Shell Rotella T 15-40 For BMW 325ES....Yeah?

[e55amgbenz007]

I just filled my 86 325es up with Shell Rotella T 15-40. I tried a kendall 10-30 semi syn and there seems to be a bit of leakage in the last two weeks. The Kendall was in there for about 4k.......Is the Rotella a wise choice? I am in San Jose, Ca.....

 

[Thatwouldbegreat]

Lots of people like Shell Rotella 15w40, Shell Rotella 5W-40, or Chevron Delo 400 15w40 for older BMW engines.

I use Reline 10W-40 synthetic in my 86 325es at 7000 mile oil change intervals, and the car runs great despite 500,000 miles of hard driving.

I think that 5W-40, 10W-40, or 15w40 oils are perfect for older BMW's. Full synthetics are better for cold temps, or hard driving , IMHO.

 

[e55amgbenz007]

How did your seals hold up with the Redline? I want to do that really, really bad. Toss that Redline in that ol engine and see what she does...178k so far....

 

[Thatwouldbegreat]

thats Redline 10W-40 www.redlineoil.com

 

[e55amgbenz007]

I have some Redline 10/30 right now and Im tempted to mix them.....Anyone have advice on that one?

 

[Thatwouldbegreat]

Zero problems with Redline! Practically zero oil consumption.

See if 10w30 is thick enough in terms of CST at 100 C, I'm fairly sure that it is, since Redline performs like one grade higher.

 

[e55amgbenz007]

Really.....At how many miles did you change over to Redline?

 

[e55amgbenz007]

Maybe I will start out with 4 quarts rotella 15-40 and .5 quarts reline 10/30.... i have no idea if this will be any good

 

[Thatwouldbegreat]

Back around 250K, before that I ran Castrol Syntec 5W-50 or Mobil 1 15W-50 at 5K intervals.

And before that I ran Castrol GTX 20W-50 at 3K intervals.

Here's the redline oil specs:

SAE 5W20 5W30 5W40 10W30 10W40 15W40 15W50 20W50
Vis @ 100°C, cSt 9.1 10.9 15.1 10.7 14.6 14.5 19.6 19.8

Redline 10w30 is a bit thin compared to Redline 10W-40 and ACEA A3 specs

Stick with the Redline 10W-40 and don't mix it...it really good all by itself.

Shell Rotella 15w40 is viscosity is cST 15.5 at 100 degrees C, BTW

 

[e55amgbenz007]

is that cst at 100 dgrees mark for shell a good one? is that a good visc for the oil?

 

[e55amgbenz007]

i am just concerned if i switch over to redline right now major leaks will spring....

 

[Thatwouldbegreat]

I think you'll find that a healthy modern engine will never have problems with synthetics.

That viscosity is fine, and the other spec is the HTHS spec. Anything with a high temperature high shear number of greater than 3.5 is fine for this motor.

SAE 5W30 5W40 10W30 10W40 15W40 15W50 20W50

HTHS Vis, cP @150°C 3.8 4.6 3.8 4.7 4.7 5.8 6.1

So you can see that all Redline oils from 5w30 on up meet that spec.

If you are that worried then use Shell Rotella 5W-40, or Castrol Syntec 5W-40, or Valvoline Synpower 5W-40.

These are all decent 'synthetic' oils that are really very highly refined conventional oils. So then the worry that synthetic oil causes leaks goes away.

By the way, most leaks are worn seals or gaskets and most of them are easy to replace.

Try the Redline 5W-40 or Redline 10W-40 for 7000 mile intervals and see how it works...you may be suprised by how smooth the engine runs.

 

[e55amgbenz007]

Right on.....