I have a cat 3U5099 #112 D315 engine and I'm trying to find out the grade of oil I should use and the best brand. I also need to know how many gallons it takes. I called my local cat dealer and they could not tell me, they tried looking for it but could not find it and transferred me to their headquarters and they could not find the information I requested. He did give me the cat manufacture and they said they should have that information available to them but they were closed. I was doing some grading on my road and I noticed the engine change tone like a slight knocking sound and kinda acted a little funny. I drove it back to the house and checked the oil and it seems a little too runny. I hope I didn't rune the motor. The intake plastic cover has a large hole in it and I was thinking maybe a dirt dauber nest might have got pulled into the intake but I'm only guessing. Thanks for any help, Damon.
Well I'm sure someone might have more information but I did find this in some information where the D315 was used in a Link-Belt crane: I would say any oil you would get today from a major brand today would be far advanced from what was sold back when that engine was new! For lack of any other ideas I would go with a straight weight of 30 or higher. You could always drain it out and measure how much comes out.
Do you have a working temperature gauge? If the engine was overheated then the oil would be thin, it might knock more in the bearings, and it would fuel knock if it gets hot enough. If the temperature was fine, then it's possible that an injector failed causing one cylinder to knock. You might be able to narrow it down to one cylinder by loosening the fuel injector lines one at a time to see which one does or doesn't change the knocking noise. Smell the oil for diesel also, it could be burning oil but being replaced by diesel as fast as it's burned, it won't last long that way.
That's true any brand today would probably be better than it was 62 years ago. Thanks for the info. The oil does have a diesel smell to it. I did have a major seal leak that dumped gallons of fuel in the oil that I repaired not too long ago and it could be from that, whatever residue was left over. Also after the repair I did have one injector leaking at the injection pump but wasn't major and stopped after a couple of hours. Temperature gauge works and was in the good, oil pressure showed good as the fuel pressure.