6200 miles on Shell Rotella T 5w/40 oil

[dmccarty]

To make sure the Dino Vs Synthetic Debate never dies, here is what I have learned over the last 6,200 miles on Rotella T 5w/40 oil. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I decided to try this oil to see if it would help starting the truck on cold mornings. The truck has always started but it sure does not like it when it is cold outside. There is a noticable difference in the sound of the engine on this oil. Which makes it worth the extra dollars for the oil worith it for me. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The Shell site states that you might see a 3% increase in mpg with this oil. From my logs it looks like I'm getting about 5% more mpg.

I just got the oil analysis back. I ran the oil to 6,200 miles instead of 4,800 to 5,677 where I have been changing the dino oil. I ran the oil to 6,200 miles because I could not find any Rotella T to change the oil. All the stores where sold out. The report said that I could try 7,000 miles on the oil. The TBN was 10.5 where the usual range is 6.0 to 14.0. The other elements did not jump out of trend from earlier tests with dino oil.

This report was done on oil that was filtered through the OEM Motorcraft filter. I put on a Mobil 1 filter at this change.

The truck is a F350 with the 7.3 L Turbo Diesel.

I'll likely try for the 7,000 mile with this oil and filter. Money wise it seems that it is a wash buying synthetic over dino due to the extra mpg. Since the engine starts better during the winter and money is not and issue I guess I'll keep using the synthetic.

By going longer miles it saves me some time and a little more dollars. Not enough dollars to endanger the engine but enough to say that it is a wash dollars wise in the synthetic vs oil debate. I have taken dino oil to 5,677 miles with no negative trend numbers so maybe the dino oil will do as well in terms on miles on the oil. But it does not give me the increase in mpg.

I think I'm going to change out the dino oil in the tractor and put in some 5w/40....

Later,
Dan

 

[BillyP]

Since this was a Rotella thread, I deleted my earlier post. Don't want to confuse anyone.

I do know that Rotella is by far the #1 oil around here (dino that is, synthetic I don't know). I would have went Rotella Syn but I needed 5 quarts and all Wally World had was the gallons.

 

[Noland]

I use the same oil in my Dodge diesel. I can't say that I noticed an increase in fuel milage, but I can say that it gets a better analysis report at 8,000 miles than any dino oil I have ever tried got at 6,000.
According to the last report I got from Blackstone Labs, I could safely go 11,000 between oil drains. But I don't want to push it so I normally change somewhere between 8k and 9k.

I drive roughly two thousand miles per week and being able to go a whole month between oil changes is quite a luxury /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[slowrev]

Noland,
Wow ! you must drive about 40 hrs per week.

 

[Bowhunter]

I swapped the dino oil in my pickup (7.3 liter Powerstroke) and my Kubota tractor this past Saturday morning with the Rotella T Synthetic. I didn't notice a difference in sound in the truck (I was hoping it would get quieter) but the tractor got a tad bit quieter. I also hope the cold weather starts will improve.

 

[gsxr1100]

Can you post the rest of the report? I ran over 12K miles when I had my Powerstroke and the testes were pretty good.

Since you only ran 6200 miles and they stated 7000 on the next, I would go longer but that is me. from 7K to 6.2 is only like 12.95% (really not worth the test $$$) I would go to 15% at least by I would need to see the rest of the report.

Also is this the old 7.3 L or the powerstroke?

 

[dmccarty]

Bowhunter,

During warm weather the truck sound at start up is the same. Its only in cold weather that I hear a difference.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

gxr1100,

Its the Powerstroke engine. I'll dig out the report and post the numbers. I had the report handy yesterday but filed it away in the truck last night.

Later,
Dan

 

[Bowhunter]

Thanks Dan. The reason I hoped it might get quieter is that I have a friend that runs Amsoil in his 7.3L Powerstroke. His runs much quieter than mine. He said that when he switched from dino oil to Amsoil it got quieter, and when he started running his programmer (Diablo I believe) it got quieter yet. I don't have any programmers or chips in mine. Mine is a '99 and his is a '00 but I wouldn't think that would make much of a difference. On a side note he believes I have a faulty torque converter which is adding to my noise. I guess time will tell on that.

Thanks to this post I've decided to increase my change interval. I always changed the dino oil at 5000 miles and had planned to do the same with the Rotella synthetic. After reading this I'll stretch it to 6000. Thanks for the valuable info guys.

 

[dmccarty]

gxr1100,

Here are the numbers from my last oil sample:

Aluminum 1-2
Chromium 1-1
Iron 11-17
Copper 6-5
Lead 4-4
Tin 0-1
Molybdenum 1-11
Nickel 0-0
Manganese 0-0
Silver 0-0
Titanium 0-0
Potassium 0-1
Boron 0-119
Silicon 12-10
Sodium 2-4
Calcium 3357-3134
Mangnesium 7-85??
Phosphorus 1037-1102
Zinc 1229-1102
Barium 0-1
TBN was 10.5 Range of 6-14 is OK. 2 would be a low number.

In my list such as Boron 0-119, the first number is what the report had for the element. The second number is a Universal Average. Boron comes from a detergent/dispersent additive which I assume is in the oil or is an antifreeze component.

Another interesting tid bit was that I had a 0.2% insolubes reading which according to the report , "continue reading quite low." This value indicates how well the oil is being filtered. I use a mixture of filters depending on what I'm able to buy when its oil change time. This sampe was done on a Motorcraft OEM oil. I have used filters from International, Mobil 1, Motorcraft as well as John Deere. Yes John Deere. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I'm not sure I have had the oil tested on all of them though.

Hope this helps,
Dan