Shell Rotella oil question

John- There are a bunch of Shell Rotella oils designed for heavy duty diesel applications. The one most suited for cars would be the T6 synthetic 5W-40. At the bottom is what Ferrari had to say about oil.

http://www.shell.com/home/content/rotella/products/t6/

Any of the modern synthetic 5W-40, 0W-40, or 10W-50 oils will work for your car, with the 5W-40 most often recommended. Various owners and pros recommend Shell Ultra Helix, Valvoline SynPower, Redline, Royal Purple, Mobil 1, etc, etc.

Taz
Terry Phillips
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Hi John,

I've just been through all of this trying to figure out what's available in Canada. Shell Helix is hard to find, but because Shell purchased Quaker State and Penzoil they have packaged Shell Helix as Quaker State Euro Formula and as Penzoil Ultra Euro Formula. The Penzoil Ultra Euro is available in Canada (5W40 weight is what I use for my 360).

That said, I'm not sure that you need Penzoil Ultra Euro for your 308/328. I ran Mobil 1 5W40 in my 308 and was very happy with it (despite the new oil drips that resulted from using synthetic oil!!!).

I hope this helps.

 

The above posts are great and outline sound advice. I offer a side note regarding Shell's Rotella T6 formerly known as Shell Rotella T synthetic. The group III base oil is a hydrocracked slack wax oil which further refines it beyond a group III synthetic but cannot qualify as a group IV as group IV begins life as synthetic rather than having it's chemical properties changed and realigned to be a synthetic which is what group IIIs are. That being said, Shell's crack (pardon the pun) at making a group III are beyond what others are doing to the point that Ferrari's F1 motors are run with this group III base stock with of course different additives based on what track they are running. Point being, it's good stuff and the T6 formula is great for our early Ferrari's however I would not recommend it for the newer stuff with cats.

 

Can you expand on this interesting point? Thanks

 

John- If you insist on a dino oil, I would go with Valvoline NextGen Conventional Motor Oil in 10W-40.

http://www.valvoline.com/products/consumer-products/motor-oil/conventional-motor-oil/124

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

The additive package in the diesel formula is ok for modern cars with cats, but I would still steer clear of it as there are many good alternatives. Not a whole lot to expand upon, it's just an oil that was intended for diesel first, gasoline second. It has an incredibly robust additive package but for my personal preference I would keep away from it for more modern engine management cars.

 

Hi John,

When I switched from dino to synthetic oil I definitely noticed a few additional drops of oil forming on the garage floor. However, when I made the switch I immediately noticed changes to the mechanical sound of the engine (i.e., it was quieter, especially at start-up) and I therefore decided that I was getting better protection and that the switch to synthetic was worthwhile. Each into his/her own of course.

 

Too much worrying about oil! Use a known brand and grade that corresponds with the owner's manual recommendations and forget about it. Every "Ferrari" shop uses whatever brand of oil they get the best profit on; you'll notice that there is little or no commonality among them as to the brand (and not much more with the weight) nor are there any issues with it...

 

+1! so true

 

Redline 10-40 from the internet.

Amazon even sells it.

the end.

 

+1

I have been using Rotella in my Dodge Diesel pick-upand 97 Jeep Wrangler (4.0 ltr 6) for sometime, no problems.

The 308 once about 3 years ago got Castrol 20/50 racing. I just turned 3000 miles on that change, so it's due again. I'll see what they have at Autozone

 

The issue with diesel oil is that it still contains zinc, a much needed additive for flat tappet cam engines. The zinc is known to contaminate cats and has been removed from oil due to this. that's a problem for early cars and diesels that need that protective layer.

there are zinc additives however they tend to contain large amounts of wax for suspension. Shell Rotella, lubro moly, and some small oil producers still add zinc but it's for race engine or diesel use only per EPA guidelines.

as to the cat issue this is a new thing with the newer cats and the material and light off temps involved.