Another Rotella foam thread

[KEVINK0000]

Mr Blogger has been in agreement with things stated/ revealed here more than once or twice. Just putting that out there.

 

[KEVINK0000]

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.

 

[OVERKILL]

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.

 

[dlundblad]

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.

 

[johnmyster]

I’m seeing 3 bubbles near the add mark. (Rotella T6.)

OMG so much foam.

 

[crashz]

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.

They are camo, so you're good!

 

[nthach]

This evolved into it having almost a cult-like following in certain circles, like the Jeep 4.0L crowd, and many hot rodders started to swear by it in applications it was never designed for. So, it shouldn't be surprising that it may not perform as well as oils that ARE designed for those applications.

The Subaru guys use it in built EJ/FA engines… and Brotella hasn’t stopped them from blowing piston ring lands/skirts. But that’s more of a design flaw than the oil - but a Euro PCMO(or a stout ILSAC one) is better for this case.

 

[AuthorEditor]

I know it won't convince anyone, but I recently sold a 20-year old Ninja 500 with about 45K on it. I used nothing but T6 Rotela after the first 600 miles. Never burnt a drop of oil and the engine was running the same as new when I sold it.

 

[nthach]

I know it won't convince anyone, but I recently sold a 20-year old Ninja 500 with about 45K on it. I used nothing but T6 Rotela after the first 600 miles. Never burnt a drop of oil and the engine was running the same as new when I sold it.

I’ve used Rotella T4 in a Ninja 650 - it never complained. Delo 400 was my oil of choice if I had to do an OCI on an older German car though. It’s dual-rated, IIRC but not self-certified for JASO MA/MA-2 unlike Rotella is.