Ol' Billip knows what that the beer crying feels like, fer shure
Now now, let's not get testy with 'ol BungaloBill -- he's done been shot up so bad over so many oil wars I'm not sure if he's even all there any more.
He mighta coulda have mebbe thought he might coulda have seen something, and to him that might be real enough to prompt his post.
Cavi Mike however mighta coulda shoulda get painted a wee bit with the BS brush for the following statement:
"I'll tell you what,
I scoured the web for hours and couldn't find anything saying the Rotella had its MA certification but someone on here showed it to me. It's actually suitable for wet-clutch bikes."
Typing just "Rotella MA certification" into Google yields about 489,000 results (in 0.83 seconds no less). Try it, you will be amazed at the net party that the MA announcement kicked off. We here on the list were in the mist of yet another strongly fought oil war when I suddenly surprised everybody when I suddenly caved in and
agreed with the opposition that we should only be using approved motorcycle oils in our Savages here on the list.
They were totally shocked that they had finally won one .....
(then the news hit)
me bad, me bad, me very very bad "I wonder why people started using Rotella in the first place... " is a fair question. There used to be a commonly used motorcycle oil weight called 20w40 which predated 10w40 and was recommended by Yamaha and others for their bikes. When 20w40 fell into disuse, the various brands began recommending you sub in 15w40 HDEO's to fill that bill since they were readily available on the market. Folks quickly found Rotella T products simply did a better job than the old 20W40 oils had been doing because the base oil and additive packages that were in it kept engines clean and very very well lubricated. The racer boys lead the charge into HDEO adaptation (their engines lasted longer before having to be torn down) But it was the Gold Wing Boys that got the MA added to the Rotella label by their endless endless requests to Shell Oil company.
Heavy Duty Engine Oil is what HDEO stands for, and originally it wasn't thought of as just for diesels (Billipshooter has been saying that again, hasn't he?) but HDEO was a general engine classification that was used in the most severe and stress filled applications.
Yup, gas engines used to be common in tractors, vans, army vehicles etc. coming out of WWII -- the total dieselification of all these heavy vehicles didn't take place until diesel injector technology advanced to the high pressure rail system that is in use today. The old mechanical injector systems were complicated, fragile and too expensive to maintain.
Nowadays the HDEO oils have to pass a battery of tests that is both EXHAUSTIVE and TOUGH, much much more so than the SAE tests required of motorcycle and car engines.It is better oil, so why wouldn't you use it?