Soo I put rotella 15w40 in the 3.3.

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Happy spring from the east. I have this ciera w/ the gm 3.3l. I think it has sludge as 4 qts fills it full. I used maxlife 5w30 and 1/2 qt Mmo. Ran that for 1500 miles then changed out. Cut open the oil filter and let it dry and to my surprise it had very fine grit in over 1/2 the folds. Awesome! Means it is dirty. So I was in walmart in the oil section and looking at the oil I see rotella 15w40 diesel oil cf4 stuff. I'm thinking I'm going to put 1 and 1/2 qts Mmo and still would like a semi thick oil so the "friction" maybe works at the sludge a little more. Now at the same time it also has a cold start up tick. Thinkin this would be better protection and maybe it would not tick as much. First thing I noticed when I was pouring the 2.5 or so qts was the whole valve cover filled up. This stuff is thick! After that drained down, put I the 1.5 qts Mmo and gave a start up. Sounds no different. Same slight tick. Alright but it does feel smoother at idle. Maybe because the friction of the thick oil, making the engine work harder? Take it out for a ride and it does seem quite, like it has thick oil. It's slower. And feels as if it has 300 more lbs. So I keep this stuff for the a oci of 2500 - 3 then change it back to maxlife 10w30? What was I thinking. Lol.
 
Leave the diesel oils to diesel engines. 10w-30 is better for you. Pennzoil Ultra is a good cleaning oil, btw.
 
Originally Posted By: dparm
That motor is not spec'd for that...is it?

No not all it's a 5w30 engine,waay to thick, run a 10w30 and MMO if you want to clean, 1qt MMO to 4 qt oil.

those engines(sister to the 3800) weren't known for sludge unless it was neglected OC wise.
 
Originally Posted By: Hemi426
Leave the diesel oils to diesel engines. 10w-30 is better for you. Pennzoil Ultra is a good cleaning oil, btw.
Actually Rotella is a Heavy Duty Engine Oil and is suitable for use in gasoline engines with great results as these oil types outperform passenger car oils at extreme operation loadings.
 
15W40 will be fine for spring and summer. The car is a 1991 with 217K. He also says that he drives it 153 miles a day.
 
+1 for 15w-40 during the spring and summer.

If it cranks and the engine fires, the oil isn't "too thick".
 
Originally Posted By: Hemi426
Leave the diesel oils to diesel engines.


Why does the Rotella 15W-40 that I put in all of my gas powered lawn equipment and gas powered tractors say "Recommended For Gasoline Engines/moteurs a essence: API, SM, SL"?

I'm just curious why Rotella 15W-40, which is an outstanding heavy duty engine oil, should be left only to diesel engines? I'm also curious as to why the folks at Shell don't know it should only be left to diesel engines.

Can you furnish some facts?
 
Originally Posted By: JRed
+1 for 15w-40 during the spring and summer.

If it cranks and the engine fires, the oil isn't "too thick".


+2 to that. No oil is too thick for summer especially with straight 5 wt mmo in it. Just watch your mileage. I think you did just fine. Cheap oil in an old engine that will clean it.
I get tired of the boutique oil threads.
 
The one with 217 k is the Buick and she's spotless. On the other hand the 91 ciera only has 92k miles with build up. I don't know why I went so thick. I wad thinking it was going to thin out something crazy with near 1/2 the fill is Mmo. I'm going to change it back to maxlife 10w30 later in the week. The thick oil is making the oil pump work harder then need be and maybe not flowing easy. I can feel a loss of power, my little 3.3 is not a 7.7l diesel lol. What would you do now? Cheers,,
 
It's absurd to think any API SL or SM (in that case Rotella) will not work well in a gasoline motor simply because it is marketed to Diesel owners. I personally would try to find Rotella in 10-30 instead of 15-40, and I also wouldn't try to water it down with MMO, but all in all I don't see a problem with that strategy.


What would I do now? At least give it a few hundred miles to clean thing out. It'll get warmer soon, and then the thickness won't be such a concern.
 
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OP i would run that mix for 1000 miles and change it. next time try T6 with ONE quart MMO. the 5/40 will not be as thick and sluggish feeling and the cleaning will be better because its a syn.
 
Originally Posted By: daman
Originally Posted By: dparm
That motor is not spec'd for that...is it?

No not all it's a 5w30 engine,waay to thick, run a 10w30 and MMO if you want to clean, 1qt MMO to 4 qt oil.

those engines(sister to the 3800) weren't known for sludge unless it was neglected OC wise.


its really nothing like a 3800. the 3.3 is a 60 deg V6. the family is 2.8, 3.1, 3.3,and 3.4. the 3.8 series II is just a dressed up old school buick from the 70s(which were mean if built right)

i only know this stuff because when i was a kid my friends and i hotrodded fieros
lol.gif
 
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Originally Posted By: electrolover
Originally Posted By: daman
Originally Posted By: dparm
That motor is not spec'd for that...is it?

No not all it's a 5w30 engine,waay to thick, run a 10w30 and MMO if you want to clean, 1qt MMO to 4 qt oil.

those engines(sister to the 3800) weren't known for sludge unless it was neglected OC wise.


its really nothing like a 3800. the 3.3 is a 60 deg V6. the family is 2.8, 3.1, 3.3,and 3.4. the 3.8 series II is just a dressed up old school buick from the 70s(which were mean if built right)

i only know this stuff because when i was a kid my friends and i hotrodded fieros
lol.gif


I've owned these two the 3300(1993 grand am) and two 3800 II N/A's the 3.3L and the 3.8L are essentially the same motor with the exception of bore and stroke. The 3800 has the same heads as the 3300(example 305 to 350 chev), but have one extra bolt hole on the intake side. The 3800's intake is a little wider than the 3300's because of deck height. I once was looking at a turbo setup that they had for the fbodie maros.

anyway no not identical but similar in many ways..
 
Originally Posted By: Drew2000
Hope my high-performance motorcycles don't find out that Rotella isn't any good for them...they love the stuff...

+1
Used the Rotella 15w-40 in the wife's bike for a year, then switched to Rotella 5w-40 a couple years ago. I know several others using Rotella in bikes and they all say good things about it.
 
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