Shell Rotella Gas Truck Oil

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It's probably a great idea from a distribution standpoint for fleets. At least up here, ordinary Shell distributors cannot sell Pennzoil-Quaker State products. They can sell Rotella and Formula Shell. Formula Shell synthetic isn't in the most convenient container sizes, so having better container options, not to mention taking advantage of the Rotella name, makes sense.
 
Shell is a reputable company. I wouldn't dismiss this as a marketing gimmick, even though marketing is always a factor.

Looking at the TDS's, the difference between Pennzoil Platinum (PP) "Gas Automobile" and Shell "Gas Truck" is viscosity and/or viscosity index. Gas Truck 5W-30 has KV100 = 11.7 cSt as opposed to the Gas Automobile (PP) with KV100 = 9.8 cSt.

With the xW-20 viscosities, the difference isn't that obvious but if you look more closely and go ahead and calculate the VI, VI = 166 is less for Gas Truck 0W-20 than Gas Automobile 0W-20 (VI=182) and similarly 156 and 167 for the 5W-20's, meaning less viscosity-index improver (VII) used in the Gas Truck than in the PP.

Therefore, Shell Gas Truck has a thicker oil and/or less VII than PP, which means that the oil film will be thicker with new oil and/or the oil won't shear as much with used oil, resulting in thicker oil film with used oil. Therefore, there is a validity to Shell's claim that the Gas Truck oil will protect the truck engines, which have higher loads, better than regular oil, as the Gas Truck oil is a little thicker and/or doesn't shear as much as their Gas Automobile oil (PP).

Labeling the oil as "all-mileage" is also consistent with this observation, as high-mileage oils tend to be thicker.
 
Hmm, this might also work better in cars with a tendency to drink oil - also in Toyota hybrids as Prii have an tendency to burn oil due to coked piston rings, less VII might reduce the chances of that happening.
 
You can download the TDS and MSDS from:

http://www.epc.shell.com/

Use the Widman calculator to calculate the viscosity index VI (not provided in TDS):

https://www.widman.biz/Seleccion/calculadores.html

As I posted earlier, the Gas-Truck Oil seems to be thicker (higher KV100) and/or more shear-stable (lower VI) than Pennzoil Platinum. Thicker oil (or more shear-stable, so remains thick during OCI) is consistent with the marketing claims that:

"... particularly gasoline pick-ups and SUVs that tend to experience more extreme conditions including driving with heavy load (oil-film squeezing), driving in dusty conditions (need thicker oil film to surround the dust particles), stop and go driving (oil-film squeezing during takeoffs), frequent short trips (oil thinning due to fuel dilution), extreme hot or cold temperatures (oil thinning in extremely hot weather), and extensive idling (oil thinning and/or oil-film squeezing in hot and low-RPM conditions)."

According to the recommendation flowchart, it's not recommended for automobiles -- that's probably because the fuel economy will be a little less due to thicker oil, albeit still within the ILSAC GF-5 test limits.
 
Looks like I'll be trying out the new oil. Thanks to Shell Rotella for the opportunity !!

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Pretty interesting to see how this oil gets slobbered all over compared to other brands treatment

If I was that worried about 0w20 in my GM's … then it's time to grab any of many 5w30's …
 
Originally Posted by johnD2
Looks like I'll be trying out the new oil. Thanks to Shell Rotella for the opportunity !!

[Linked Image]


[Linked Image]


Hook a brotha up!
 
Originally Posted by 4WD
Pretty interesting to see how this oil gets slobbered all over compared to other brands treatment

If I was that worried about 0w20 in my GM's … then it's time to grab any of many 5w30's …

Other brands like M1 Truck and SUV?? Are the same posters that are slobbering over Shell's marketing their Truck oil the same ones that are bashing Mobil's marketing of their Truck and SUV oil?? Inquiring minds want to know.
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Originally Posted by tig1
Originally Posted by 4WD
Pretty interesting to see how this oil gets slobbered all over compared to other brands treatment

If I was that worried about 0w20 in my GM's … then it's time to grab any of many 5w30's …

Other brands like M1 Truck and SUV?? Are the same posters that are slobbering over Shell's marketing their Truck oil the same ones that are bashing Mobil's marketing of their Truck and SUV oil?? Inquiring minds want to know.
coffee2.gif




It a lot of cases no. Brand bashing is pretty strong on this site. At times its justified sometimes not.
 
Originally Posted by tig1
Originally Posted by 4WD
Pretty interesting to see how this oil gets slobbered all over compared to other brands treatment

If I was that worried about 0w20 in my GM's … then it's time to grab any of many 5w30's …

Other brands like M1 Truck and SUV?? Are the same posters that are slobbering over Shell's marketing their Truck oil the same ones that are bashing Mobil's marketing of their Truck and SUV oil?? Inquiring minds want to know.
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No! That can't be happening here! SOPUS, great, Mobil, neah
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. I've been using both and both have been great oils to me. Now for my oil shearing 2.3 EB Explorer the Mobil 1 5W-30 starts off with a higher 30 wt viscosity of 11 vs around 9 for the Pennzoil 5W-30 I believe. Plus with Mobil rebates I've been getting, the the oil it costs me $11/5 qts. And yes I've gotten all my rebates. But I'm still waiting for my multiple Pennzsoil rebates from a few years go, not holding my breath
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.

Whimsey
 
Originally Posted by Gokhan
Shell is a reputable company. I wouldn't dismiss this as a marketing gimmick, even though marketing is always a factor.

Looking at the TDS's, the difference between Pennzoil Platinum (PP) "Gas Automobile" and Shell "Gas Truck" is viscosity and/or viscosity index. Gas Truck 5W-30 has KV100 = 11.7 cSt as opposed to the Gas Automobile (PP) with KV100 = 9.8 cSt.

With the xW-20 viscosities, the difference isn't that obvious but if you look more closely and go ahead and calculate the VI, VI = 166 is less for Gas Truck 0W-20 than Gas Automobile 0W-20 (VI=182) and similarly 156 and 167 for the 5W-20's, meaning less viscosity-index improver (VII) used in the Gas Truck than in the PP.

Therefore, Shell Gas Truck has a thicker oil and/or less VII than PP, which means that the oil film will be thicker with new oil and/or the oil won't shear as much with used oil, resulting in thicker oil film with used oil. Therefore, there is a validity to Shell's claim that the Gas Truck oil will protect the truck engines, which have higher loads, better than regular oil, as the Gas Truck oil is a little thicker and/or doesn't shear as much as their Gas Automobile oil (PP).

Labeling the oil as "all-mileage" is also consistent with this observation, as high-mileage oils tend to be thicker.

Just a thought but would the Pennzoil Platinum not have a naturally higher VI without the improvers. GTL base oil and whatnot ?
 
Originally Posted by dave1251
PP Can have a natural higher VI with GTL vs a group III. Nice observation.

More accurately it is a Group III base stock that may have a higher VI than some other Group III base stocks.
 
I think what may help this is the fact I can buy a 5qt jug instead of having to buy a gallon and a quart for my truck, at least for me it's been a deterrent in the past since wally quit carrying the quarts. From what I can tell the Multi vehicle only comes in gallon jugs, not all that cost effective for those looking for the best deal when 5 quarts is needed.
 
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Originally Posted by Duffyjr
I think what may help this is the fact I can buy a 5qt jug instead of having to buy a gallon and a quart for my truck, at least for me it's been a deterrent in the past since wally quit carrying the quarts. From what I can tell the Multi vehicle only comes in gallon jugs, not all that cost effective for those looking for the best deal when 5 quarts is needed.


Have two 8 quart engines … (older gen was 6)
two 6 quart engines …
two barely over 4 quart engines …
Gallons go into that pretty well …
 
Originally Posted by Duffyjr
I think what may help this is the fact I can buy a 5qt jug instead of having to buy a gallon and a quart for my truck, at least for me it's been a deterrent in the past since wally quit carrying the quarts. From what I can tell the Multi vehicle only comes in gallon jugs, not all that cost effective for those looking for the best deal when 5 quarts is needed.

What's peculiar up here is that our Shell Rotella T6 Multi-Vehicle 5w-30 comes in 5 L jugs. HDEOs come in all strange sizes up here, with Mobil using 4.4 L and 4 L and even 3.78 L (1 U.S. gallon). Shell provides at least some of them in 5 L containers. The distributor has the 5w-30 in a box containing three 5 litre jugs.
 
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