Oil Requirements for Volvo Penta vs. Yanmar

[Barry Cohen]

I currently have a 2011 R27 with a 4BY2-180 Yanmar engine. It requires a 5W-40 fully synthetic oil.

For those of you with newer models that have a D3 or D4 Volvo Penta, what are the oil requirements for the engine and the transmission?

 

[ttlmac]

Barry, I am using standard 15W 40 oil in the Volvo D4 in my R31. As far as I know, people are not using synthetic oil in this type engine.
Tom
Indian Summer II

 

[SGIDAVE]

Barry, I am using standard 15W 40 oil in the Volvo D4 in my R31. As far as I know, people are not using synthetic oil in this type engine.
Tom
Indian Summer II

I'm a fan of using what the operators manual says to use. Generally, TA (turbo-aspirated) engines are MUCH harder on their oil than their NA (naturally aspirated) brothers - so a higher grade of oil might be wise in this case.

Below is the page from the D4 operators manual that lists oil grade requirements. Sorry for the poor image quality. Without looking at this table whilst standing in the oil aisle at the parts store, I'm not sure which specification is regular vs synthetic(i.e., what does VDS-2, API CH4, etc actually mean?). Note that for fuel with higher sulfur content, the oil drain intervals are HALVED (200 v 100 hours).

dave

 

[Red Raven]

I believe the sulfur content vs. oil change interval in the manual is talking about the sulfur content of the diesel fuel used not the sulfur content of the oil.

Our D3 manual just lists VDS-3 which is the Volvo standard roughly equivalent to the American Peteoleum Institute Standards (API) CH-4/CI-4. The container for Rotella T lists API CJ-4 and VDS-4 which to my understanding meets all the requirements of VDS-3 and CI-4. CJ-4 (VDS-4) is the latest standard.

See http://www.volvoce.com/dealers/en-gb/vcegb/partsservice/lubricants/Pages/dieselengineoils.aspx

And http://www.api.org/~/media/Files/Ce...iesel/Publications/MOM_GUIDE_ENGLISH_2013.pdf

I believe natural or synthetic oils can meet these same standards. Our D3 manual says either is OK as long as they meet the specs of VDS-3 and changed according to the sulfur content of the fuel.