Shell Rotella Gas Truck ****** Oil Analysis

[Richard Kim]

I compiled the ****** oil analysis for Shell Rotella Gas Truck for all you oil nerds (esp. Burla!). Couple of surprises:

1. 0W20 had slightly thicker viscosity than the 5W20 at operating temp.
2. 5W30 was a lot thicker compared to the other 20 weight oils.
3. 5W20 had the best additive package.
4. 0W20 had the lowest TBN.

Just thought I would share.

Shell Rotella Gas Truck	0W20	5W20	5W30
Antiwear
Molybdenum	150	179	160
Phosphorus	623	747	676
Zinc	766	881	807
Detergent
Boron	88	104	92
Calcium	1175	1461	1310
Magnesium	449	511	446
Total Base Number	5.9	6.49	6.78
cST Viscosity @100C	8.7	8.5	11.7

 

[Burla]

Thanks Brother, very good info as you see the 5w30 is bucking trends of going with low viscosity as most oils are doing. Being it is truck and gas, they are actually taking metal protection serious, no joke. The question is did t&g stay the same when QSUD went discoed, because it was a clone oil to that. Now, we have a quaker state full synthetic that is not the same. We need current data on T&G, so are these brand new voa's or a year old or longer? Because qsud discoed was about a year ago. I figured it would take a long time for T&G to get old stock sold, this is a fluid situation at this point.

 

[Burla]

If the 5w30 is truly going to be that moving forward, with moly level and high end cSt, imo this would have to be in the top 5 for the 5.7 hemi. But, it might take a few voa's or uoa's to accept this as fact considering the clone oil was discoed.

 

[Richard Kim]

If the 5w30 is truly going to be that moving forward, with moly level and high end cSt, imo this would have to be in the top 5 for the 5.7 hemi. But, it might take a few voa's or uoa's to accept this as fact considering the clone oil was discoed.

Burla,

From these numbers do you think 0W20 and 5W20 are interchangeable?

 

[Burla]

Very much so.

 

[retired]

in reality other than viscosity at 212F those numbers are essentially the same. Be interesting to see see what they looked like after 5000 miles in like vehicles under like conditions.

 

[Burla]

I don't see the viscosity index's posted anywhere, both have the same pour point -54f and the 0w20 has a higher flash point by a little. There is two ways to get an oil to get better cold performance, either add vii's or use higher quality pao base oils. Viscosity index and usually pricing are also hints to how it was achieved. Both rotella 20 weights have better pour points and visc at 40c then redline 5w20, so there is nothing wrong with that!

Again, the main issue with truck and gas is if they changed it after qsud went away, or is the formula still made just as before. I can say it is a very under rated oil, maybe the poor tbn is the reason maybe marketing, but on a short interval it looks as good as it gets.

And oh yeah, both weights carry ms-6395.


.

 

[Marmay]

Shell rotella 5W20 lead my hemi to tick,conventional 5W20 kill the tick.

 

[Zoe Saldana]

​	T6​	PUP​	Redline​	Amsoil Sig Series​
​	0w40​	0w40​	0w40​	0w40​
Quarts Used​	​	5w 40​	​	​
Molyboenum​	5​	241​	624​	210​
Nickel​	-​	-​	-​	0​
Manganese​	-​	-​	-​	0​
Silver​	-​	-​	-​	0​
Titanium​	-​	-​	-​	0​
Potassium​	9​	-​	3​	3​
Boron​	49​	251​	113​	311​
Silicon​	40​	6​	15​	7​
Sodium​	7​	2​	14​	5​
Calcium​	2,133​	1,080​	3,043​	1350​
Magnesium​	20​	758​	10​	970​
Phosphorus​	1,125​	694​	1,263​	692​
Zinc​	1,181​	753​	1,498​	766​
Barium​	-​	-​	-​	0​

 

[BlackGold6.4]

Interesting ... I use Pennzoil 0W40 full syn in my truck, that's what it came with and under warranty with. The company I work for uses Shell Rotella in everything but not the drill oil lube we use is still Esso Ardox EP100/150

 

[Richard Kim]

Zoe,

The additive package on the Redline 0W40 is crazy!

 

[Zoe Saldana]

Zoe,

The additive package on the Redline 0W40 is crazy!

You can get it on Amazon.

 

[Colt4thHorseman]

Something to be aware of for Rotella Gas Truck oil.
The oil has been discontinued.
Additionally, it does not meet standards any longer.
Product: Shell Rotella Gas Truck Full Synthetic Motor Oil

“Viscosity Grade: SAE 5W-20
Labeled: API SN PLUS/ILSAC GF-5
Manufactured By: SOPUS Product, Houston, TX”

Notice the GF-5. ILSAC is now GF-6A for oil.
The GF-6A oil is a much better oil.
I didn’t know if you all knew this?

 

[Elkman]

Since 2017 with the new oil formulations required for the new engines the oil tests are worthless. The oil companies spent hundreds of man years testing their new oils on thousands of engines to insure that there was adequate lubrication. If an oil meets the new SAE standard than it is as good as any other oil.

Only with diesel engines which burn an incredibly dirty fuel is the additive mix important and past testing has shown that the price paid does not relate to the worth of the additive mix. Pennzoil has one of the best additive mixes and Amsoil has one of the worst. Redline is as good as Pennzoil and Valvoline but costs twice as much.

 

[Spamcan]

@Elkman: Hey, RE your last line quote, "the higher the....", I'm so short 5'4", I use one of those collapsible stools tethered to my driver's seat. When I was a kid, my parents told me I had an IQ of 145!. So, I'll have you know I'm a pretty smart guy! (Heh, Heh, Heh). I always thought the size of the truck bore an inverse relationship to the size of the owner's ...... never mind! (1996 Laredo 2500 4X4 8.0L V10)