Castrol and Rotella Diesel

[camo]

I ran Rotella in my 2001 Kawasaki concours for 140K miles. No cam pittiing and no wear noted. I still run it in my FJR and will be running it on my XS.

[crazypj22]

I believe a lot of the Shell people/engineers/management ride bikes and are pretty active on Rotella forums.
Pretty sure they got it slightly reformulated to meet MA spec.
I haven't used Castrol engine oil in anything for about 30 yrs, (have used their fork oil though)
Didn't like the attitude of 'we know better than you how you ride your bike'.
I always found GTX to be pretty nasty stuff,used Duckhams 20w?50 for a long time

[tonyc2me]

I too have used Rotella in my two KLR's for well over 100,000 miles without oil problems. I will be using it in my 78 xs. TonyC

[sgallaty]

I happen to own a very heavy duty diesel engine, and I know that oil for diesel engines specifically had to have certain parameters (such as sulfur content) to deal with the chemistry of the fuel and residues.

I'm not sure why this is a topic, but I've seen it come up several times. For the ultimate cost and benefit of your engine - what could possibly be better than using a fully synthetic high shear rated high temperature oil like the spectro series and changing it every 3k?

So it costs more - but it's the most beneficial maintenance you can do - and the worst mistake you can make.

[ShakerNorm]

The problem with some of the synthetics is that they are TOO slippery..... If your clutch won't grab - you aren't going anywhere - and our clutches are wet clutches, so the oil has to work with the clutch. With a dry clutch - it isn't a factor, but we need to have some friction in the clutch and still minimize friction everywhere else.

When these things were designed, ZDDP was a common additive in the oil and it solved most of the problems with that system, but now - pollution and gas mileage are the overwhelming factors, so each time the API spec changes, they take out more of the stuff that our bikes were designed for.

It's not a great system, but it's what we have, and it's what the bikes were designed for, and now we have to deal with it.

It's kind of the same with old cars and unleaded gas - a lot of old cars (early 70's and older) will run on unleaded, but they will eventually eat their valves, because they were designed to use Leaded gas. The lead in the gas was a lubricant for the valves. If you want to run unleaded for any length of time without damage to your valves, then you have to have hardened valve seats and valves.

[dps650rider]

I have been using synthetic in my '78 all summer with no problems after upgrading the clutch plates and springs. I don't know if the clutch upgrade was needed more because of the oil or because of the engine mods but it works with no slippage whatsoever even with abuse.

[10ecjed]

I also have switched to Mobile1 20W50 synthetic for Vtwins. No slippage at all

[xsleo]

Actually lead wasn't in gas to lube the valves, it was put in to increase octane and reduce knock in high compression engines.
The reason valve seats wore on unleaded was because the leaded gas didn't need hardened seats and the softer seats were cheaper to use.
Leo

[ShakerNorm]

the original purpose of the lead wasn't lube - you're right, Leo - it was octane.... but lubing the valves was one of the beneficial side-effects of it.