Another Oil Question Shell Rotella T6

I just did an oil change on my 355 with Mobile 1 10-40. Walmart sells 5qt containers for $25 each. So $50 for 10 qts. I have been using Mobile 1 for 5 years and have 46k miles on my car.

 

I would stick with Pennzoil Ultra Euro 5W-40, factory recommended oil.

 

If the approvals match the correct oil then try it but it looks to me like an oil intended for diesel engines on trucks

 

That is just the most common application. My Lotus calls for that oil in specific and you get some strange looks from the parts counter guys sometimes. But there is nothing about 5w40 that makes it truck specific.

 

I have been using Rotella T5 or T6 for many years in all kind of cars Porsche Cayman , Maserati 4200, Ferrari 430 and Audi RS4 and motorcycles as well R6 and CBR 1000! It’s a great oil with all the requirements that you need in order to make you engine works just fine!!! I don’t use any other oil and there’s no reason to swap! Price is unbeatable !

 

It is indeed a top oil. Good zinc level also.

 

I use T6 5W40 (API CK-4), in my 355 because that's what shop which did the major when I bought it used and the shop is highly regarded. When I first got my car (2013) Shell used to advertise it as suitable for auto use but they now say diesel because of the CK-4 standard introduced in 2017 and higher level of phosphorous which prevent it from having the API SN rating. If you read the specks for their T6 5W30 multivehicle oil you would find that it is blended with lower levels of phosphorus so it can also meet both the API CK-4 (diesel) and SN (gasoline) standards.

As for the Pennzoil Platinum Euro, both the 0W40 and 5W40 are recommended by Porsche, Fiat, Porsche and VW. They are rated API CF/SN. The only real difference between the 0W40 and the 5W40 is the 40*C viscosity, and additional recommendations by BMW, Ferrari and Maserati for the 5W40. At operating temp, 100*C, they have nominally the same viscosity.

And not to forget Quaker State Ultimate Durability 5W40 (API CF/SN) . It has the same recommendations an as Pennzoil 5W40 except for Ferrari and Maserati.

Note: Shell owns Pennzoil and Q-State.

Other options would be several oils in the Mobile 1 family.

 

Im not really partial to any brand, But I generally run whats recomended.
I run mobil 1 in all my cars (saab, yukon, mercedes) since its cheap , I get it for typically $10/5qt
I run rotella T6 in all my diesels, (d90 and the m1009)

I only run Pennzoil Platinum Euro 5w-40 in the 355. Will other stuff work? sure, but I know its recommended, its reasonably priced, why not?
Does ferrari have a specification number for their oil?

 

The Rotella T6 your picture shows is, according to the info I found, the older T6 which had a good amount of ZDDP so it should be quite good for our Ferraris (flat tappets). However, in the new T6 formulation, it appears that they reduced the ZDDP. The test results (attached as pdf) show the following:

Old T6 (your picture), Test 2014: Phosphorus 1157 ppm, Zinc 1310 ppm
New T6 (see pic below), Test 2017: Phosphorus 1049 ppm, Zinc 1095 ppm

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So, it is probably a good idea to buy a good stock of the old T6 while it can still be found (especially if it is on sale).

Another oil that seems to have, in its current formulation, even a bit more ZDDP than the old T6 is AMSOIL Signature Series Max-Duty Synthetic Diesel Oil 5w-40. A member of a forum I read stated that he called Amsoil (in 2017) and got the information that this oil has Zinc 1314 ppm and Phosphorus 1206 ppm. If someone can reconfirm with Amsoil that this diesel oil still has the mentioned ZDDP content, I would go for it.

 

$10 for 5 qts?? That's $2 a quart. Was this a typo?

 

Since the junk camshaft days of the Daytona and 246 Dino I have never seen a wear issue in any Ferrari motor that could be attributed to low ZDDP and I have seen some run for a long time on junk oil. In my opinion on any Ferrari built since 1975 ZDDP is a non issue. Modern oils are a miracle product compared to what we had not too many years ago.

Cheap or too seldom changed coolant does them far more harm and all most shops know about what they are pouring in the radiator is what color it is.

 

Not a typo. Walmart( and sometimes amazon) sell the mobil 1 synthetic 5qt jugs for $23-26 and sale prices as low as $20. And mobil 1 offers a $12 mail in rebate per jug 3-4 times a year making it ~$8 to $14. Pretty slick. Here was the last one https://slickdeals.net/f/12099655-mobil1-full-synthetic-oil-10-88-after-rebate-walmart?v=1&src=SiteSearch

 

Here are the current Mobile 1 products.

 

Rotella or Delo are the 2 oils that hold up best in my diesel tow rig . I run extremely hot at times.




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Tim, what do you run in your Challenge cars that you track?

 

Mobil 1 I change it a lot

Run a top end lubricate in the feul also.

 

Shell claims no difference in formulation since the SN standard was introduced.

 

The diesel guys were talking about some change in the T6 also, something along the lines of loosing oil pressure after hot with the new formula. Must have been a DEF thing. I stay away from DEF lol

 

I currently have T6 in my 355 Ch. And in gasoline street cars - Cayenne, 996TT. And of course, vintage diesel Benz.

I haven’t seen pressure loss but I tend to be more concerned about oil flow versus pressure.

Even back in my Shell Racing years, I used/tried Brad Penn, Helix, Pennzoil/QS and Mobil 1. T6 is the engine oil I use today.

 

With all the options (IAT, OAT, HOAT, PHOAT, SOAT, etc), what is your top recommendation?

 

"While the industry waiver is still currently in existence for heavy duty engine oils that are XW-40�s, this remains in discussion to be addressed by the API in the near future. However, the Shell ROTELLA brand has made the decision to remove API SN claims, regardless of viscosity, from our other products which do not meet the preferred low-phosphorous chemistry for gasoline engines. It is important to note that there is no change in formulation associated with this change. It simply means that Shell ROTELLA products will no longer claim formal API SN approval for products other than our fully synthetic Shell ROTELLA T6 Multi-Vehicle 5W-30 on labels, technical data sheets, rotella.com and marketing materials moving forward."

They don't specifically mention Diesel but we can assume that "Xw-40" here means heavy duty diesel engine oils. We can take out the T6 Multi-Vehicle 5W-30 as it has 800 ppm Phosphorus (required by API SN).

Shell are saying that their heavy duty oils (Xw-40), although not meeting the low-phosphorous chemistry, have been exempted from this requirement and thus could carry API SN even though they do not actually meet it (since they have more than 800 ppm Phosphorus). The older version of T6 5w-40 (shown on the pic I posted earlier) actually carried API SM which is the earlier standard from which the API SN evolved (SN is claimed to be an improved version of SM). So, as I understand, the above explanation from Shell states that they will not show API SN, the successor of API SM, on these heavy duty oils (even though they legally could) and that this change does not mean any change in the oil formulation.

However, the actual change between "Old" T6 (produced up to about 2016) and "New" T6 (from about 2017) is that the old one was CJ-4 and the new one is CK-4. So, it appears that the change (reduction) in ZDDP came with this new CK-4 formulation and that whether they indicate SN (SM) or not is another matter.

I attach datasheets of the old CJ-4 T6 (2009, 2013 & 2016) which did show API SM and a datasheet for the new CK-4 T6 (2017) which does not show API SM (or its successor API SN). The actual chemical test results (2014, old T6 and 2017, new T6) I posted earlier seem to come from reputable laboratories so they should be reliable information.

 

When does "no change in formulation" mean "no change in formulation" ?

From the 2016 and 2017 data sheets:

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I used Mobile 1 15W50 in my 308.