Another Rotella foam thread

Harks to the "even a broken clock is right twice a day" phrase. I think the criticisms of his methodology are reasonable, the test lacks the resolution necessary to make the sort of granular categorizations he makes. It's not unlike folks trying to bench race oils by observing minute variances in PPM on uncontrolled UOA's ;)

AMSOIL of course used to use the 4-ball wear test for a similar purpose. They've thankfully moved-on from that, now using modified versions of standard test sequencies.
 
I'll have to look into the oil level sight glass on my 2001 ATV more carefully while rev bombing it, but going from memory, RT4 does carry a few bubbles below the surface when cold , but once warmed up, there might be a couple on the surface, but none below.
It has a good size 3.5L sump for whooping 280cc of engine, plus a whole bunch of gears and clutches, so I'm very sure its never pumping aerated oil around.
I'm getting near 20 yrs of using it in equipment like single cyl B&S engines that are much older than that, and there hasn't been any oil related issues. Seems to be good enough HST fluid as well for the the lawn tractor, and gear box oil for the YZ250.
I suppose if you have a high performance dirt bike with a 1L combined sump and 13k redline, you might want to be a bit careful with oil foaming. Our air cooled CRF honda's seem to be fine on a 10hr OCI with it, as they don't have oil filters, so just keeping a decent cleaner oil in there works well I think.
I like it because its cheap by the pail, and I'd rather have low hour and cleaner RT in an engine, than expensive oil with high hours.
Would be interesting to hear if there have been reports of it causing issues in the Can-am bikes, as with the CVT's, they scream pretty regularly when you are getting on them. My 1000R loves to wind, but I have Mobil 1 FS 0W-40 in it.
 
No idea if this is a good “test”, but here’s my zero turn’s dipstick after mowing ~2 hrs today. I’m seeing 3 bubbles near the add mark. (Rotella T6.)

I was given heck for wearing crocs so here they are.
IMG_8373.webp
 
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