Delo rotella differences

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I'm just a curious dude. What are the differences between delo 5w40 and rotella 5w40? I hear the delo has some moly in it but what are the difference in base stock? Delo is usually 2 bucks cheaper a gallon than the rotella.
 
Both have a bit of moly.
The Rotella is probably using RDS's GTL basestock these days while the Delo would be using Chevron's IsoSyn Grp III.
Either is a good oil, both have their adherents and for a couple of bucks less my sump would be full of Delo.
Not much to really chose between these two and you could throw M1 TDT and possibly D1 into this mix, as well as Valvoline's 5W-40 HDEO.
On a cost basis, D1 is much cheaper AMIR, which Mobile typically offers in the spring and again in the fall.
The MIRs on Rotella are much less valuable and the retailers excluded from the Delo MIRs make them useless.
There is currently a Rotella synthetic MIR of five bucks a jug through 12/31/17.
 
I have used either in my motorcycle and couldn't really tell a difference.

Rotella had JASO MA certification, which wasn't there on Delo, but I really didn't care
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With the new CK-4 requirements i prefer the Rotella over Delo. Delo's add pack got weak with the new requirements. The only stuff I use is Cen-Pe-Co which is CI+ oil
 
Originally Posted By: jfairchild327
With the new CK-4 requirements, Delo's add pack got weak with the new requirements.


I'm also curious about Delo's latest CK4 formulation. I ran this last batch of CK4 15w40 Delo 400 SDE pretty darn hard, and for more miles than I typically do in my Series 60 Detroit motor. I'm sending a sample into the lab to see how it held up. When my results come back, I'll post them in the UOA section.


I'll then be using Delo 400 XLE 10W30 CK4 for the coldest winter months.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
With Delo being CK-4, how is it still gas rated then?


You can have CK4 and SN provided it is SN levels in terms of zinc/phos. Weaker add pack.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
With Delo being CK-4, how is it still gas rated then?


Exactly. Sounds like heresay to me
 
Originally Posted By: Fraser434
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
With Delo being CK-4, how is it still gas rated then?


You can have CK4 and SN provided it is SN levels in terms of zinc/phos. Weaker add pack.


Mobil Delvac Super 1300 CK4 is also SN rated. It's interesting to me that Delvac's and Delo's dual rated CK4 HDEOs have been approved by the nearly all of the major manufacturers for use in their engines. This leads me to believe that their latest additive packages must be pretty stout, even with lowered zinc and phosphorus levels. If these dual rated
HDEOs weren't up to par, Cummins, Volvo, Mack, Detroit, etc, etc., wouldn't approve them.
 
Originally Posted By: Fraser434
You can have CK4 and SN provided it is SN levels in terms of zinc/phos. Weaker add pack.

That only applies for 0w-30, 5w-30, and 10w-30 HDEOs. Any 40 grade HDEOs can have elevated phosphorus, although a company can still elect to reduce them if SN is there, or, for that matter, even if SN isn't there.

Dak: You're quite right. Take a look at any of the E6 (reduced phosphorus) lubricants out there, and you can see a lot of builder approvals.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Fraser434
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
With Delo being CK-4, how is it still gas rated then?


You can have CK4 and SN provided it is SN levels in terms of zinc/phos. Weaker add pack.


So if you want a stout diesel oil, say a 15w40, for a diesel, get the CK-4 non gas rated oil then?
 
Originally Posted By: Fraser434


Mobil Delvac Super 1300 CK4 is also SN rated. It's interesting to me that Delvac's and Delo's dual rated CK4 HDEOs have been approved by the nearly all of the major manufacturers for use in their engines. This leads me to believe that their latest additive packages must be pretty stout, even with lowered zinc and phosphorus levels. If these dual rated HDEOs weren't up to par, Cummins, Volvo, Mack, Detroit, etc, etc., wouldn't approve them.


Another very good point.

That said, this makes me wonder why Rotella dropped the gas rated ball then. They had T5 10w30, which was (is?) a pretty well rounded oil IMO. Much like ones favorite brand of 0w40.

XOM just has 1300 15w40 and M1 TDT, but yet they are still gas rated. Seems like SOPUS is missing out on some large pieces of the market pie.. Their loss is Delo's gain I reckon for the 10w30 market especially.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
That said, this makes me wonder why Rotella dropped the gas rated ball then. They had T5 10w30, which was (is?) a pretty well rounded oil IMO. Much like ones favorite brand of 0w40.

They're not the only ones that did it. However, Shell, Mobil, and Chevron all have E6 rated lubricants in 5w-30 with SN, as well, now, which are very well rounded, too; some are CJ-4, some are CK-4. They have the elevated HTHS and the cold starting number to cover just about everything. Castrol has one, too, but for some peculiar reason, at least when it was introduced, it didn't have the gasoline rating. That's odd, but it's a very hard to find lube, so that doesn't have a huge impact.
 
Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
That said, this makes me wonder why Rotella dropped the gas rated ball then. They had T5 10w30, which was (is?) a pretty well rounded oil IMO. Much like ones favorite brand of 0w40.

They're not the only ones that did it. However, Shell, Mobil, and Chevron all have E6 rated lubricants in 5w-30 with SN, as well, now, which are very well rounded, too; some are CJ-4, some are CK-4. They have the elevated HTHS and the cold starting number to cover just about everything. Castrol has one, too, but for some peculiar reason, at least when it was introduced, it didn't have the gasoline rating. That's odd, but it's a very hard to find lube, so that doesn't have a huge impact.



In the US market, I want to say Rotella (aside from the T6 MV) is the only one that dropped the gas ratings.
 
I thought the Delvac 1 ESP 5w-40 did, too, but we've had mixed signals on that. I wouldn't be able to answer for their 10w-30 or 15w-40 options, either. I suppose the only real answer would be to see a bottle, or I could dig through the API website, assuming everything is current there. Generally, though, I wouldn't consider it a huge concern, since how many vehicles call for 5w-40, 10w-30, 5w-40, or 15w-40 with API SN?

With respect to Rotella in 10w-30, if they went SN, would have to lower the phosphorus content, and they had some reason for not wanting to do that. Phosphorus isn't always the be all and end all to AW, but Ford seems to think so, so there's that reason to drop SN. It also helps, at least a bit, push the PCMO offerings in comparison.
 
Originally Posted By: Garak
I thought the Delvac 1 ESP 5w-40 did, too, but we've had mixed signals on that. I wouldn't be able to answer for their 10w-30 or 15w-40 options, either. I suppose the only real answer would be to see a bottle, or I could dig through the API website, assuming everything is current there. Generally, though, I wouldn't consider it a huge concern, since how many vehicles call for 5w-40, 10w-30, 5w-40, or 15w-40 with API SN?

With respect to Rotella in 10w-30, if they went SN, would have to lower the phosphorus content, and they had some reason for not wanting to do that. Phosphorus isn't always the be all and end all to AW, but Ford seems to think so, so there's that reason to drop SN. It also helps, at least a bit, push the PCMO offerings in comparison.


I completely forgot about the Delvac 5w40. In my defense, I always thought the stuff was a bit of a joke seeing how it's an XOM product and priced considerably than M1 TDT 5w40. (I feel the same way about PP and Pen. Ultra as well as vanilla M1 and M1 EP btw.)

I just ask these questions because I am a bit of an HDEO fan in passenger cars. I prefer to run xxw40's in the Jeep mainly. My truck I could care less about oil wise, but discounted synthetics and gas rated HDEO's are nice.
 
Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
What I really care about is what Rotella is JASO MA/MB rated and lubes my old Suzuki flat tappet big-bore 650 single best.
cool.gif



Running T5 semisynth 15w40 in my Honda XR650R. Shifts like butter.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
I completely forgot about the Delvac 5w40. In my defense, I always thought the stuff was a bit of a joke seeing how it's an XOM product and priced considerably than M1 TDT 5w40. (I feel the same way about PP and Pen. Ultra as well as vanilla M1 and M1 EP btw.)

Oh yes, your pricing is a bit different there. You don't want to be buying M1 TDT here. There must be sufficient suckers to take it off the shelf, but it never rolls back. If ordinary M1 is on sale, M1 TDT doesn't join. If Delvac products are on sale, TDT doesn't join, either. It's always like $50 a jug, with Delvac 1 being half that at the distributor, so that was never an issue here.

I still see no problem with Delvac 1 ESP 5w-40 in CK-4 only being used in a gasoline engine where the CJ-4/SM version was useful. Ed Hackett doesn't see a problem with it either. The specifications are mostly evolution of the current specifications, with applications remaining essentially the same.
 
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