2010 Kubota L4240 Tractor

           This report is arguably one of the most impressive oil analysis reports I’ve seen yet.  This is from a Kubota L4240 diesel tractor used on a golf course.   It was done when the tractor was quite new (one or two years old) and in very good condition.  The owner used our engine flush to clean his engine out before putting in AMSOIL’s AME 15W-40 Heavy Duty Diesel and Marine oil in his tractor.  He then ran his tractor for an entire year and almost 800 hours on that same oil.  The report came back extremely good. 

Remember, the still largely prevalent school of thought is to change the oil every 300 hours tops.  New tractor OEM’s are now pushing 500 hour oil changes, but unless these farmers spend the money on quality lubricants, which many do not, that is pushing things in my mind.  Yet even a 500 hour drain period is clearly rendered obsolete with AMSOIL, as this analysis report shows.

           Notice there is no colour on the entire sheet.  The engine wear is close to non-existent.  There is a small amount of fuel dilution after the whole year (1.3%)…not even enough to get a green flag.  And these tiny amounts are the worst of the report.  The TBN was still quite good at 6.04.  At the slow rate the oil was degrading at, this customer could have kept that oil in his tractor for another 400 hours, especially if he changed his oil filter.  He changes the oil & filter every winter regardless, but the oil could have safely gotten well over 1200 hours use.  Impressive! 

           The results are even more impressive when we learned the owner was only using standard cellulose filters for his tractor, and kept the same filter on the whole time!  Keeping any filter on that much longer than its rated service life is very bad practise, but damage here was mitigated by the fact this engine was almost new and very clean and tight.  Very few combustion by-products made their way into the sump past the rings, and it was a clean working environment.  If it was an older, more worn engine, or worked in a dirtier environment than it did, this filter could have plugged up before the end, and that could have done a lot of harm.  Thankfully it was still doing it's job (confirmed by low silicon counts) and the engine and the oil both came out super at almost 800 hours and 13-14 months of daily use.  You can trust the quality of AMSOIL!