SuzukiSavage.com - Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result

Oldfeller--FSO

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Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result
Reply #15 - 08/18/12 at 19:13:22

I think I will never ever see a 120^o day temperature in North Carolina, and that 95^o days were enough to evaporate my rear tire in 3 days and I am certainly not looking to do that ever again either.

I also think Rotella T-6 is the best synthetic "starting point oil" we have available right now for the Savage engine, and that with a mild ZDDP bump job it is as good as anything out there at this point in time.

Folks will occasionally abuse their bikes and their oil -- we should try to get reports like this from them so we can see what happens.

==================

Yeah, sniff it for any "burned" smell -- we all remember that from our dino oil days as dino stank bad when it began to break down.

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ralfyguy Serious Thumper Offline Posts: 932	Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result Reply #16 - 08/18/12 at 19:17:02 Digger wrote on 08/18/12 at 19:11:28: Ralf, Didja take a whiff? Not directly, but it smelled no different than on oil changes before. I didn't get a burnt odor if that's what you mean.
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ralfyguy

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Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result
Reply #17 - 08/18/12 at 19:18:53

Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 08/18/12 at 19:13:22:

I think I will never ever see a 120^o day temperature in North Carolina, and that 95^o days were enough to evaporate my rear tire in 3 days and I am certainly not looking to do that ever again either.

I also think Rotella T-6 is the best synthetic "starting point oil" we have available right now for the Savage engine, and that with a mild ZDDP bump job it is as good as anything out there at this point in time.

Folks will occasionally abuse their bikes and their oil -- we should try to get reports like this from them so we can see what happens.

==================

Yeah, sniff it for any "burned" smell -- we all remember that from our dino oil days as dino stank when it began to break down.

No smell as far as I can tell. Smelled not unusual at all.
I think the stuff looks the same as what I've seen before. It always turned dark rather quickly, no matter what oil I ran. I think it was just fine.

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Oldfeller--FSO Serious Thumper ModSquad Offline Hobby is now "concentrated neuropany" Posts: 12673 Fayetteville, NC Gender:	Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result Reply #18 - 08/18/12 at 19:20:24 So, now that you still have the oil (smart, huh) unscrew the lid and describe what it smells like. Countersniff one of the just emptied bottles of new oil to get a comparison. Now taste it, and tell us the various differences ......
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rfw2003

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Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result
Reply #19 - 08/18/12 at 19:20:28

Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 08/18/12 at 18:58:57:

Then hindsight time -- if you did it again, the 120^o hot day ride from hell, would you rush to drain the T-6 all out again?

Huh

Or would you just trust the robust brunette oil to do its thing, trust it to be able to take whatever a Savage deals out for a lot longer than we will ever leave it in the engine for our longest drain intervals?

(I can't even imagine a 10,000 mile drain interval on a bike, much less 50,000 or 80,000 miles like people do to T-6 all the time in the trucking industry)

On my freight Shaker with the Detroit 12.7L running at 500hp and 1350 TQ I did 30,000 mile change intervals. Truck has 900,000+ miles on her and never had an in-frame done. Oil pressure is still as good today as it was when I bought it.

I ran the Dino Rotella in her from day one.

As for a Motorcycle to be able to go that distance on a change interval, the only way I could see it as even possible, is with a modified oil pump so that you could run a by-pass filtration system on it, since the sump is so small.

R.F.

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ralfyguy

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Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result
Reply #20 - 08/18/12 at 19:38:35

I ride in the heat a lot. Oklahoma is hot. I throw oil out after 1,500 miles on the bike, regardless of the brand. I won't skimp out on oil, never have. I buy T6 for it's capabilities, not because of the price. 13 bux every 1,500 miles won't break the bank and gives me a piece of mind. fresh oil never hurts anything.
I dumped that one, because I was worried about what I did that day, especially after seeing what happened to the grease.
It has a typical used oil odor like every other. Not that much different from the new stuff. Just smells used, not bad in any way. The same like all the other oil changes I did.
For me, I cannot detect anything out of the ordinary.

OF, want me to mail you a sample? Wink

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Oldfeller--FSO

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Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result
Reply #21 - 08/18/12 at 19:56:09

Naw, ship it to Bill, he's the one who likes to drink the stuff, not me.

Glad to see it held up, and even it you tasted it it would taste like Yuckk!! both new and used.

I think the most miles I have ever put on a sump of T-6 was about 5,500 miles and that was over 1 1/2 years of duration time with about 3-4 partial quart top ups due to oil consumption.

You could say I ran a 50% replacement with fresh oil over the period and not be much off the truth. Verslagen is much worse than me, he really doesn't need to drain his oil at all as he does 150-200% replacement in a year's time due to repeated top ups on his much older higher mileage bikes.

Mine was all liquid too every time I drained it, no lumps, no sludge. Definitely brunette though, very brunette.

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ralfyguy

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Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result
Reply #22 - 08/18/12 at 20:26:14

Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 08/18/12 at 19:56:09:

Naw, ship it to Bill, he's the one who likes to drink the stuff, not me.

Glad to see it held up, and even it you tasted it it would taste like Yuckk!! both new and used.

I think the most miles I have ever put on a sump of T-6 was about 5,500 miles and that was over 1 1/2 years of duration time with about 3-4 partial quart top ups due to oil consumption.

You could say I ran a 50% replacement with fresh oil over the period and not be much off the truth. Verslagen is much worse than me, he really doesn't need to drain his oil at all as he does 150-200% replacement in a year's time due to repeated top ups on his much older higher mileage bikes.

Mine was all liquid too every time I drained it, no lumps, no sludge. Definitely brunette though, very brunette.

Now that I saw what drained, I trust this stuff completely. I am impressed, and as long as the formulation stays the same and it is easily available, I'll keep running it. Best oil I ever ran in that bike.

OH, BTW: I still have some pre-T6 bottles of old Lucas 20W-50 in the basement, that I haven't gotten rid of yet, partially I don't know what to do with it. About 10 bottles of old oil. Eight of them had the JASO MA rating on there, and the last two I bought had that removed and said JASO MA-2 on it. So about a year and a half ago they must have changed that, and I'm glad that I only ran that stuff for about 1,500 miles. I did not know about all this back then. I am so glad I switched to T6 after that!
I did not even pay attention to what the bottle said, other than that I saw JASO briefly. To heII with them ba$tards for changing this in secrecy and if I hadn't switched, my motor would be blown to pieces by now, especially with the way I ride at times! I ride hard on the slab, and that stuff woulda killed that motor over time!

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J C Stokes Full Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 159	Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result Reply #23 - 08/19/12 at 03:32:06 Ralphy, sorry to twist your thread, but is your tach from EBAY or J P Cycles? Have you had problems with the clamp slipping and does the tach vibrate when you are riding?
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Charon

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Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result
Reply #24 - 08/19/12 at 05:53:29

Interesting abuse test, but I suspect the oil didn't really get much hotter than usual. The temperature was 112 degrees (the heat index doesn't matter to the engine), about 20 degrees above the "typical" 95 degree day. The oil would have probably run about that same 20 degrees hotter than its normal to be hot enough to shed its heat.

Years ago I drove a Freightliner with the Detroit 12.7 engine, though Werner had ours limited to 385 HP, 1800 rpm. They scheduled oil changes at about 3300 gallons of fuel, which worked out near 20K miles. As I recall, the engine took five gallons of oil (someone correct me if I am wrong), or 20 quarts. So it burned about 165 gallons of fuel per quart of oil during the change interval. If one runs the S40 for its 3750 mile maker-suggested interval, and gets about 50 mpg, one burns about 75 gallons of fuel or 37.5 gallons of fuel per quart of engine oil. Using that as a basis, we change oil more than four times as often as the guys in the big trucks. In both cases I am ignoring make-up oil.

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Oldfeller--FSO

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Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result
Reply #25 - 08/19/12 at 06:58:46

Yep, Rotella T is PLENTY good enough for a stock Savage and Rotella T-6 is "happy overkill" for those of us who think we need a synthetic oil.

The two Rotella oils that we list constitute a sheltered port in this oil storm we are having and I for one am grateful that they are there for us to fall back on and that they are NOT dancing to the motorcycle industry's strings right now.

Bikes are bound for "cat converter land" just as fast as Europe can take them there, and the US motorcycle industry (jest say roller lifter equipped Hurleys) doesn't even use a wet clutch and their engine valve trains can live just fine on car oils (so watch them Hurley oil specs get closer and closer together with the existing 20w50 car oils).

We are an offshoot orphan, an "in-production antique motorcycle".

Roll Eyes

for a while, anyway

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« Last Edit: 08/19/12 at 12:00:11 by Oldfeller--FSO »

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bill67 Serious Thumper Offline old tired Posts: 8517 genoa city wisconsin Gender:	Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result Reply #26 - 08/19/12 at 07:01:48 With a good premium synthetic motorcycle oil at right weight, The s40 should go around 7500 miles between changes.
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ralfyguy

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Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result
Reply #27 - 08/19/12 at 07:34:01

J C Stokes wrote on 08/19/12 at 03:32:06:

Ralphy, sorry to twist your thread, but is your tach from EBAY or J P Cycles? Have you had problems with the clamp slipping and does the tach vibrate when you are riding?

I got mine on ebay. And no the clamp does not slip a bit. Yes it vibrates or shakes a bit at certain rpm's, BUT: I highly recommend to use it, as I had it mounted on the left handlebar clamp pinched between the halves and the bolt running through it. That caused higher frequency vibrations and constantly killed the illumination bulb. About every other week. It eventually vibrated the tach to death as well. So i got another one that looked the same, but this one upon turning on the it ignition it sweeps all the way around to 8k and then goes back. The cushion clamp eliminated the bulb problem and I haven't had to change the bulb in two years.
It shakes a little when accelerating from lower rpm's, but the needle never does.

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ralfyguy

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Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result
Reply #28 - 08/19/12 at 07:44:23

Charon wrote on 08/19/12 at 05:53:29:

Interesting abuse test, but I suspect the oil didn't really get much hotter than usual. The temperature was 112 degrees (the heat index doesn't matter to the engine), about 20 degrees above the "typical" 95 degree day. The oil would have probably run about that same 20 degrees hotter than its normal to be hot enough to shed its heat.

Well thing is with the grease I used to grease the kick stand and the shift lever pivot. It was rated to 275F. Both pieces are mounted near the crank case. That stuff got so hot apparently, the stand and the shift lever were really hard to operate anymore. The grease looked like tar. It never did that before. So it must have gotten really hot there. Just made me worried about the rest of the motor. But seems like T-6 didn't even flinch.

To me T-6 is the best.

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Charon

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Re: Rotella T6 Oil Abuse Result
Reply #29 - 08/19/12 at 08:05:58

There is another source of heat I had forgotten. The pavement was probably over 180 degrees on a day that hot, with the sun shining on it. Those pivot points are not only near the crankcase, but also near the very hot ground and the layer of hot air adjacent to it. Might be interesting to point an IR thermometer at the pavement if you ever get another day that hot. That hot pavement might also be the reason tires shed their tread.

I usually do not grease those pivot points. I usually use 80W-90 gear oil on them. A drop or two whenever I do other routine maintenance seems to keep them moving nicely, and I have the oil on hand for chain lube for other bikes.

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