Rotella t4 in a 350 gasser.

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Mar 19, 2022
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73
Location
Central Mississippi
I was changing my oil on my c2500. It has a tbi 5.7 and my oil of choice is rotella t4 15w40. It's a good 40 weight oil and in ms it dosent get cold enough (often enough) to worry about the 15w.
My friend was with me and we were drinking beer and he proceeds to tell me that I'm a complete idiot for using this oil in a gas engine.

Well I've seen and heard of tons of people using this stuff in these older v8s. It's worked for a year now on this truck. (And my 79 bronco that I had, the pontiac fiero 2.5 I had).
He tells me that I should be using cheap gas oil in it. (The t4 is 16ish bucks a jug here at a local wally world in central ms)
And I use a fram tg or a wix. Depends if walmart has the tg or not.
Idk It rubbed me the wrong way when he said that.
What are you guys thoughts?
 
Well, the converter was removed by the previous owner. It had one of those giant pellet style cats under it like my 91 used to. When I finally get around to installing my longtube headers I'll put a decent hiflow cat on there to hopefully cut down on some of the exhaust smell. If t4 will hurt it I won't waste money on a cat though.
 
Your friend and drinking beer should be clue enough !
Brother had a 83 caprice wagon that was used as a school shuttle ,after factory fill lived it's life on esso 15w40 had over 400000 on it never any engine issue's , always started even in our cold winters ,mind you it did have a block heater and it was used.
 
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As long as the HDEO is API “s” rated, it’s dual rated. IIRC some aren’t.

Snap a photo of the back of the bottle and post it here. Looking at the Rotella T4 product sheet, I’m not sure it is dual rated anymore, since it doesn’t list API SN/SN Plus, etc. See here:

F02682D7-11E9-4277-9097-0AEF5CB544B2.jpeg


I’d have no issues running an HDEO in a gas engine if it holds an API S spec. If not. I wouldn’t run it.

IMO a 10w-30 oil is a better bet in a 350.
 
Worked for a construction company in central Iowa from 2006-2009 as their fleet mechanic. Most of the trucks were either late 90s Vortec 350s or 01-05 Chevy 5.3 or 6.0 LS variants. Their oil of choice was Cat 15w40, year round, as they had roughly a 15,000 gallon tank of it for the equipment. Most of those trucks had over 300K on them by the time they got rid of them, and in that 3 year span I only remember changing one engine, at least in the Chevys. They did have a few newer Fords with the 3 valve 5.4, and the cams and timing gear in those didn't really care for it, but it didn't bother the Chevy gassers a bit.
 
Review this thread:


Just to verify, Rotella does not carry an API “S” rating anymore, and therefore isn’t really suitable for spark/gasoline engines.

Not that it necessarily matters a ton for an old gas engine with no carb…. But technically it is not designed to be used with gas engines any longer. It certainly used to be.
 
Review this thread:


Just to verify, Rotella does not carry an API “S” rating anymore, and therefore isn’t really suitable for spark/gasoline engines.

Not that it necessarily matters a ton for an old gas engine with no carb…. But technically it is not designed to be used with gas engines any longer. It certainly used to be.
It may not carry an API S rating anymore but it's absolutely fine for older engines like that 350.
 
IMHO , run it... if it burns oil , you might have to replace your cat converter sooner than anticipated.
But I use store Brand 15W-40 and Delo 15W-40 in my 1997 Honda Accord , it's my top off oil . Right now I have Fram 15W-40 in my stash.
Ain't hurt it a bit.
 
It may not carry an API S rating anymore but it's absolutely fine for older engines like that 350.
There are differences in add packs for diesel and gas engines. Thus there can be benefits to running an API S rated oil. This is a new situation. Wasn’t how it used to be. Maybe it matters, you speculate that it doesn’t. I can’t help it that they’ve shifted their formulations and don’t rate it for spark engines. I’m not willing to say that obsolete anecdotal evidence still holds.

The answer for now is REALLY simple. Just run an HDEO that meets the API designation for spark engines. Delo 400 is easy to find.

 
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