Rotella - why?

I've seen several people espousing Rotella diesel oil as the cure all for everything that ails you including tennis elbow, but I haven't really paid attention, I just filed it away.

Now it's time to change the oil in my F150 and the S2000, so why should I use Rotella?

I looked at the labels yesterday and didn't see anything that stood out.

I did notice that it was considerably cheaper than other synthetics and one was even Extreme Temperature.

Only the T5 synth comes in a 0-xx. The T6 Extreme Temperature only comes in a 5-40.

So what is so good about it>

Well, its cheap and it contained zinc after the gasoline oils did not.  It may still carry a reduced amount.

T6 comes in a 0W-40 as well, it's just harder to find.  As far as wide use of it, it's just a case of the stuff being pretty cheap and easy to find relative to how well it works in a lot of applications.  

In reply to carguy123 :

There's a bunch of arguments with the MS3 guys that it is more resistant to oil shearing due to contamination from fuel. Apparently it's a problem unique to direct injection motors.

Whether or not any of that makes a difference ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I run 5w-40 Rotella T6 in the MS3 since the price difference isn't enough for me to care.

T6 isn't group IV, it's group III.  Group III is still full synthetic, it's just made differently than Group IV / V oils.  

I use Rotella T6 5W/40 in the Manic Miata because it runs pretty rich and I figure the extra detergents will help it out, and the extra hot viscosity helps too.  Plus, at 115k on the clock, I imagine the zinc will help with the valve guides, etc.

In reply to rslifkin :

So it is. Why was I thinking it was class IV?

Edited that out so that E36 M3 doesn't show up in a Google search by accident.

I know the guys on the subaru forums all swear by it for their turbo engines.

OK, I'll buy it.  The T6 that is.  More detergent more zinc seems to be the plus.

One oddity I've noticed is that it doesn't come in quart bottles, only gallons.

The T4 comes in quart bottles but the auto parts store said they can't even get quart bottles of the T5 or T6 yet,

probably because most diesels use such a large volume of oil. Figure it has a smaller market than the lower grades and it makes sense to only sell it in the more popular size?

The quarts are available last I knew, but most stores don't carry them.  Gallon bottles are nicer though, as they're better to re-use for waste oil later.  

For the Jeep, I usually use T6 5W-40 or the Delo 400 5W-40, whichever is cheaper (lately it's been the Delo).  Both seem to do a good job.  

jharry3 said:

I know the guys on the subaru forums all swear by it for their turbo engines.

 

along with a lot of turbo LS guys as well.

We run it in our lemons cars for the shear stability and quality detergents.  This is everything from a Chevy 4.3 to a Honda D16 with a turbo. In 7 years if racing and probably 40k miles combined, we have never had an oil related engine failure.   I've also torn down two of our old race motors for rebuilds (one that it turned out didn't need it, it just needed a fresh head), and they were the cleanest engine internals I've ever seen on used motors, it was amazing, but when we change the oil every 1000 miles (every race), that makes sense.  We get the gallon bottles from the Mega-Low-Mart or Amazon.  

I don't use it in any of our street cars though, mostly because they prefer a thinner oil and aren't getting the hell beaten out of them constantly like the race cars.  

In reply to carguy123 :

Walmart had quarts last time I changed my oil. You can also get them off Amazon. It does typically come in gallons though from places like Tractor Supply and most autoparts stores.

I use it in my Disco on a recommendation of a mechanic. He states the zinc is better for the engine and I do like the detergent.

I got my Miata with 132,000 miles; compression was 160-170 psi in all cylinders.  10,000 miles and three oil changes later with T6, compression is 10-15 psi higher in all cylinders.  Over that time I turbocharged it and gave it plenty of “italian tuneups”, but the only thing I can attribute the improvement to is the oil.

I just tried 3 parts stores, FailMart, Tractor Supply & Atwoods (another, but larger, tractor supply type store) and they all said it isn't available in quarts so maybe it's just a distribution thing in our area.

I don't expect my tennis elbow or hemorrhoids to to go away, nor do I expect to see an immediate 5 mpg increase, but hopefully it will help.

Next time I'll order it from Amazon if I can get a 0-xx weight.  No one carried it in stock.

edizzle89 said:

jharry3 said:

I know the guys on the subaru forums all swear by it for their turbo engines.

 

along with a lot of turbo LS guys as well.

And 944 people, as well. Older engines love the zinc, so they say.

jharry3 said:

I know the guys on the subaru forums all swear by it for their turbo engines.

 

I've been using T5 or T6 for 165,000 miles now on a tuned 2009 WRX (depending on the season and weight). And it doesn't even burn oil!

I also use it in the e30 rally car, Porsche, and the Sequoia tow rig. Wife's CX-9 gets whatever dino oil is on sale.

I don't know why it's great, but it was highly recommended years ago on BITOG for multiple cars of mine, and a lot of those guys have forgotten more about fluids than I'll ever know. So with that, plus it being cheap and widely available at any WalMart.....I have no reason to change to anything else.

I do like it when I buy it at auto parts stores on occasion and the guy at the counter always acts like he caught me getting the wrong thing and is always like "you know that's for diesel, right?" :)

W-M had the quart bottles up until ~ 6 months ago.  They were handy to keep a spare quart around, but I can't find them anymore... none of the local W-Ms or parts stores seem to carry them now, so maybe discontinued?

I've used the T6 for almost two decades now... started with my bikes, but also use it in everything else, except a couple of cars that have spec'd Mobil 1, and my race bikes that got Royal Purple when I had a bulk hookup.  The additive package works with bike clutches, and older motors seem to like the stuff.  And it's cheap.

I was tempted to buy it for the 911, but apparently oil is even more of a religion for the M96 engine than other cars.

If you aren't spending $100 on oil, you aint livin!  That said, I use a $7 Napa Gold (Wix) spin-on oil filter for my Poor-sha. 

I've used Rotella with good results in the past and I'm still considering it intead of Joe Gibbs, DT40, or Motul X-cess 8100.

I had an engine Rebuilder call me one time and asked me what oil I was running .I told him Rotella. He said the crankshaft had virtually no wear and the most beautiful golden color he had ever seen in a high mileage engine

My Infiniti G20 with the SR20DE loves the stuff.  And i also use it in my Chevy truck, because Zinc

What the hell do we call this forum member?>>> ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I run it in my stuff because of recommendations from bitog. 

Past experience shows it keeps things very clean and it's cheap. 

I run synthetics in everything I care about and at 60 percent the price of what I used to run, pennz platinum, you can't beat it.