Reviewing School Bus Lube, Oil and Filter Practices
WRITTEN BY ROBERT T. PUDLEWSKI All maintenance managers pride themselves on
the work performed within their area of responsi- bility. Good maintenance managers continuously evaluate current methods of maintaining the fleet to deliver a service to the school district or operator as cost effective and reliable as it should be. Two basic questions to help in determining if
change is needed in your school bus lube, oil and fil- ter (LOF) and preventive maintenance program are:
1. Where does your transportation department
stand relative to Original Equipment Manufactur- er oil change interval and lubrication maintenance practices? 2. Can you accept your existing LOF and preventive
maintenance effectiveness from a cost and compliance point of view?
Let's examine the duty-cycle impact on
OEM-recommended LOF and the potential impact on your engine investment. For comparative pur- poses, assume that during the course of a 180-day school year the average school bus will travel 13,500 miles, use 2,000 gallons of fuel and have the engine record a run time of 900 hours. All this would occur within a 10-month period of essentially September through June. Tis does not count any time or mile- age from summer school, charter and extracurricular or athletic trips Te recommendations published on the Web for
International’s Max Force 7 diesel engine specify oil change intervals of every 10,000 miles, every 350 hours and every 1,000 gallons of fuel consumed, or every six months. Using the average duty cycle above would result in having to change the oil twice during the school year based on hours, or twice during the school year based on gallons of fuel used,
58 School Transportation News March 2014
or twice a calendar year based on the six-month requirement. If you only used mileage (10,000) as the Inter-
national recommended change interval you would only change the oil once a school year and, as a re- sult, you would be out of compliance with the other categories for hours run time, six-month intervals and no more than 1,000 gallons of fuel consumed. Meanwhile, the Cummins ISB 6.7 engine oil-
change interval published online is every 15,000 miles or 500 hours or every six months. If you only used mileage (15,000) as the Cummins recom- mended change interval, you would only change the oil, once a calendar year; you would then be out of compliance with the other categories for time (500 hours) and every six months. Several questions arise. When should I change my oil? And what criteria should I use? What is my school bus duty cycle measured in time mileage or fuel consumed? Always follow the specified engine OEM schedule for miles, time (engine hours and calendar) and fuel used. Determine your school bus annual duty cycle and see how close it is to the average mentioned above. Remember, the importance of LOF maintenance
compliance for OEM engine warranty service. To protect your investment, you must prove that you met the criteria for having maintained LOF to the rec- ommended OEM intervals for either miles, or fuel, or time in days or engine hours, and use the approved oil formula for the life of the engine warranty. What about all the talk relative to extended oil
change intervals? Oil change intervals typically have been extended by recommendations from oil and additive suppliers without consideration for the evo- lution of the new diesel engine, its duty description (normal versus severe), its emission devices, fuel
»Maintenance programs should always follow OEM recommended intervals for mileage, fuel consumed or time in days or engine hours since the last service was performed, writes Pudlewski.
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