Rotella Oil

[whereswaldo]

Hi everyone. I have many old tractors and vehicles and I'm wondering, since I have only one Diesel (Kubota) if Rotella T oil is okay to use in a gasoline engine. Other question is what do the numbers after the 'T' mean? T-3 T-4 T-5 T-6. I'm not concerned about the lack of 'zinc' as I have bottles of 'ZDDP' additive.

 

[Steve@Advance]

The Rotella will work well in the gas engines.

Just match the oil to the requirements of the Kubota.

Not sure what the 3,4,5,6 means, I think the T is single grade, T3 is multi grade, the others are synthetic blends or full synthetic. Reading and comparing labels will clarify.

But go more by the SAE circle. The C designation is for diesels (compression ignition), the S designation is for spark ignition. The following letter is what was available and met the requirements at the time the engine was manufactured. The designation increases alphabetically. It's OK to run a higher letter designation, but never a lower letter. The lower letters are discontinued as the newer ones come available.

The diesel oil is better suited for the old gas engines as the S oil is more designed around emissions systems and roller cams.

 

[whereswaldo]

Thanks. Next time I'm going to compare those numbers and write down what they mean. I'd forgotten that the 'S' meant 'Spark Ignition' and I do understand that with catalytic converters on newer cars they'd plug up from the zinc, eventually. Newest vehicle is a 2015 Escape; 2nd newest is a 1990 K-5 Blazer. They're the only ones with converters and roller cams. All the others are much older. Good to know I can safely use Diesel oil in them but I'll still add that zddp.
Thanks again

 

[MSD]

Rotella is $39 for a 5 gal. pail after rebate at Fleet Farm this week. Not a bad price.

 

[4play]

I think currently there is T1, T3, T4, T5 & T6. I am only suspecting T3 is still around simply for marketing to fleets, or buying in bulk packaging.

T1 is conventional oil, single grade oil like SAE 30
T3 is conventional oil, multi grade, marketed for fleet or "HD" use, only sold in 5 gal & larger containers
T4 is conventional multi grade oil
T5 is synthetic blend multi-grade oil
T6 is fully synthetic multi-grade oil

 

[Texasmark1]

Any reputable oil will have the Application Star Burst somewhere on the container. C is for compression engines and S is for spark. To answer your question: Yes.