Shell Rotella T6 5W40 outperforms all 5W30 oils...

[Navi]

Blackstone released this picture in a blog article they did back in 2017... Amsoil's response was the following: The magic of Shell Rotella is in the viscosity. Any 5W40 oil will outperform all 5W30 oils when it comes to wear. I was thinking of going the Rotella route but I got different answers on long term compatibility with my engine. Some folks said it was fine, one article said it would increase startup wear, etc. Various opinions on the issue so I stuck with 5W30.

 

[nascarnation]

Now if only it could keep the head gaskets from blowing....

 

[jbutch]

Originally Posted by Navi

Blackstone released this picture in a blog article they did back in 2017... Amsoil's response was the following: The magic of Shell Rotella is in the viscosity. Any 5W40 oil will outperform all 5W30 oils when it comes to wear. I was thinking of going the Rotella route but I got different answers on long term compatibility with my engine. Some folks said it was fine, one article said it would increase startup wear, etc. Various opinions on the issue so I stuck with 5W30.

Loooooots of factors other than the grade there. You are comparing an HDEO and most of the others are GF5. Engine design is another factor that changes that is not relating to oil.

Originally Posted by nascarnation

Now if only it could keep the head gaskets from blowing....

Ah, come on it's been 10 years since the issue has been fixed.

 

[JustN89]

So we have (re)discovered from a 2 year old report that higher viscosity can lead to marginally (~.5 ppm) better wear protection in a small sample size. Ground breaking.

 

[kstanf150]

Excluding Amsoil The off the shelf 30wts were interesting results

 

[Navi]

Im just amazed at Rotella T6s cult like following. There are guys literally throwing it in any engine from a Prius to an F150 to a diesel engine. Is it really that good? Can I just throw it willy nilly in any engine without further thought? Its got me laughing a bit imagining a guy in his garage having Rotella stacked up in the background hoarding it.

 

[doitmyself]

In 100,000 miles the Rotella wear (best) will be 203 ppm and the Royal Purple wear (worst) will be 256 ppm. Is this significant enough to even consider the difference?

 

[Garak]

I've been running HDEOs in gassers for years.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

Are you saying this is an ideal oil for my trucks engine?

 

[skyactiv]

Originally Posted by nascarnation

Now if only it could keep the head gaskets from blowing....

Head gaskets on WRX's and other turbo Subaru's never suffered anywhere near the failure rate the 2.5L naturally aspirated engines did.

 

[turnbowm]

Several years ago, Shell Technical indicated that, with the exception of Rotella T6 Multi-Vehicle, T6 should not be used in gas cars/trucks with catalytic converters. Don't know if anything has changed since then. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Rotella_T

 

[Garak]

Of course, nothing really changed. Where an E7, E9 was suitable for use a few months ago, it's still suitable for use.

 

[turnbowm]

Originally Posted by Garak

Of course, nothing really changed. Where an E7, E9 was suitable for use a few months ago, it's still suitable for use.

An ACEA E-class oil is designated for heavy-duty diesel engines. No mention of gas engines that I'm aware of.

 

[Garak]

There's little in the E specs that make them unsuitable for gasoline engines. Look at E6. There are few ACEA E spec oils on the market that wouldn't meet SN (except for phosphorus in certain viscosities). In fact, I can't think of any that wouldn't do it.

 

[jbutch]

Originally Posted by Garak

There's little in the E specs that make them unsuitable for gasoline engines. Look at E6. There are few ACEA E spec oils on the market that wouldn't meet SN (except for phosphorus in certain viscosities). In fact, I can't think of any that wouldn't do it.

Yeah, Rotella MV 5w-30 is both E6 and SN+. Great oil, my best UOA was on that oil.

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted by Garak

I've been running HDEOs in gassers for years.

Same. Lots of farmers run bulk 15W-40 in every single ICE on the place - even in the winter. I'm almost that bad!

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

Originally Posted by turnbowm

Several years ago, Shell Technical indicated that, with the exception of Rotella T6 Multi-Vehicle, T6 should not be used in gas cars/trucks with catalytic converters. Don't know if anything has changed since then. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Rotella_T

Well, I think this answers my Q? about using it in my trucks engine. Q?: Does Euro oils (Castrol 0W40) ruin American vehicle catalytic converters?

 

[Astro_Guy]

Okay - but how many tomes was the oil reformulated since then? Don't get me wrong here, I love T6 for OPE applications, but I refuse to use it in gas powered automotive applications since they dropped that rating from the label

 

[donnyj08]

The wear results in this test seem to follow HTHS We know T6 will be the highest @ greater than 3.5 Amsoil OE/XL HTHS is 3.3 Amsoil SS Is/was (SN) 3.2 The rest will be in the 2.9-3.1 HTHS range. It looks like a higher HTHS = less wear in the specific application.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted by BlueOvalFitter

Well, I think this answers my Q? about using it in my trucks engine. Q?: Does Euro oils (Castrol 0W40) ruin American vehicle catalytic converters?

No. Any A3/B4 or a CJ-4 or CK-4 or E7, E9 or E6, E7, E9 type lube is perfectly acceptable for use. If you're burning significant oil, you'll have problems no matter what. Astro_Guy: The dropping of the gasoline specification was done for administrative needs, not for engineering requirements. The SM and SN requirements are not that difficult to achieve and there is absolutely nothing that has changed that suddenly makes said oils unsuitable where they once were suitable. If Shell decided to test 5w-40 T6 against SN, it would be fine.