Hey all.

I stopped by walmart to see if the fabled "mobil 1 super sale" was
on in my neck of the woods. It was not, but they are selling the 1
gallon containers of shell rotella T 5-40 for $12.50 or so. This
seems like a pretty darn good price. Is it any good?

I'll be putting it into a 164 with a B30 with 200k on it, but I've
been putting mobil 1 into it for the past year or more with no leaks
so I'm not concerned about leaking or anything like that. My motor
runs pretty darn hot, that's why I want synthetic.
chris

It's not a true synthetic.

It would work OK in that car, but why is it running so hot?

I have not seen standard wear tests on that oil.
--
http://www.fidalgo.net/~brook4/oilslubesfilters.html

Never mind... just saw your later post.


Dan

Hi Paul,
Have you had an opportunity to take a look at the specifics of this new synthetic yet? I just heard about it through this thread but I know from personal use in my work truck and my towing 4x4 that the regular Rotella t is a great dino oil...just curious. By the way, my 242t project is coming along well but very ssslllllooooowwwwwllllllyyy. I got sidetracked with the wife's "new" 745t which is almost perfect now. Latest on that was all new front bushings, ipd bars, sachs turbo all around and ball joints and tie rods ends and Yoko Avids....she thinks she's driving a brand new car. I don't know, she won't let me drive it.


Dan(in Mass.)

p.s. the m46 in the 745t is performing well with the Amsoil Supershift

Amsoil has not studied it as far as I know. They seem to be way behind right now.

Rotella is OK oil. The 5W-40 is not synthetic as I wrote....see the MSDS comp. below.
--
http://www.fidalgo.net/~brook4/oilslubesfilters.html

There are a bunch of reasons why the lump runs hot. I think the
B30A tends to run hot normally just because of the crazy intake
manifold which is a single unit intake / exhaust which dumps lots
of heat from the exhaust into the intake all the time. Also, my
specific car has SU-HS6 carbs with the round air cleaners which
suck hot engine bay air into the engine instead of using the cold
air snorkle the box should have. I've also got a bunch of broken
manifold studs which certainly don't help things. It gets to be
well over 100 around where I live and it gets hotter than that on
the street.

When I first got the car it would run with the temp gauge in the
center most of the time and sometimes creap into the 2/3rds range just
driving around. Turning off the car would cause the temp to surge
deep into the red for a while. Sometimes the car was hard to start
in this state and made funny sounds until the temp went back down
below the red.

I replaced the heater valve (which was stuck in the "blazing hot"
position), recored the radiator and replaced the thermostat and all
the hoses. The tstat I put in is a 182 degree unit instead of the
190 degree unit which I believe is stock. The timing is set such
that the motor pings sometimes when it is hot out and the car is
under heavy loads at low RPMs (it probably pings at higher RPMS too
but I can't hear it); most of the time even under high loads it
doesn't ping unless it is hot or I put 89 instead of 91 in that day.

With all the changes too the cooling system, the temp sits at the line
at 1/3rd most of the time, except when driving around when it is hot
or some other random situations where it can climb as high as the 1/2
point. I'm going to ditch the carbs and put fuel injection in as soon
as I get the chance; I think that will fix the problem for good.

Before you ask if the voltage regulator was broken, I tried two
different units, 2 different temp gauges, and when putting ice cubes
on the head the ice would skip around like crazy and boil instantly.
With the changes I've made, it would make a little puddle before
boiling off.

I think actually the old B18/B20/B30 motors demand better oil
than the later motors. The later motors don't have the cam / lifter
wear issues that the all arn lumps have, and so don't need oils that
are as good.

George Downs, The "original" Walrus3, Bartlesville, Oklahoma....is the man for your 164. He has run that sucker near the equator....
--
www.fidalgo.net/~brook4

I'm not too concerned by the car. It runs kinda hot but
isn't near boiling over unless I get stuck waiting for a
train and leave the car running for 20 minutes. This isn't
a problem since it dies all by itself if I let it idle for
more than a minute or so.

But it does run hot and the B30 has the same bad habit as
its smaller brothers of eating cams. In an attempt to
put off the inevitable rebuild (what with the 3 or 4 manifold
bolts) I figure synthetic oil is a good idea.

So the shell rotella T 5-40 is not a real synthetic? The
web page seems to imply that it is a real synthetic by saying
stuff like "...Rotella T Synthetic 5W-40 is a fully synthetic
heavy-duty engine oil." but then the earth is also flat and
the the mayans, who are really from atlantis, built a star
ship in 342bc, if you believe everything on web pages.
chris

CAS# CONCENTRATION INGREDIENTS
Mixture 100 %volume Synthetic Motor Oil
92062-09-4 65 - 74.99 %volume Hydrotreated Petroleum Slack Wax
64742-54-7 10 - 19.99 %volume Hydrotreated heavy paraffinic
distillate
Mixture 3 - 8.99 %volume Hydrocraked, hydroisomerized HVI
paraffinic oil
Proprietary 3 - 8.99 %volume Proprietary additives
64742-65-0 1 - 2.99 %volume Solvent dewaxed heavy paraffinic
distillate

Just like Castrol Syntec - legally they can CALL it a synthetic oil, but it isn't synthesized, as real synthetic oils are from smaller building blocks to make a VERY uniform base oil. A base oil that is much more stable than regular petroleum oil or the hydrotreated/hydrocracked products in Shell rotella T 5-40. I'm not saying this oil is urine, but you pay for what you get for the most part...
--
www.fidalgo.net/~brook4