Shell Rotella 15W-40 T5 Synthetic Blend

Maintenance advice to keep your Spider in shape.
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KevAndAndi
Posts: 531
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2014 12:14 pm
Your car is a: 1981 Fiat Spider 2000
Location: Chatham, NJ

Shell Rotella 15W-40 T5 Synthetic Blend

Postby KevAndAndi » Sun Nov 19, 2017 12:33 pm

Bought this on Amazon by mistake. Meant to get regular, not synthetic blend. (There is also apparently a full-synthetic version “T6”.) Should I return it? I’ve read here that people often have oil leaks after switching to synthetic, but I’m not sure if that’s true with a synthetic blend.
Kevin
1981 Spider 2000

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kilrwail
Posts: 1099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:49 am
Your car is a: 1978 Fiat 124 Sport Spider
Location: Perth, Ontario

Re: Shell Rotella 15W-40 T5 Synthetic Blend

Postby kilrwail » Sun Nov 19, 2017 1:29 pm

I use Brad Penn/Penn Grade 20W 50 in both cars because of its high zinc and phosphorus concentrations. It's been a synthetic blend for quite a while. No problems whatsoever.
_____________________________________________________________
Peter Brownhill

1978 Fiat 124 Sport Spider - original owner
1977 Porsche 911S - track car
2022 Ram 4 x 4 - hauler
PCA National Instructor and Motorsport Safety Foundation Level 2 Instructor

DieselSpider
Posts: 2130
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2014 10:21 pm
Your car is a: 1978 124 Spider with Isuzu Turbo Diesel

Re: Shell Rotella 15W-40 T5 Synthetic Blend

Postby DieselSpider » Wed Nov 22, 2017 12:06 am

It used to be in the past that Synthetics caused the seals to swell a bit more than Dinosaur oil so on changeover to synthetic some leaks would be cured however when switching back to non-synthetic the seals would shrink and then leak worse than before. I believe that they have resolved that to a degree since then however you may want to consider this as potentially being a long term commitment to staying at least with a blend.

User avatar
KevAndAndi
Posts: 531
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2014 12:14 pm
Your car is a: 1981 Fiat Spider 2000
Location: Chatham, NJ

Re: Shell Rotella 15W-40 T5 Synthetic Blend

Postby KevAndAndi » Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:23 pm

Thanks, I ultimately decided to return it and go with the non-synthetic.
Kevin
1981 Spider 2000


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