Impact of TD5 Centrifugal Filter - one for the oil gurus?

[gavinwibrow]

The TD5 centrifugal filter gets some positive comments on its effectiveness.

Just a thought. I was wondering - I use semi synthetic engine oil and change it every 10K km, but if I changed to fully synthetic, would that mean I could then get equivalent service with say 15K km oil changes?

[Xtreme]

I inspected the first one I changed at 12,000kms by cutting it in half. The hardened sludge built up around the side was only about 0.5mm or less thick. From that revelation and the way the centrifuge filter works, I figured that it could take considerably more buildup and still be operating satisfactorily.
I use full synthetic oil and have since only been changing my centrifuge filter every third oil change or 30,000kms and don't appear to be suffering any ill effects.
I must cut the next one I change i half to check it.

[AK83]

The TD5 centrifugal filter gets some positive comments on its effectiveness.

Just a thought. I was wondering - I use semi synthetic engine oil and change it every 10K km, but if I changed to fully synthetic, would that mean I could then get equivalent service with say 15K km oil changes?

There's more to oil than just filtering out the particulates, which is what the filter does.
Oil becomes acidic, loses shear resistance and all manner of stuff that makes it less 'oily' ...

So don't base your oil changes on the fact that the oil filter did this or that or whatever else ... change it based on how long it's been in the engine, how hard has it been pushed(ie. towing or hard core off roading).

From my understanding of oils(what I've researched), is that you wouldn't have issues if you extended oil changes to 15K if you use full synth. But it's not about the oil filter per se .. the oil itself has more durability to go that long.

[rick130]

FWIW the original, temperate climate recommended oil change interval for the TD5 using a 5w-30 full syn dual rated ACEA A3/B3 oil back in 1999 was 20,000km. Oil additive packages for the most part have improved quite a bit since then.
Actually, I don't think any part of Australia except Tassie met the Temperate/normal climate regime in that original oil change spec from Land Rover. The rest of Australia fell into the severe service category. (10,000km engine oil change intervals)

Oil changes can be extended.
As an example I was taking a Patrol with the TD42T engine that was towing horses to 20,000km before dumping the oil (in 2003) admittedly with a full syn HD diesel oil that was being used in DD60 Series and Cummins engines in interstate trucks out to 100,000km.
Using oil analysis, that oil was fine at those km, the wear metals were lower than a decent 15w-40 full mineral oil @ 5,000km but we were in front financially so I dumped it at 20,000 km.
Even though it was towing, that car was doing 5.5 hour trips several times a week at highway speeds and was box stock. That TD42T engine also had good oil filtration with a by-pass filter as one of its filters, plus a nice, large air cleaner. The oil has actually having quite an easy time.

How far you can go on an oil change depends on so many factors, including but not limited to;

a) length of trips
b) average speeds
c) highway or city stop/start
d) fuel quality.
f) tune
g) oil type, most importantly it's TBN (total base number, which indicates its reserve alkalinity, ie. it's ability to resist acidity)
h) EGR in diesels. The level of accumulated soot ends up being one of the biggest factors in determining an oils condemnation limit.
i) Air quality. The better the air filtration, the longer the oil (and engine) lasts.

The shorter the trips, (eg. less than 30 minutes) reduce your oil change interval. Stop/start city driving only, reduce your oil change interval. Live in the sub-tropics, eg the NSW north coast or coastal Qld, reduce your oil change interval. All these scenarios tend to increase moisture levels in an oil which increases acidity, helped along with increased levels of combustion blow-by due to the lower average operating temps.

I'm only doing 10,000km oil changes these days in the Disco, mostly less as the car hardly does 10,000km/year now and in all honesty it's not worth doing oil tests just to see how it looks, even though I'm semi-regularly doing oil tests on clients gear for work. It's cheaper and easier just to change the oil and filters.
I'm using a full blown full syn 10W-40 HD truck diesel oil that's licensed and good for 100,000km in Cummins, Volvo, Mack, MB, etc. truck engines but IMO the engine doesn't get hot enough with the relatively short trips I seem to do these days to boil off the volatiles like moisture, etc. so I dump it.

Also, one thing we do have to be a little aware of is fuel dilution. O rings and injector seals can leak, and no engine oil, regardless of cost and pedigree will protect against fuel dilution unless it's changed.

So, we can extend oil change intervals but IMO you really need to be doing used oil analysis and know what you're looking at before extending it.

[laney]

I just change all filters every 10,000 ks cheap insurance I use nulon 10w-40 semi syn HD diesel oil would prefer a full syn heavy duty diesel oil but nulon says the semi is just as good as full syn I am yet to be convinced of this.

[johnp38]

It's what rick130 said.

Lots of factors come into play, the centrifuge is almost inconsequential.

In my case I got rid of the centrifuge rather than re thread the leaky cap and re gasket the drainpipe.

Don't get me wrong, centrifuges are great and especially when they're kindly supplied fitted from factory, I had other ideas specifically for my vehicle, leave yours alone.

I have done about 7000 km since I got the vehicle in January 2020, it's had 3 oil changes in that time and I have 10 fresh litres of penrite 5-40 sitting around ready for the next change.

90 percent of my driving is a 4 click round trip to the local coles, no real warmup, lots of sitting around.

That is extremely harsh on the oil.

I have drummed it into my kids and anyone whose car I've worked on that you will never go wrong with frequent oil and filter changes, learn to do it yourself to save labour cost which can be spent on the good oils instead plus no arranging your activities around a workshop booking schedule.

Mechanics are there for the real problems in my opinion not oil changes.