For All The Rotella T Folks...I have a ?

[PolishPete]

All I could find near me at the local Wallie Worlds was the blue bottle Rotella T 5W-40.  Will this do the trick?  The 5W is lower than the 10W I see you guys use...is that ok for a cold spring morning (trackdays coming up and its still a bit cold in the Chicago area).

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[klebs01]

Yes, the blue bottle is the one you want.

[rwracer]

Ditto.  You want the lightest possible weight full synthetic for cold starts at the race track.  If Rotella made 0W I'd probably be buying that.

You should also let your bike warm up at idle until the thermostat pops before you head out too.

[Super Dave]

Um...

15W, 5W, 0W....

That's reference to the oil's viscocity at 32F.  No change in drag when the oil is up to operating temperature, when they are operating as SAE 40.

Often, better oils will be straight weight oils, as there are fewer additives.

[Sig]

I've always wondered why some things spec a 10w-30 instead of a 5w-30 or even why not a 0w-30. As I understand it, they are all the same at operating temp and the lower ones flow better at cold.

[Super Dave]

EPA of course...

With more restrictions for start up emissions, manufacturers have been forced to mandate low viscosity oils for their new applications.  At least that's where the lower dubya's come from.

[rwracer]

And 0W helps startup lubrication in cold weather which was also what this thread was talking about and for racing it helps to have the second number as big as possible for running at higher temperatures, so again 0w-50 or 5w-50 would be a good choice for the cold startup and high racing temps.  And for a motorcycle you should try to make sure that the bottom on the certification stamp on the back doesn't say "energy conserving".  And pretty much all oils have additives and NOT ALL additives are bad.  I apologize for not being more careful to be technically accurate, but my recommended choice of oil is still the same.

For those who want to read up on some good tech info this is the article many "experts" will point you to and the reason why I started using Rotella-T full synthetic a couple years ago.  Click on the link and then search for the word "choosing":

http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Oils1.html

[Sig]

Why would you want to put a 50w oil in your engine? Seems to me that would be HP robbing.

[rwracer]

I think you misread, it says 0w or 5w, the 50 is the Viscosity Index, i.e. the second number.

even better just click on the link and read thru the tutorial.

[Sig]

My point is, that a 0w-50 or a 5w-50 is going to act like a 50 weight at operating temperature, that is at least until you run it for a while and it sheers down.

The 2nd number isn't the VI of the oil, it's the viscosity grade of the oil at 100c. Anyway, what I'm saying is that you should use the thinnest oil that you can which still forces the two moving surfaces apart. Maybe I'm wrong, but a 50 weight seems a bit high in a racing motorcycle.

[Noidly1]

The higher the rpm the harder the lobes smack the lash caps.
You need a heavier oil to cushion the blow or you will wipe the lobes off and ruin the engine.
This does not mean that at 15,16 K that you need 90 weight but, still you need a heavy enough oil to cushion the valvetrain.
The W# means nothing when the engine is at operating temp.

While the heavier oil will take a smigion of power, I favor the loss of power for longevity over the last pony and grenade an engine.
If you want your engine to last an entire season or longer, just use a quality 10w-50 or 20w-50 and forget it...

Just an FYI, Drag racers regularly go through their engine and replace bearings, so they can afford to use 0 and 5 weight racing oil to extract that last 10th of a pony...

JMHO.

[Super Dave]

I haven't used a 50 weight oil since probably 1988, and that what when we had air/oil cooled engines where the oil was the primary coolant.  I switched to 40 that year and used that with GSXR's that we raced through 1991...still oil cooled.


I had my own oil made in 2001.  It was an SAE 10.  No durability issues.

Good luck!