Oh gee, another oil thread. This certainly will end well.
I don't know why you guys hate on Rotella so much. I've never had any problems with the stuff. In fact, every diesel engine on our ranch gets the stuff.
Rotella also seems to be some stout stuff to me and I have a perfect example of why.
Our 1969 John Deere 3020 just completed an engine overhaul. It had been running great until the coolant seal in the #3 cylinder liner gave out. Its rare but it happens with age.
When we tore the engine down, we discovered it had been through a **** poor rebuild before. The previous rebuilder incorrectly installed one of the main bearings which lead to a spun bearing situation. In fact, the engine also had the wrong end caps which allowed the entire crank to move back and forth about a quarter of an inch.
To top it off, they left out a plug on the front of the block which didn't allow the oil pump to reach full pressure...nor did the frigging thing have the right oil dipstick to even begin with!
After my friend that was rebuilding the engine for me uncovered all of these cut corners and 'micky mouse' engineering, he could not believe the thing still even ran at all. How it even provided ANY oil pressure to operate is beyond him.
Despite running on low oil, a spun bearing, mediocre oil pressure and the wrong end caps, that engine DID run! It ran damn good all the years we have owned it all while unknowingly running it in such poor condition on good old Rotella.
We used that tractor hard each hay season and then plowed snow with it all winter. That engine never missed a beat nor did it have any signs of the poor shape the internals were in. To me, Rotella kept that engine alive for the almost 800 hours it was in the poor shape it was. That is why I will continue to stand by Shell Rotella oil. (This is also why I'm more strict about getting UOAs done).
Another lesson learned from that experience: Don't buy into a stranger's rebuild. Sometimes an ape would have done a better job.
EDIT: For fun, here is a video of that tractor starting in the cold a couple years ago even in the poor shape that engine was in internally:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V18kcg_-SbA