the muffler. The DPF
captures and burns
off particulate matter,
but over time trace
elements in your
lube oil – primarily metal oxides that
don’t burn – build up inside
the DPF as a layer of ash.
The demands
placed on these
new emissions
compliant engines
are tough
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