Hello to all, Up to few years ago Shell was recommending "Shell Helix Ultra 5W-40" for the 512tr Now I have noticed in Shells website that they are recommending "Shell Helix Ultra Racing 5W-40" Any ideas for the reason of the change ? My concern is that near to me I can get only "Shell Helix Ultra 5W-40" and I dont want to go to the trouble to import the "Shell Helix Ultra Racing 5W-40" unless there is a reason ! Thank you, Dinos
Do you have a link for that Shell website? All of the Shell specs for the Shell Helix Ultra 5W-40 that I can easily find online still says "Ferrari", and Shell has really dumbed down their "spec" sheets so the limited things that they show on both seem to be identical. Some trends are that oil manufacturers have been bringing down the ZDDP concentration in their normal oils (for emission reasons) and that "racing" oils typically have higher concentrations of ZDDP. Could be that the regular Ultra has recently had the ZDDP lowered so Shell decided to now recommend their racing Ultra for flat tappet Ferrari -- but I have no information that is what happened. If you can find some ZDDP values for either, please post.
Ferrari recommends what Shell wants to promote. It is a simple as that. When that car was built Ferrari had a contract with Agip, now ENI. So when it was made Ferrari promoted Agip. Now its Shell, new boss, same as the old boss. Use a name brand 0-40 or 5-40 synthetic. Every single one is superior to what was available in 1993. Ferrari engines have not had an wear issue ZDDP could possibly have corrected since 1974.
The link of the website is: https://www.shell.com/motorist/find-the-right-oil.html#iframe=L21vdG9yaXN0L2ZpbmQtdGhlLXJpZ2h0LW9pbC9famNyX2NvbnRlbnQvcGFyL2lmcmFtZWRhcHAuc3RhdGljL2lmcmFtZS5odG1sIy9nYi9lbi1nYi9lcXVpcG1lbnQvNTEyX3RyXzRfOV8zMTVrd19GYXdFY1cyZWQ
Nothing very obvious in that (limited) data for why Shell would now recommend their Helix Ultra Racing 5W-40 over their Helix Ultra 5W-40 (but I couldn't easily find the same data for Helix Ultra 5W-40 at that website, and what I can find on the internet for it may not be up to date).
Nothing in that Ultra 5W-40 vs the Ultra Racing 5W-40 screams out to me why they would change their recommendation (and that Ultra 5W-40 data is dated 2018 so unless you got it off the Shell website today may not be current).
I have used Red Line brand for decades in all of my Ferraris(owned a 512TR)which is far better than any crap that Shell comes up with. They make a 0-40w and a 5-40w, they both have a good amount of molybdenum in there formula; and enough ZDDP if that is important to you.
Interesting, my owner's manual suggest 10W40 oil and not 5W40... Maybe because my car is from Switzerland.