Does anyone use/have used shell Rotella T and is it safe for our motors?. I'm bumping up to 5w-40 also to try and quell a good bit of valve chattering and I've heard of a couple people using 5w or 10w and it made their motor quieter.

I feel that the 0w-40 is too thin at start-up and that is why my motor ticks until it warms up either because:

A. 0w-40 is too thin when cold and doesn't offer enough start-up protection, pretty much like running thin household oil in your crankcase until its viscosity increases.

B. It is so thin that it doesnt hold enough oil pressure until it's warm.

I think maybe this could be another reason that some people are experiencing valvetrain issues because the oil doesn't offer enough protection at cold temps and it causes premature valetrain wear.

 

I just ordered up a case of Motul 10w40 http://www.performanceoilstore.com/p...sp?prod=369811 at $8 a quart it's a little pricy but Mercedes Benz recommends it. I found that mobil1 oil is kinda funky IMO.

Last time I changed the oil and poured in fresh Mobil1 I looked in the bottom of the oil container and all I saw was a brownish sludge. Definitely not worth the $6/quart for such garbage.

 

Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but it seems to me that putting non-synthetic, diesel engine oil, into an engine designed to use 0w40 Synthetic oil specifically from Mobil 1, just doesn't make sense.
Valve train noise is synonymous with synthetic oil simply because it does not have the noise suppression qualities that petroleum base oil does. Not because it's not doing its job.
Introducing a heavier weight petroleum base oil into your engine may indeed quiet your valve train, but it won't fulfill the lubrication needs of an engine that has the close tolerances that the 3.2 Merc engine has.

 

I'm talking about the synthetic version, not regular dino oil. Obviously the tolerances in my engine aren't that close if you can hear valves slapping.

If Maxwell says he found sludge in the bottom of his bottles of Mobil 1, then that's more reason for me to use something else. Come to think of it about 10 minutes ago in the Nascar race Jeremy Mayfield's Mobil 1 car just broke a valve and blew up and I think it may be a sign lol.