For owners of construction equipment with diesel particulate filters, this episode of The Dirt will show you how to get up to 2.5 times longer life from your DPF.
“What ultimately kills a diesel particulate filter – which most people don’t get – it’s the oil,” says Gene Jensen, Chevron lubricant trainer. “It’s the engine oil’s fault.”
Much of that oil contains metallic additives that don’t burn off in the equipment’s aftertreatment system, leaving ash that clogs the filter. Fuel additives and other solutions to reduce soot are helpful, but for tackling the real culprit, you’ll need a low-ash oil, Jensen explains.
Chevron’s Delo 600 ADF uses Omnimax ultra-low-ash technology to not only boost DPF life, but its synthetic blend also increases oil intervals and extends fuel mileage, Jensen explains.
So to learn more about your equipment’s DPF and how to extend its life, check out the latest episode of The Dirt.
Equipment World serves up weekly videos on the latest in construction equipment, work trucks and pickup trucks – everything contractors need to get their work done. Subscribe and visit us at equipmentworld.com!
In This Episode:
- 00:00 – DPFs & Ash: How are They Related?
- 00:36 – What Kills a DPF?
- 05:53 – Longer Oil Drain Intervals
- 07:10 – Oil Drain Intervals & Warranties
- 10:50 – Emissions Technology Doesn’t Need to Be Avoided
- 13:01 – Deleting Emissions Software
- 16:49 – Delo 600 ADF in Non-DPF Machines
- 18:59 – Justifying the Cost of Delo 600 ADF
- 20:31 – Final Thoughts
00:00:00:10 - 00:00:35:12
Bryan Furnace
Today we're back to talk about DPF and ash. What is that relationship? Why is it so important and why are these new ultra-low ash oils like Delo 600 ADF so important? What sets them apart? Today we're talking with Gene Jensen with Chevron, and he's going to break it down for us and put it in some terms that we can really hit home within our industry.
00:00:35:14 - 00:00:47:00
Bryan Furnace
So I guess my big question that, that everyone's kind of wondering in our industry is why is Delo 680 ADF? So special? And why do we keep talking about it?
00:00:47:01 - 00:01:08:06
Gene Jensen
It's because of the ash content and how that relates to the diesel particulate filter, or what ultimately kills that diesel particulate filter, which most people just don't get is that it's the oil. It's the engine oil’s fault. We put our lives in the oil like zinc and magnesium and calcium, and they're metallic and they will not burn through a DPF.
00:01:08:08 - 00:01:34:04
Gene Jensen
The soot, which comes from fuel that cycled through region goes away. But the ash C because every diesel engine uses a little bit of oil, they're made to do that. Gas engines are not made to do that. But diesel engines are. And it's the additive in that oil that gets burned. That's the real problem. And eventually it chokes it out and everybody is spending a whole bunch of time working on the side.
00:01:34:06 - 00:01:58:16
Gene Jensen
You know, our 99 better fuel, fuel additives less. That's all great. That adds to this whole conversation. But it's the problem is the other side of the equation, which is the ash. And, you know, we're the only ones that seem to be addressing it from the ash content. So that's what happens is, is if you have less ash, the DPF last longer period.
00:01:58:18 - 00:02:22:07
Gene Jensen
It's as simple as that. And so, you know, the American Petroleum Institute, they recognize that. And so they're changing the spec. They're lowering the ash. But the thing you know, to answer your question that we're so different with is that even with the new spat, we are significantly lower at ash. We're like we're way ahead of the curve on on what this does.
00:02:22:08 - 00:02:43:22
Gene Jensen
What that means to the customers is the DPF last longer. There's some other benefits that come along with that as well, because there's less ash, the machine breathes better and so they get better fuel economy. And I realize that you guys know I've been doing this for two years. They don't really sometimes even track how much fuel goes through that big piece of yellow equipment.
00:02:43:22 - 00:02:44:11
Gene Jensen
I get it.
00:02:44:11 - 00:02:45:03
Bryan Furnace
Right.
00:02:45:05 - 00:03:08:01
Gene Jensen
But it turns out that it uses less fuel because you know, my stupid story? The fat exhaust systems choked out. You know, I have no personal knowledge of this. But, you know, some of my buddies, they put potatoes in tailpipes and the machine doesn't run when you put, you know, if you want to have somebody's car die, you put a bullet because it can't breathe, right?
00:03:08:02 - 00:03:25:05
Gene Jensen
Right. And so if it can't, if it can't breathe, if it can't breathe, then, well, you know, the performance goes away. But the fuel economy tank. So what is all this if you have less stuff in the tailpipe, plugging it up in the form of ash, you know things are better.
00:03:25:07 - 00:03:50:19
Bryan Furnace
Yeah. And and it is interesting. So I've been talking with you folks at Chevron for, for multiple years now. And it is kind of interesting because I see the oil side of this now. And I grew up in this industry hearing the kind of on-the-job stuff side of it, and to kind of bring all of this full circle for everybody, you know, we're told on the job, one of the worst things you can do for the machine is idle it.
00:03:50:21 - 00:04:14:06
Bryan Furnace
And yes, that's true because you're not getting those temperatures up enough that it's able to cook off that diesel particulate. And so one major problem of clogged DPS on our job site is excessive idle time. But I think the problem is and to the detriment of the industry, that's all we've ever talked about is excessive idle time and not getting those exhaust temperatures up.
00:04:14:08 - 00:04:36:22
Bryan Furnace
And we've never really talked about where the true clogging is coming from because like you just addressed, I can cook all of that particulate, that soot off that's going to go away. When we do a good, healthy region. We're going to burn it all out. But I can't think of a single time on a job site or even when purchasing equipment or Jean, to be honest with you, even selling equipment.
00:04:36:22 - 00:04:56:13
Bryan Furnace
I was never told about the ash component that's coming from the oil in those engines. That is ultimately going to lead to that DPF clogging to the point that you have to take it off the machine and you have to service it. And so that's where I think there's this big misconception about what ashes.
00:04:56:15 - 00:05:19:20
Gene Jensen
Yeah. So and then maybe even a little bit more on on that is, is that, you know, the soot comes and goes through regeneration. We've already said that what happens is as the ash builds up over time, it won't burn region won't get rid of the ash. We've already said that will say it again. But as that ash builds up over time, then there's less room for the soot to cycle.
00:05:19:20 - 00:05:30:12
Gene Jensen
So then as you go through there, then you've got more and more and more often regions to the point where at a certain point you're rejecting. So much, it's like, okay, it's.
00:05:30:12 - 00:05:31:02
Bryan Furnace
Not even worth it.
00:05:31:02 - 00:05:51:16
Gene Jensen
Yeah, time to clean this out. But if you have less ash, you've got more room for a longer period of time in that DPF and what you end up with is, well, first of all, the DPF last longer. That's one bucket. And the you know, the other bucket is, is all the while it breathes better. So you're getting better efficiency, you're getting more horsepower out of that machine than it is.
00:05:51:16 - 00:06:13:16
Gene Jensen
Works better. Now there's another thing you ask, what's different about this oil is it's almost all synthetic. Now. We don't publish, you know, the percentages, but it's it's very, very high percentage is synthetic. It's a tough bugger of an oil. And so because of that we're we're seeing long grain intervals as well. You know, when I first started 40 years ago, everybody was changing oil at like 150 hours.
00:06:13:18 - 00:06:36:07
Gene Jensen
And then they went to 250. And now it's kind of sneaking up on 500. We still have people doing a lot less, but we're seeing hours of 750. We're seeing hours of the thousand. We're even seeing some cases, you know, more than that. The technology on these oils is just unbelievable. So I want to make sure that I'm heard here is that we don't just jump to an extended drain.
00:06:36:07 - 00:07:01:08
Gene Jensen
We just go say, okay, you're at 250 hours, go to 750. No, we don't do that. Well, we say it's like we want to do oil analysis. And one of the things we're doing the first year that the customers on this product is we're paying for most of the cost of, you know, we're not paying for the shipping, but we're paying for the oil analysis itself because we want to see how long it will go, and we want to prove how long it will go.
00:07:01:14 - 00:07:08:22
Gene Jensen
If you're going to go into an extended drain situation, you've got to use oil analysis. And that's one of the reasons why Chevron's doing what we're doing.
00:07:09:00 - 00:07:27:20
Bryan Furnace
So talk about the aspect of, you know, I know for a lot of guys, you kind of read through your maintenance manual and and whether it's Caterpillar, Case, Komatsu, whoever, they will give you the recommended oil drain intervals for that piece of equipment. And so as contractors, we've kind of got two sets of information that you're getting hit with.
00:07:27:20 - 00:07:44:05
Bryan Furnace
You're getting the manufacturer saying, hey, you need to change your oil about this level. But then you got oil companies saying, no, no, no, no, you can do extended rain intervals. And so how do we kind of merge those two? And how do we as contractors protect ourselves. So we don't go into the Cat dealership, and they go, oh whoa whoa whoa.
00:07:44:06 - 00:07:56:19
Bryan Furnace
You you didn't change your oil to 1200 hours this last round. Like, we're not going to cover this.
00:08:37:06 - 00:08:58:04
Gene Jensen
Yeah, and that's a great point. And there's a there's a DPF part of this too, which I'll answer second, but relative to the oil analysis, I mean, how do you prove yourself. It's oil analysis. If you have proof, you know, that you've looked at the wearing metals, you've looked at, you know, the viscosity you've looked at, you know, all the things that an oil analysis does.
00:08:58:04 - 00:09:17:04
Gene Jensen
That's the proof. When you go into an extended drain situation, you've got to have proof that you haven't been hurting it. And the thing is oil analysis. So that's the answer to that question. But it also opens up a second part, which is caterpillar said, look, I got to have you change it at 40 500 hours. And I go like timeout.
00:09:17:06 - 00:09:39:23
Gene Jensen
If you look, there's also in that same it's the book's called SABU. That's an acronym for, you know, this is the spec book or whatever. But anyway in that book it also says if you work that machine heavy like 24, 20 500 hours. So just right out of the gate, they're saying, well, depending on, you know, fuel burn, if you're working a machine heavy, your fuel power or whatever is heavy.
00:09:40:00 - 00:09:59:00
Gene Jensen
If you're not working it very hard, then you don't use as much fuel. So the DPF life is based on fuel burn. Well, just right out of the gate. They just told us that it depends. It depends on, you know, things. And so people confuse those numbers as a warranty. It's not it's already a depend thing. That's just a recommendation.
00:09:59:03 - 00:10:24:13
Gene Jensen
One of the things we go by is how often is it is it really you know, if caterpillar says this machine is supposed to go 40 500 hours, in the case of double 600, you got two and a half times less ash. So just doing straight math that I learned in my little town in Cedar City, Utah is that when you do when you divide, you know, 1% sulfate at ash, which is the current spark by hours, which is 0.4 that you get two and a half.
00:10:24:13 - 00:10:46:08
Gene Jensen
So boom, just right out of the gate, it's two and a half times less. So just so straight math. If you know caterpillar says 40 500 hours, boom. You're you know, you're well above 10,000 hours, 12, you know, 14 whatever thousand hours because you have less ash. So it's really dependent. And people say no, caterpillar says it's a warranty.
00:10:46:08 - 00:10:50:07
Gene Jensen
No. Caterpillar says it depends. It depends.
00:10:50:09 - 00:11:15:02
Bryan Furnace
There's another component to this that it's unfortunate the way the emissions standards rolled out and then the way that the emissions after treatment systems rolled out because it really burned our industry hard. And they're still to this day, a ton of guys that they will jump through astronomical hoops to track down a piece of equipment that is premium.
00:11:15:03 - 00:11:31:22
Bryan Furnace
And I do get it from the aspect of, you know, we like the power, we like the simplicity of being able to work on it. But the flip side of that is we're starting to move into a time where that's no longer an option. You can't go find that just mint condition 1996 excavator that you've been chasing in the last ten years.
00:11:31:22 - 00:11:50:12
Bryan Furnace
It doesn't exist anymore. And I think there's a lot of the industry that's really scared of these after treatment systems because of all of this stuff that happened very early on. And what guys aren't putting together is, first of all, the after-treatment systems have come a long way and just as a whole, you don't see the issues that you used to.
00:11:50:14 - 00:12:14:02
Bryan Furnace
But then if you take it a step further and you spend the money on an oil like Dell, oh 600, you're kind of taken out of the equation that DPF maintenance because, you know, as you just said, if cat's recommended about 40 500 hours, well, if we're going two and a half times that, now you're talking over 9 to 10,000 hours on that machine before we even have to start thinking about some sort of a DPF maintenance situation.
00:12:14:04 - 00:12:33:21
Bryan Furnace
And, and there's a lot of contractors that are flipping their equipment before that's ever an issue. So for those contractors, you've now taken the DPF maintenance totally out of your hair. You don't have to mess with it. You're kicking the can down the road to the next guy. Or the flip side is you got those contractors that they'll put 15 to 20,000 hours on a machine.
00:12:33:21 - 00:12:54:10
Bryan Furnace
And just by changing the oil you're putting in it, you've reduced that from doing 3 or 4 rounds of DPF maintenance over the life of that machine to maybe once, maybe towards the end you might have to do a second one. I mean, that's a that's a substantial cost savings for just switching the kind of oil you're using.
00:12:54:10 - 00:13:00:09
Bryan Furnace
And I don't think that's what we're really getting on the front lines is the impact that this has.
00:13:00:11 - 00:13:21:08
Gene Jensen
Yeah. I just you're right. You know, there's there's a whole thing out there as well where they delete the stuff, you know, they're, they bring it in and then they just tear it all off. And I'm going like, I just don't think because then, you know, everything's computer based. I mean, when you're when your tech shows up with anything that's close to new-ish, what do they do?
00:13:21:08 - 00:13:56:05
Gene Jensen
They plug in a laptop, right? If you've deleted that stuff or modified it or something like that, it's just it's just not worth it. A little funny story. I was up in Canada, not too long ago, and they this person that spent a bunch of money and was so proud of the fact that they had pulled their DPF off of there, and I'm going, you realize you just killed the warranty and and you know, and then I'm also hearing and and this is I haven't actually seen an article, but I was with some folks that Ritchie Brothers auction and they said, hey, we're just not going to mess around with anything that's been deleted.
00:13:56:05 - 00:14:01:09
Gene Jensen
So it's time. I mean, the technology has improved. You know, that's my recommendation.
00:14:01:11 - 00:14:21:10
Bryan Furnace
It's it's funny that we're having this conversation today because just yesterday my business partner myself had an issue with this. So we bought a used service truck that the previous owner had deleted all of the emissions stuff off of. And we needed to get a key made up by Ford because it's one of the newer trucks. It has the job that has to be programed.
00:14:21:12 - 00:14:40:05
Bryan Furnace
We took it into the dealership, and they made their key and then, without talking to us, hooked their laptop in and started doing all of the software updates that Ford had said they needed to do to it. And so when we got our truck back yesterday, it will not go over 50 miles an hour because it's in limp mode.
00:14:40:05 - 00:15:01:22
Bryan Furnace
And all of the issues popped up. And, and my business partner went to Ford and said, hey, you guys weren't supposed to do any of these updates. And their response was, we're a dealership. Sorry about the bad luck, but we cannot do anything to fix that. In fact, we technically should be reporting you. And so that's that's what a lot of guys, I think don't realize when they do that to the equipment.
00:15:01:22 - 00:15:20:20
Bryan Furnace
It's just like the auto dealers. You know, I used to work for a dealership. If you delete that stuff, the dealer will not touch it. And if it goes into the dealership, they're going to do things that are going to have an impact on that tune. They're going to cause issues. You're going to have issues unless you have a private mechanic that is always there, willing to work on that machine.
00:15:20:20 - 00:15:27:22
Bryan Furnace
And I think a lot of guys don't really realize that when they're sold the the beautiful delete kits, that that's going to fix all their problems.
00:15:28:00 - 00:15:43:19
Gene Jensen
Yeah, it's almost in some cases and I'm these are my words. Not anybody is. But it's almost like they have a badge of honor. Like I got the man, you know, I'm going to get the man. I'm going to I'm going to. He can't tell me what I'm going to have on my machine. I'm going to delete this stuff.
00:15:43:19 - 00:15:50:19
Gene Jensen
I'm going to get the man. And, you know, I get I get that attitude. But I think it's going to hurt you. I do.
00:15:50:19 - 00:15:53:19
Bryan Furnace
Ultimately, you're causing more headaches for yourself.
00:15:53:22 - 00:16:01:19
Gene Jensen
Yeah. Just like you yesterday. Right. You've had. So you're going to have to go. You're going to have to go to some back alley and say, hey.
00:16:01:19 - 00:16:02:18
Bryan Furnace
How exactly.
00:16:02:22 - 00:16:07:17
Gene Jensen
Come work on my truck, you know, and I will have to pay $100 bills underneath the hood.
00:16:07:21 - 00:16:30:00
Bryan Furnace
That's it. That's it. We had to jump online and find someone that could redo this tune. And I'll just say it. It's going to cost us another $2,500 to get this truck back. And just operating order because of a software update. That ultimately boils down to the fact that the previous owner deleted this stuff. And and then we took it into a dealership.
00:16:30:00 - 00:16:45:23
Bryan Furnace
So so ultimately deleting. I agree, it's not the answer. Especially not the technology's come along and we're not having the issues that we were. You can absolutely get a very functional piece of equipment having the after-treatment system on it. It doesn't have to be the headache that it used to be.
00:16:46:01 - 00:16:47:15
Gene Jensen
Agreed. Totally agree.
00:16:47:17 - 00:17:01:04
Bryan Furnace
My final question for you is we've always associated Delos 600 with DCFs. Do engines without DCFs get the same benefits from the oil as engines with DCFs?
00:17:01:06 - 00:17:09:01
Gene Jensen
Okay, to be honest with you, if it doesn't have a DPF, then the extension of the DPF doesn't doesn't apply.
00:17:09:03 - 00:17:09:21
Bryan Furnace
Doesn't matter.
00:17:09:21 - 00:17:32:12
Gene Jensen
Right now. The drain intervals is a real thing. Okay. Yeah. This is highly synthetic. This is tough. The additives are tough. The wear is last to the longevity. Is there all those things we kind of alluded to here. They totally get that. But everything relative to the DPF and breathing better and all that. If there isn't one, then it's not.
00:17:32:12 - 00:17:53:00
Gene Jensen
But what we see is we see customers that have they've got DPF, and they don't, okay. They have both. And so they want a product that does both. And so we do it there not I'm going to say one other thing here that that that comes in is that every once in a while, and I don't know if this applies, but we're seeing some CNG semi cab.
00:17:53:02 - 00:18:14:15
Gene Jensen
Right. The compressed natural gas where they're worried about emissions, especially in trucking, especially on the trucking side, this passes the commons. It was a lot of work to pass that test, but it passes the Commons natural gas. So you can use this in pre DPF. You can use it in DPF units. And you can also use it in natural gas units.
00:18:14:17 - 00:18:27:22
Gene Jensen
So that's that's something that that's very different there. But your point is well taken is that if they don't have a DPF then the benefits that we talk about what the DPF apply because it's just it's not there. It's just not there.
00:18:28:04 - 00:18:55:14
Bryan Furnace
Yeah. Well you kind of headed me off at the pass because ultimately where I was kind of going with that is if I've got machines with DPS, but I also have machines without DPS. You're still getting just to reiterate the drain interval advantage, that synthetic advantage, you just don't get the additional benefits. And really where this true benefit comes from is that extension on the DPF service life, you're not going to get that benefit because like you said there is no DPF.
00:18:55:14 - 00:18:56:22
Bryan Furnace
You don't have that restriction.
00:18:57:02 - 00:19:32:03
Gene Jensen
Yeah. And also in all honesty is this product I mean it's mostly synthetic and it's you know, the additives are super tough. It's more expensive. We're not going to talk price here. But it's more it's the more expensive. And so we have found you know we've got three buckets that we talked about that that this addresses the DPF which we spent most of the time on today, the drain intervals which we spent some time on, and then also the fuel economy and different people are paying attention to different one of those, but each one of those independently will more than pay for the price difference in the oil.
00:19:32:06 - 00:19:51:13
Gene Jensen
So, you know, customers aren't going to buy this. They never buy this unless they're proved that they can save some money. Yeah. And when we do what we call a value model, as we look at like, what are you doing? How you what's your cost? Whether you're changing or not. But we pump out a value model in and in every case the value model's positive.
00:19:51:13 - 00:20:28:09
Gene Jensen
I've never had a negative one. And then and it's positive if you only look at one bucket. And if you look at two buckets or three buckets, you know, then it's substantially different. So Brian, nobody is talking about the real problem here, which is we've got DPF, they're not going away. Everybody's trying to work on fuel, and API is making a little bit of a move when they go to the new spec, the actual they're going to move a little bit in our direction, but not nearly as far as we already are, because the real direction is the ash and what it's doing to the DPF.
00:20:28:14 - 00:20:51:13
Bryan Furnace
Yeah. Well, Jean, thank you so much for all of this. This has been really informative, and I think I don't all of the conversations we've really had on this topic, I feel like this is, is the most relatable and organic conversation. That kind of brings it down to my level as a contractor, if you will. So I do really appreciate you chatting with us today.
00:20:51:15 - 00:21:05:18
Bryan Furnace
Well, thank you again for coming on the show to really hammer home why this is such an important topic and why we continue to talk about the relationship between DPS and ash. As always, I hope this helps you and your business. We'll catch you on the next episode of The Dirt.
