Thoughts on new rotella t6 synthetic oil?

[sweetpeet]

So I was reading 4wheeler and saw this new shell rotella t6 synthetic oil that guarantees protection for 10 years or 500,000 miles. Does anyone know if this is with out the usual regular oil changes? And what do you think of this new stuff?

 

[jps4jeep]

Never heard of that, but my motorcycle factory manual suggested standard rotella; I always ran it, never had an issue... NOT CHEAP but worth it.

 

[jps4jeep]

To add; I would also not run synthetic on a motor that was high milage and ran conventional oil. The synthetic will bnot be viscus enough and will blow by the rings. My criteria for full synthetic oil is brand new motor (obviously after break in) or under 30K miles.

 

[JohnnyO]

Rotella is a diesel-spec oil, meaning among other things it has more zinc in it that flat tappet lifters in older engines like. The govt required zinc content to be lessened because it fouls catalytic converters when the engine burns oil. With roller lifters the lack of zinc is not a problem. Like jps4jeep, I would not recommend a full synthetic on an older engine with a lot of miles. Assuming you're asking about using it in your listed Jeep with an AMC 360, I would recommend either plain ol' Rotella 15w-40 or Rotella T-5 10w-30 synthetic blend. I just changed out the T-5 I had in our Jeep for the first time and sent a sample out for a used oil analysis but haven't got the results back yet. The full synthetic Rotella is a 5w-40 which IMO would be a little thin for an older engine.

Full syns and diesel-spec oils will clean out the inside of your motor, not necessarily a bad thing, but when the crud dissolves then oil will get by some places that it didn't get by before. I had been using regular Pennzoil in the Jeep changed every 3000 miles and it burned some (has 156k on it) but with the Rotella I added 3.5 quarts over 3000 miles to an engine only holds 4 quarts. It does not leak, but then neither does it smoke. Right now I have Valvoline Max Life 10w-30 in it and I will get a UOA after 3000 miles again and go with whatever oil it likes better. In older engines high mileage oils are a good choice (even if it does not have high mileage) also because they have slightly more zinc than regular oils.