Yes, its the same oil.

If you buy used ask what oil they ran in it. If new, ask the dealer or refer to the manufacturer of the engine (Cummins, International, Caterpillar, etc). Most of the time they are more than willing to answer questions.

I bought my Freightliner used (a 1998 with a new engine) and I'm using the same oil that the previous owner used (Mystik 15w-40). One thing I do is use Caterpillar fuel and oil filters (whatever brand engine you may have). Even though they are a tad more expensive I feel the quality is better.

You can change the oil yourself or have it done at any dealer or truckstop.

If you buy used you may consider getting an oil sample done.

The oil manufacturers will often have product data sheets, that specify which motors' specifications their oil will meet. This info is usually available on the Internet, and is sometimes printed directly on the oil containers.

Just like the automotive oils, most synthetic diesel oils, meet or exceed most diesel manufacturers' specifications and is interchangeable between truck brands.

Gard

I have never been able to justify the cost of synthetic oil for any engines.  I was going to start using it in our new Dodge but after research and actually putting numbers together it just wouldn't make sence.  The cost of the syn. oil is almost 3 times the cost of regular oil and would only extend the change 3-k to 5-k miles.

I do remove any and all egr related items that cause soot problems, so my oil stays clean anyway......

Plus if you have a Powerstroke engine you can cause damage by using synthetic oil.  The synthetic oil causes the oil to foam in the engine which leads to injector problems on these trucks since Powerstrokes have no injector pumps.

YES, good ol' fashion SHELL ROTELLA.  If you have one with some miles on it, I also use a quart of Lucas oil treatment.

Some will say syn. oil, but I have never justified higher cost.  Plus if the truck has higher miles and starting to leak a little oil the syn. oil will make the leak worse.

The synthetic oil causes the oil to foam

syn. oil will make the leak worse.

Old wives' tales. Neither is true

I used Mobil synthetic products in pretty much everything except one old Farmall tractor that still gets Rotella. The farmer that tends my land and that also is in the Haz-Mat business runs Schaeffer products. They have the oil tested at Blackstone labs. They change oil in the farm equipment one a year. They got several 3406E Caterpillar's that gets an oil change about every 50000 milles, along with several E7 Macks.

http://www.schaefferoil.com/

How about a 7.3 with 798000 miles before a rod broke!!! Engine was running Schaeffer synthetic oil. Watch the whole video, note the cylinder walls, crankshaft and the bearings!!.

http://www.youtube.com/user/powerstrokehelp?blend=4&ob=4#p/u/8/HrdcKBBVTJM

Synthetic lubricants keep all this equipment running... (That's me in the 4955 MFWD Deere with the 630 disk harrow!!)

http://www.pandfenv.com/job.html

It's high dollar oil but it's high dollar equipment that has to be ready to roll at anytime day or night. The vaccum truck may go to a site and run 24 hours a day for a week or more. Lubricants can never be too good.

Guess that is why I'll keep using it in my personal truck.

Going off of personal experence from a 1996 Ford F-350 with a 7.3L Powerstroke and a 178-k miles.  Started using Amsoil syn....  Had really small oil leak around the front seal, after 2 months and 6-k miles with syn. the leak turn to a flood and service manager also told me to pull the dip stick out while running and you could actually see the foamed up oil on the stick.  Changed back to ROTELLA that day and within 24 hours the leak was back to normal aswell as the dip stick. 

Have only noticed the oil foaming on the POWERSTROKE engines and was told it is because they have HPOP that run the injectors.