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JimT

(07-12-2020 )Ricky Wrote:
(07-12-2020 )Mattman Wrote: I have a 2350. Oil and spin on fuel filter and I have the paccar water separator filter cost right at $100 for fleet guard filters. Then 10 gallons of oil and one gallon of gear oil. So about $250 for filters and oil.

I do all my work. I have trust issues.
My main headache is getting rid of the used oil. I drain into buckets and take them to a quick lube place and they let me pour it in their tank.

Local O'Reilly let's me drop mine and I even put my empty jugs in their trash. But you can't tell them that your fuel is mixed in the oil. Most all places are like that. But I use the fuel to clean my drain pans and just mix it in the oil.

Local Advance Auto will take up to 5 gallons at a time. Plus my town has an oil/hazmat collection location for residents. Between the 2 I should be good.

Ricky

(07-12-2020 )JimT Wrote:
(07-12-2020 )Ricky Wrote:
(07-12-2020 )Mattman Wrote: I have a 2350. Oil and spin on fuel filter and I have the paccar water separator filter cost right at $100 for fleet guard filters. Then 10 gallons of oil and one gallon of gear oil. So about $250 for filters and oil.

I do all my work. I have trust issues.
My main headache is getting rid of the used oil. I drain into buckets and take them to a quick lube place and they let me pour it in their tank.

Local O'Reilly let's me drop mine and I even put my empty jugs in their trash. But you can't tell them that your fuel is mixed in the oil. Most all places are like that. But I use the fuel to clean my drain pans and just mix it in the oil.

Local Advance Auto will take up to 5 gallons at a time. Plus my town has an oil/hazmat collection location for residents. Between the 2 I should be good.

The O'Reilly thing has been great for me. I had a friend that had a big truck shop and I dropped all my oil there. Plus if I had something come up that I couldn't do or didn't want to do, he did it. Well they closed the shop so it kinda put some kinks in things. But I have never in all my years never had a place not take my truck oil. If you explain it's one oil change. Lol, I was being lazy once a long time ago, before I became friends with the shop owner. I had like 40 gallons and I talked an Advance into taking it all.

Canadian_eh85

(07-12-2020 )JimT Wrote: Normally I go to TA as stated due to cost comparison. As for greasing, I really have no clue what's supposed to be greased. Sure I see a bunch of spots, but it would be nice to find some kind of check list so I don't overlook something critical. I know I've caught other mechanics missing obvious ones on my truck before, and they should know

Any other tools or such, other then the basic wrenches, that might come in handy for any of the other items listed? I'd like to have everything I need on hand so I can knock it all out in one shot. Even makeshift homemade devices are welcome!

Suggestions on particular grease to use? TA's been pumping some redish stuff in there, not exactly sure of the product or brand. Just don't want to mix incompatible stuff together by accident. Also, suggestions on grease guns? I'v got a cheap one from harbor freight, not too fond of it. Wouldn't mind getting one or two

Well as for grease spots I just start at the front and work my way back. If there’s a grease nipple than grease goes there. Unless you have greaseless front spring bushing and drive line you will have grease nipples on each end of your front springs, your king pings in your steering axle as well as each of your tie-rod ends, clutch peddle linkage, steering shaft u-joints and slip shaft. As a rule when you grease you pump it tell you hear or see it starting to purge from the seals. That important to push out any of the crap in there. Underneath your tranny’s clutch release bearing will need a couple pumps, as well as each of your cross shafts in the bell housing. Your drive line u-joint as a rule will take about 10-15 pumps before they start to purge. Always check to make sure all your caps are purging together. If you only have a couple that purge and the rest don’t it’s time to look at replacing that u-joint. If you have greased slip yokes on your drive line I give mine about 25-50 pumps each time a grease. Your s-cam tubs need to be grease as well as your slack adjusters. A couple pumps for the slacks is about all the take tell they purge and your s-cams depends on when they were last greased..... as a rule I pump tell I hear or see a lil grease purge on each tube. I grease my truck once a week but I run a lot of off road and am hauling around 140,000lbs. I have always used a full synthetic grease either mobile 1 or chevron full synthetic NGL 1.5-2 and vis 150-460 depending on the time of year or what’s available to me. Have had good luck with it and in 6 years have yet to replace tie rod ends or kingpins and never have a u-joint fail that I didn’t catch first. Another bonus to greasing your truck your self and why I WILL NOT EVER let some one else do it. Is when I am under there I am not just greasing I and checking everything out for play, wear, tear, cracks, Air leaks, do my brake adjustments you name it. That is my time to make sure everything is up to my standers and to fix what I find wrong.

Tools......well depending on your slack adjusters you will either need a 7/16 wrench which you will turn the adjust but clockwise tell it tightens and then you will back it off a 1/4-1/3 turn..... that style if it’s an auto slack will ratchet when you back it off. The other style you will use a 5/16 wrench and a flat head screwdriver. Same thing for for adjusting it. Clockwise tell brake is tight against the drum and then you have to use the flat head to lift the flat headed dent pin and sack it off a 1/4-1/3 turn. When I am greasing while I am under there I adjust all my brakes. Even though all my brake are auto slacks I still like to do them manually every week or so. Sometimes they don’t always adjust like they should so never trust that your brakes are adjusted just because they are auto slacks. A few mins of checking while greasing goes a long ways to keeping everything up to spec.

As for grease guns. Honestly there is nothing wrong with a good old fashion hand pump grease gun, I have used them lots and like it for the fact you can feel the grease as it’s going in and when it purges. That being said I do run an cordless grease gun. All my cordless tools are Milwaukee M18 fuel brushless. Awesome grease gun. 2 speed and I can go though 10 tubes of grease before I need to recharge the batterie.

Hope I didn’t overwhelm you, just thought I would give you a basic list of what to look for. Best of luck. Once you start doing this stuff yourself you won’t want to let anyone else do it for you.

JimT

(07-13-2020 )Canadian_eh85 Wrote: Hope I didn’t overwhelm you, just thought I would give you a basic list of what to look for. Best of luck. Once you start doing this stuff yourself you won’t want to let anyone else do it for you.

Not at all! That's exactly what I was looking for. I've been slowly trying to learn and do more and more things myself. Partly to save money, but mostly to gain that piece of mind that everything is in the best condition to be safe, avoid breakdowns and make money.

I can see how guys who are used to doing this might think 'oh you just get under there and hit every spot'. Problem for us who are just starting out is that we don't always know every spot to go looking for. I know from my own past learning experiences that when you crawl under that truck if you don't know your looking at, or what to look for, it's really easy to miss something that should be obvious. It's dirty, stuffs fallin in your face, everything is coated in grease/oil/road grime and looking about the same. In my case I'm basically flat on my back shimmying around under there. I could be staring right at something and not even realize it.

One more thing, how much grease should I have on hand? sounds like 1 tube probably won't be enough...

Canadian_eh85

(07-13-2020 )JimT Wrote: One more thing, how much grease should I have on hand? sounds like 1 tube probably won't be enough...

I keep a case of 10 tubes with me in my truck......,.. not 10 all the time just keep using them tell I am out and then get a new case. Depending on how Often you grease will depend on how much you use. If you are doing all your s-cams each time and U-joints and driveline slip yoked then 2 tubes are easy to go through. Again all depend on how long since the last time and usage. If you on top of it than it might be less then 2 tubes. Than again if you like me and you are doing a trailer as well which the whole unit has 8 axles, 2 lift boxes and a converter....... 3 tubes disappear faster than Pizza at a weight watchers convention

Chamberpains

Just like anything else learned in life, get over the fear of the unknown and start asking what is that? If its something complicated, take it piece by piece by piece and ask/answer what is that. When you ask/answer this a bunch on trucks, you'll find they are really simple gigantic machines.

Waterloo

When you drop that pan, follow the instructions on QuickServe, I would take photos with the phone too prior to starting. Note where any lines are attached at the pan, and which bolts go where. There should be a mix of normal and studded bolts under there.

Now, this is crucial, do not use a zip gun, stick with a wrench, or say a powered ratchet, do not use anything that is too aggressive under there to remove these pan bolts. The areas of real concern are the front and rear structures, as they are aluminum and if you start exerting force in those areas, you will be breaking out the Heli-Coil kit, as that aluminum is soft and you will strip the threaded holes out.

Also, when you torque those bolts in the aluminum, go lightly, you may find that you will be not torquing those bolts to the specs cummins calls for. Just tread lightly up there.

And the RTV for the corners of the pan/block. You will see where the structures meet the block, use a nice bead in those areas and you should be fine. If you reuse the pan gasket, you may have to add a bit more RTV, maybe a small bead along the front and rear structure, much will depend on the condition of the old pan gasket and how aggressive they were prior with the RTV. I had no luck reusing my gasket, as the RTV was welded to the rubber on the gasket. Make sure you can get one locally, just in case.

And when you drop the pan, before you can actually remove it, you will need to remove the oil pick up tube and the bracket that holds it all in place along with the block brace. I believe those were 15mm bolts, if not they were 13mm. There are three that hold the pickup tube in place, you need to remove the three bolts, allow the oil pickup tube and bracket to drop into the pan and then you can remove the pan from under the truck. The block brace is self explanatory, I believe four bolts held that in place. A long 1/2" ratchet or breaker bar may be required to remove those bolts.

If you are checking for coolant in the liners, I would let the truck sit overnight, and then start the procedure of barring the motor, let some of that oil drain out prior to getting under there, as it can get very messy. You will need two people, one to bar the motor, and one of you under the motor with a good flashlight. Wear a junk shirt, and have rags on hand to wipe the oil off of your face.

Chamberpains

Probably a dumb question but you say you use 1 gallon of oil in 3000 miles. Does it happen to use 2 gallons in 6000 miles or does it kind of slow down and level off? Some engines just use a bit of oil and find their own full level. Have you ever let it go clear down to the add line and a hair below to see what the engine is actually consuming in 10,000 miles?

JimT

(07-13-2020 )Chamberpains Wrote: Probably a dumb question but you say you use 1 gallon of oil in 3000 miles. Does it happen to use 2 gallons in 6000 miles or does it kind of slow down and level off? Some engines just use a bit of oil and find their own full level. Have you ever let it go clear down to the add line and a hair below to see what the engine is actually consuming in 10,000 miles?

It's actually pretty consistent. Quantity went up a little after the demandate, but the frequency is pretty stable. It varies a little bit depending on engine load, but over all it averages about 1 gal in about 3k mi. I used to go about a quart or so over full at the oil change then wait until it gets about half way down the dipstick. But I found I was getting a lot of oil in the breather case. Now I bring it right up to, but not exceeding, the full mark. Much less oil in and around the breather. Once it gets about half way down the dipstick it usually takes about 3 quarts to bring it back to the full mark. I check it daily, but only add it when it drops enough. I can usually hear the difference in the engine, the usual clatter gets louder, once I hit the half way point on the dipstick.

On a side note, I've noticed that the dipstick reading can vary by a least a quart simply depending which way the truck is leaning. It's rare to find completely level ground, so every time I check the oil I glance at the davco right near by to see how level the engine is. Even the difference between full and empty airbags on the tractor can cause a measurable difference on my dipstick. I've watched it long enough to know what angles equate to each other, but at first it panicked me when it seemed like I dropped a quart in a day, added a quart, then the next day I was a quart over full! Just one of those quirks that is easy to overlook.

Started adding gear lube last oil change. Other then a little higher cold start oil pressure I haven't noticed any difference. Although, now the exhaust smells like a fresh lube job instead of sooty burnt oil!

Finally, I should note that I have no oil leaks that drip to the ground. Even the oil pressure sensor, as wet as it looks around there, there's never even a single drop of oil that hits the ground. The front of tranny/back of engine is a different story. Leaking gear lube from there, but only while the engine is on. Been doing that since I got the truck 2 years ago and I've only had to add lube twice because of it.