Is oil. oil?

[Rat Rod Mac]

Is there a difference between diesel engine oil and oil for your gas engine car? Can a guy use 10w-30 in either with no problems? RRM

 

[Egon]

Different additive packages.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Only oil I know of that is recommended for both gasoline and diesel engines is Shell Rotella T6 which is a full synthetic oil. I use it in everything, boat, motorcycle, lawnmower, car, truck and of course my diesel tractors and RTV.

Most oils are recommended for only one type of engine. Diesel oil usually has a higher detergent additive than motor oil for a gasoline engine to deal with the carbon from the diesel. As for the weight of the motor oil, you need to observe the OEM recommendation for temperatures. The Shell T6 is 5W40 which is ok for me to use in everything including my Honda CRV that recommends 0W20. I personally wont run 20W oil in anything, it is my opinion that when hot, 20W oil is just too thin for proper lubrication.

Using just one oil that suits my situation saves me lots of space on my shelves and I don't end up with half a dozen different oil cans and partially full cans to deal with.

I know that manufacturers of cars thin the oil as much as possible to squeeze another MPG from the engines so they can meet the EPA requirements. I am not as concerned about getting 30 MPG vs 29 MPG as I am about engine longevity most especially in the new high revving, high HP 4 cylinder engines.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Certainly, things have changed much in the oil business due to emissions. Kubota was telling me that they now use 10w30 in the diesel engines.

I use John Deere oils in pretty much everything because I trust the quality. I buy it in January when they have their oil sale on.

 

[Gunny]

Rotella T6 for me, I use it in any water cooled engine. Currently has about a $7 per gallon rebate on which makes it very competitive if you find it on sale somewhere

 

[bdog]

Using a Diesel rated oil in a gas engine is usually fine however the opposite isn’t true. I use 5w40 Diesel oil in all my engines where the viscosity is appropriate.

 

[Texasmark]

As some mentioned, check the starbirst. A lot of diesel oils are rated Cx, Cy, Czzzzz/Sx where x may be J or the current grade for new gas truck engines. Oil is not oil in the sense base stocks may be dino (from decomposed matter millions of years ago) or synthetic (from chemical compounds). The synthetic has a wider operating temperature range.

Other than that, it's the additive package. Diesels make a lot of soot....that you surely have seen out the pipe on older, out of tune, or tuned too high, or overloaded. Soot gets in the oil and gets it dirty quickly so additives have to be in the C (combustion) rated engine oils.

Most multiviscosity C rated oils are also rated S (spark ingited engines) that I have seen on the shelf in the applicable viscosity grades that would be used in an auto/light duty truck. I use Shell Rot-T syn. in my new tractors and it is rated for both. I use 15w-40 in my old tractors and I don't remember if it is or not. Thinking back, it must be as I had a 1988 5 liter Ford p/u and I ran 15w-40 in it....a gasser.

 

[big bubba]

Only oil I know of that is recommended for both gasoline and diesel engines is Shell Rotella T6 which is a full synthetic oil. I use it in everything gary fowler

agree, use it in all my 4 stroke engines from my tiny honda water pump, to all my vehicles, & tractor
to the op question would feel T6 would be a good choice for it's diversity & it's cold starting properties... a lot of latitude with T6, guess there are other synthetic choices, but for me T6 is most cost effective & the right application esp for the tractor best regards

 

[RalphVa]

Main difference between diesel and gas engine oil is additive pack to keep more soot in solution. Could use gasoline oil but just change it more frequently. Actually, it depends on your diesel. Think my Isuzu is so clean that I could probably get by with a gasoline oil in it, but the Yanmar engine in the JD is more dirty. No way could I use a gasoline oil very long in our old 1983 240D Benz.

A 10w30 oil is probably what plain old 30w oil was years ago before the change to rating it multigrade. I use 5w30 in both my diesel engines after running it for nearly 70k miles in our VW TDI (and is what VW recommends and say they've never had an engine failure due to lubrication). I just buy the Castrol for TDIs at the VW dealership.

Ralph

 

[RalphVa]

Yes, you can use diesel engine oils in gasoline engines. No problem whatsoever.

Ralph