thinking of switching both cars and bike to rotella syn 540

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long time lurker,1st time poster,lots of great info here.trying to cut some costs and simplify oil purchases.own a '98 firebird with ls1, currently has 80k miles,have used redline 530 since 5k miles.'69 firebird with 5k miles on rebuild,use 1030 havoline and '01 honda 929(bike)with 3k miles,also use havoline.want to run synthetic in everything,anyone see any issues with going to rotella syn 540 in everything?thanks in advance.
 
Would think 5w-40 is an excellent weight for your area. Don't know much about the shell synthetic but I have always been impressed with shell products so should be great.
 
That would be a good choice for all 3 where you live . It's supposed to get upgraded to a CI-4 rating soon so you might look for new stock when buying .

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I sure like the 929/954R's .
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I'd continue to run Redline 5w30 in your LS1 if I were you. Nice car by the way, what color is it? I had a 98 Formula in Blue Green Chameleon from April 98 until Nov 2000:

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Rotella has worked well in every car I used it in. I am, however, switching over to Castrol Syntec 5w-40 made in Belgium. It will be great for my extended drains as it carries VW specs and is widely distributed now for HS like 4.5.
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quote:

Originally posted by Patman:
I'd continue to run Redline 5w30 in your LS1 if I were you. Nice car by the way, what color is it? I had a 98 Formula in Blue Green Chameleon from April 98 until Nov 2000:

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Why do you recommend staying with redline?I almost bought the chameleon,(yours is a beauty)but decided on black(i like to punish myself).Definately one of the best vehicles I have ever owned,I love it!Too bad they stopped production,would buy another in a heartbeat,though I'm sure gm will bring back the fbody.
 
Redline oil works very well in the LS1, along with Amsoil as well. They tend to like the thicker 30wt oils. It might do ok on Rotella 5w40, however I think if you drive it hard, that could thin out easily, while Redline is very shear stable, and is always an excellent choice for a hard driven/high horsepower application.

My 98 Formula was the best car I owned too, it ran very strongly, best ET of 12.68 at 110.6mph with just 4.10 gears, drag radials, cutout, HPP3, MTI airbox, a ported stock MAF and the free mods. I've got a 95 (LT1) Formula now, but it's close to stock, with just an SLP 2OTL exhaust, and it's run a best ET of 13.68 at 100.4. I love the torque of the LT1, but miss the top end power that the LS1 has.
 
If rotella thins,then I should probably re think it,especially for the motorcycle,since they tend to be very hard on oil due to the high rpms and sharing the gearbox with the engine oil.I would of thought a diesel specific like this would be a very durable oil due to the high load/compression they have to endure.I have done a search on rotella and did not find info about it thinning/not being sheer stable,maybe I missed it?I tend not to see things right in front of my face.Patman,do you know of some specific info regarding this?
 
The only UOA where Rotella thinned badly was from extreme fuel dilution; a condition that would mess with any oils viscosity most likely. Someone also posted a while back that Rotella had a HT/HS viscosity of 4.0, which is superb and would qualify for European A3 status. There is also a UOA of Rotella synthetic in an LS1 where it did fantastic. Search for it in the UOA section. It may not be the best oil for extreme racing duty, but for street duty, it should hold up as good as any other group III oil in a 5w-40 grade.
 
Rotella-T Synthetic is an excellent price for a group III oil. It is hard to go wrong at $12 a gallon at Walmart.

The problem with Rotella-T Syn. is that it can not compare to it's competition. Delvac-1 is a much better oil. Rotella-T has been out performed in some parameters by dino oils like Schaffers and Delo 400.

I have used Rotella-T synthetic and would not hesitate to use them again if cost was a factory. I just want to make sure that you reliase that it is not in my opion any where near as good as it could be for the price. It is a real value compared to the price of other group III oils like Castrol Syntec!
 
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