Rotella T6 synthetic 15w40 Deisel oil

[Brent Hunter]

I had a guy come through my work today running a 1g talon tsi, he requested I put rotella T6 oil in his car, it is a synthetic diesel oil, my first reaction was to ask why he would be putting diesel oil in a gas car, he then fed me some information about it being better for performance cars and turbos Deisel or not. Can anyone shed some light on this situation, and be able to tell me if it is safe and or better to run than normal oil?

[Brett Haviland]

The main difference between diesel oils and conventional oils is the diesel oils have more detergents in them for dealing with all the crap that gets in the crankcase on diesels.  I run 15w40 on my wifes jetta (2.0L gas engine) for years now with no problems. (and thats just the cheap conventional diesel oil from wallmart

A synthetic diesel oil  which will perform better at colder temperatures (as opposed to non synthetic 15w40.

Diesel oils are usually a thicker oil then SM rated oils as well with the same viscosity.  You will also find that european rated (BMW, VW, Mercedes) oils are also a bit thicker then your regular North American oils eventho they are rated at the same viscosities.

The only downfall i see to using a 15w40 oil on a DSM is that if the weather got really cold (-20 C or below), it would get quite thick on cold starts and the engine would probably be a bit laggy at first and crank noticably slower first thing in the morning.  I would personally use a 5w40 synthetic wieght oil instead of a 15w40.

[Brent Hunter]

We have 5w40 rotella T6, it would be safe to run in my 4g63t?

[Brett Haviland]

i would say yes.  Check on the back and see if it meets "SM, or the old spec "SL"...  if it does, its approved by the American Petrolum Institute to be used on gasoline engines as well as diesel

[CamWeiss]

I'm running 10w40 (or maybe it was 5w40) Rotella T6 on my DSM.

There's literally no reason I can think of not to use it.
It's got better ratings than almost all of the high dollar oils (hint: JAFO in the ratings mean it's good for motorcycle use, and we all know how strenuous a bike engine is on oil when it's spinning past 10k rpm). It's also made to be run through turbos.
That, plus it's a true ester-based synthetic, and quite cheap for what it is.

[John Hartman]

where do you guys get this oil from?

[Brent Hunter]

Canadian Tire. 25.99 for a 5L jug

[CamWeiss]

Shit, that's even cheaper than what I pay. $35 rings a bell, 5l jug, from a decent account at a local parts store.

[John Hartman]

huh.  I will look at it.  Seems older stuff needs what is in there, and its not in some of the newer oils.  I forget maybe phosphorus?  Molybdinum?  something like that.  The XR4Ti cam and cam bearings need it.

[CamWeiss]

Probably zinc?

A lot of old euro motors like oils with high zinc content.

[Remi Raymond]

That would be ZDDP John, (which is basically Zinc like Cam says) and there are additives you can now grab off the shelf to put in with your oil to restore ZDDP. Rotella t6 specifically has low ZDDP, but you would probably want to research it yourself. It definately seems to be growing in popularity as a cheap but high performance oil.

[KevinBuckham]

Rotella T6 seems to be popular on the oil forums.  So far I can't quite get myself to actually purchase it, but I figure my Mobil1 is pretty useless now.  The fancy brands are too expensive for me and Brad Penn is not sold on the island.

[John Hartman]

I can get Eunos and Motul at work and a real good price.

Have been using the Motul Xess(5w40) in the Mazdaspeed as its supposed to be for modern DI turbo engines.

I haven't changed the oil in the Talon in a while as I drive it rarely.  It has 15w40 Royal Purple in there as it was cheap when I needed an oil change.

[Brett Haviland]

yeah we just started stocking Motul 5w40 synth at work in bulk too!! yay...  i wouldnt put it in any of my cars besides maybe the evo as they all have too many km;s on them.

[daniel sanat]

I just go to the states to get my oil most of the time. The rotella is $12 and mobile 1 is $13  both are 5L