WheelHorse
Bronco Guru
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2004
- Messages
- 2,492
Rotela may not be a good idea for your gas engine it is meant for diesel trucks and is formulated differently and wont keep your engine as clean. I use Mobile one with a Zink additive.
It has a stronger detergent package than what you'd find in a non hdeo set up. Some argue that the stronger package in a non diesel set up will elim any benefit the extra zddp offers, but history has proven that 5-40 works rather well in low-performance older engines. Motorcycle guys run it in shared gear boxes as well.
People with high seat pressures run more zddp than what the 5-40 has to offer, but for us 140 brake hp engines, it is a no brainer.
For me, it's Rotella 5-40 end of story. Over 1200 ppm on both zinc and phos and some test as high as 1400, but never lower than 1200. I've followed the BITOG site for the last 7 years, for me it's not even worth a second look, Rotella 5-40 will do everything I need it to do for my flat tappet 302.
If I had a roller set up, I'd run a Penz Plat, it's proven to have gone 10K and more and still have life left in it. I change mine at 5K or 6 mos, but I know I still am well covered if I had to run it longer. Non-syn starts to break down at 4K, semi syn motorcraft (also Honda) for 5-20 flavors, really falls off after 6K.
Oil life monitors, they're simply timers. I can't tell you how many times I'd send a GM out and forget to pump the pedal three times to have the customer come in a few weeks later saying they were do for another oil change.
Oh ya, Rotella will do a heck of a job cleaning up the inside of an engine.
As far as syn vs non, you step into what's known as tractive forces. Syn oil is uniform in molecule size, sort of mentioned above, but what it does is lower the parasitic loss (free up) hp in a crude sense.
Syn is not slipperier than none, that area steps into additive packages (friction modifiers).
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