Yet another oil thread... | GTAMotorcycle.com

Yet another oil thread...

RonnieRev said:
It works for me, I have been using T6 in my ZRX for over 100k with no problems
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Just because you've got away with it doesn't mean it's the best choice. I'm guessing you didn't bother to read the article.
 
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TK4 said:
Is Rotella really the answer for your motorcycle ? Likely no -

www.motortrend.com

Is Diesel Motor Oil the Right Choice for a Gasoline Engine?

Many enthusiasts look to diesel motor oil as a high-zinc alternative, but is it the best choice? A certified lubrication expert explains the difference.
www.motortrend.com www.motortrend.com
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I'd never heard of using diesel oil in motorbikes until I came to Canada. Personally I'd never do it but it seems people don't really have much issues with it. As a buyer it's something I'd ask and could possibly be a red flag (if they cheap out on the oil, what else is half assed).
 
There is a faction of car owners (mostly turbos, I think) that use Rotella on this basis that more ZDDP is better - I think this article is mostly aimed at them. This article misses pointing out that there are other anti-wear additives besides ZDDP, and looking at ZDDP alone does not tell the whole story. It has been increasingly limited in newer oils due to potential for catalytic convertor poisoning.

Most motorcycle owners that use Rotella aren't using it on the basis that it's better, they're using it on the basis that it is good enough and it is much cheaper than motorcycle branded oil. Shell claims that T4 and T6 are JASO-MA compatible, so if you trust that claim then it IS a motorcycle oil. I personally liked using it in air-cooled bikes with short change intervals.
 
RonnieRev said:
It works for me, I have been using T6 in my ZRX for over 100k with no problems
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Does the ZRX suffer from the same #3 main bearing issues that the ZX-11 did?
 
Interesting.
The PO of my bike said he used Shell Rotella diesel oil.
I have always used full synthetic Motul.
Not sure if I will switch the bike to Motul or stay with what he put in there.
 
I remember years ago some oil guy on the gsxr forums ran the motul semi, full and race oils through some tests before and after running them in his bike for a while, there was significant differences in lubrication and deterioration between the 3 oils. I can only imagine how poorly diesel oil would compare to bike specific oils.
 
TK4 said:
Just because you've got away with it doesn't mean it's the best choice. I'm guessing you didn't bother to read the article.
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I have been using T6 in my motorcycle engine for years, along with millions of others.

I dont believe everything I read on the internet
 
Over 1m miles on Rotella T5 use it in bikes, cars, trucks and boats (I buy a couple of pails at a time when it's on sale). 35 years and never had a lube related repair. Last gas boat v8 had 3100 hours on Chrysler 318s, oil change every 100hrs, still running strong when I sold her. Buddy has 260k on a v4 honda bike, still runs like new.
 
RonnieRev said:
It works for me, I have been using T6 in my ZRX for over 100k with no problems
Click to expand...
What does that mean? Have you ever taken your motor apart to check, or have you ever done dyno pulls to compare oils? or does that mean in the last 100k you have yet to walk out to the garage and found the motor melted into the concrete?

The REASON, AFIK, Rotella got so popular was "normal" CAR oil lost some ZDDP (zinc) additive when they found that excess ZDDP would clog catalytic converters, in the mid to late '90s.
Rotella oil, being designed for diesels, got to keep ZDDP...
Do you know what other oil kept ZDDP? Motorcycle oil.
... then in 2018 or 2019, rotella got reformulated (when diesels started to get catalytic converters, and DEF to clean them)... with less ZDDP. Rotella is no longer marketed as Diesel oil, it is now a multi use oil. Rotella has about the same amount of ZDDP as motorcycle oil, around 1200ppm.
If you were to dyno a motor with different oils in it, you're going to find that one of the lowest, if not the lowest, HP pulls will be with Rotella.
Why does no one want to use Delvac? Truckers prefer Delvac (truckers know Rotella is NOT good oil, Rotella is CHEAP oil). Delvac is better diesel oil than Rotella. (It's still not good motorcycle oil)

Ya want anecdotal evidence? I used to own taxis and have owned several cars that went 1 million kms without an oil failure ... all using the CHEAPEST spec oil I could find. My current van has 350,000km on it, it has lots of oil pressure... using the cheapest spec oil I can find, but when I put Rotella in it, the gas mileage goes down.
I use a lot of Wakefield oil. (Wakefield sells Castrol in Canada).
Ya want GOOD performance oil? Look at Valvoline VR-1 or BradPenn
 
RonnieRev said:
I have been using T6 in my motorcycle engine for years, along with millions of others.

I don't believe everything I read on the internet
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At the risk of repeating myself, did even you bother to read the article?
It was written by a professional, referring to and citing professional chemical engineers - they might know a thing or two?
You'll also note that I questioned as to whether Rotella is the best choice, which you didn't answer.
There are several different viscosities and quality grades of Rotella, what have you been using?
Have you ever disassembled the powerplant or cut an oil filter open to inspect for any abnormal wear or deposits?
You know, technical stuff.
These millions you refer to, have you spoken to them all personally or is it just stuff you've read on the untrustworthy internet?
I know, so many unanswered questions - I await your intelligent, timely and thoughtful response...
 
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bitzz said:
Rotella is no longer marketed as Diesel oil
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Ummmmm... Fact check.


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Yes, it is. It's right on the tin actually.

bitzz said:
(truckers know Rotella is NOT good oil
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Ummmm... Also gonna fact check this.
Rotella is actually extremely highly regarded in the trucking industry, and I should kinda know about that since I've worked in it for coming up on 30 years and it's what our fleet uses, and we have lots of tractors with in excess of 1M km on them now.

www.trucknews.com

Shell Rotella T user racks up two million miles on one engine - Truck News

CALGARY, Alta. -- Shell has announced an Alberta trucker has accumulated more than two million miles on the same en...
www.trucknews.com www.trucknews.com

Anyhow, personally, I use T6 in my current bike, and used T4 (dino) in my VTX for almost 100,000km. Switched my BIL's Mercruiser 470 boat engines to Rotella T6 this summer as well and they run noticeably quieter.

As for that article, who is the "certified lubrication expert", and what is his certification? The only name listed is "Lake Speed Jr", listed as a "writer", and the hotlink on his name 404's. Some Googling shows that he's the son of a Nascar driver and works for a company that sells piston rings or something. There doesn't' appear to be a lot of info on his "Certification" available online.

I took an online course on RV repair 15 years ago and passed, so I could call myself a "Certified RV Repair technician" as well I guess and write authoritative articles on the internet about how to repair all things RV I guess, even though I'm sure there's far more qualified people out there..

Some further Googling shows that I too could become a "Certified Lubrication Specialist" by taking a 3 day course. I'm not sure that after a 3 day course I would speak with this level of scientific authority on this topic.

www.lubrigard.com

CLS Certified Lubrication Specialist Training from Lubrigard.

CLS Certified Lubrication Specialist Training from Lubrigard.
www.lubrigard.com www.lubrigard.com

Anyhow, long story short, I'll take this article with a grain of salt.
 
As cringe as oil threads can be, this one shows how some people just seem to plug their ears while humming "I've been using it for years and never noticed a problem."
People have their brand loyalty and sometimes it as simple as that. They don't want to change, no matter how many articles or proof you put under their nose.

I can count on one hand the amount of people who claim their oil & filter are "fine" and have also sent their oil in for an analysis to confirm it.
So they're just assuming....and you know what, back in the day that's all you could do. Either pull the motor apart and look for yourself, or just make as best a guess you can from how the bike/car sounds and feels.

I've sent numerous samples of oil to Blackstone laboratories. For both cars and bikes and It's cheap and easy. You can tell if you're changing your oil too soon, or if something is going wrong.
When the Honda OEM Oil Filters changed manufactures I sent a sample in after an oil change to see if the new filters were any good (because some people online were claiming they weren't) and the analysis showed they were good.

I have oil analysis show I can safely go 7-8k kms between oil changes and people with the same bike will still be changing their oil every 4,000kms. Refusing to do their own test and refusing to look at mine. "la-la-la I won't listen to reason I've been doing it this way all my life and I'll be damned if I will change la-la-la" :rolleyes: Such a waste.

I remember I went to a Motorcycle store to look at helmets and the owner out of nowhere asked me what kind of oil I used in my bike. I told him I used Mobil1 MX4T. He acted like I told him I use ketchup.
"NOOO!" 😱he exclaimed. "You can't use that! You have to use Motul!" and he gestured dramatically to his large Motul display. When I asked him why Mobil1 wasn't good he said something about how Motul is specially designed for Motorcycles and offers the best protection and Mobil1 is pretty much sh**💩
Me: "Well I have sent numerous samples of my oil in and the lab results show that Mobil1 is actually performing extremely well."
I've never seen someone deflate as much as that big idiot did. Thankfully he shut right up.
That shop is closed now....thankfully.

Back to Rotella Diesel Oil, lots of threads on the "Bobistheoilguy" forum talking about the oil. Appears to run fine in some applications and not so fine in others. Like the article mentioned there are some concerns about foaming. Some have witnessed it and others haven't. That's just from a quick 5 min search though.
 
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I wish MX4T was still widely available... so convenient. And like half the cost
 
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