Have to say, I never joined the Shell Rotella cult, although it seems to be quite big and enthusiastic.
Looking at the stuff the other day in the store. Seems the most butch stuff they have is 15w40. I've always run 20w50 or 15w50 in air-cooled bikes in the summer. Traffic, caning the bike on a back road, or a long hard run on a highway thins out the thin oil to a dangerous level. Saw the oil pressure light come on using 10w40 way back when.
Anyone run this stuff in hot weather, or bad traffic and have long term happy results?

thanks,
-Armen

I did tests with several oils and the 50wt actually makes the head hotter.
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1283117891/0

The savage does use oil cooling and to slow it down with the heavier wt. just makes it hotter.

Can someone please convince me of the usefulness of 'synthetic' oil or of 'organic' veggies ?
Both appear overpriced, never had a problem with 'regular' !  

zipidachimp wrote on 07/14/16 at 01:07:49:



I can't help you with the oil, but if I eat Regular food for a while, I start twitching like a Parkinson's patient.
I can go out to the restaurant and be in bed in a coupla hours, maybe for a coupla days, do your research.

I used to use expensive designer oils, and I never had any oil related failures.

Then when the oils started to be changed and the ZDDP levels dropped, and I started reading about the failed cams and rockers in vintage cars, tractors and motorcycles.....I started to pay a bit more attention.

For the Savage, I do believe the Shell Rotella T and T-6 will work just fine, and you will likely never have any oil related problems.  I really don't believe the Savage is over-stressed thermally or mechanically - and the difference in oil viscosity between a 15W-40 or 20W-50 is most likely negligible at normal operating temperatures.  There have been a few instances where I have gotten the engine noticeably hotter than what is my "normal"....once we were on a 1st gear climb up a steep gravel road in 90+ weather on a trip to TN/NC....and another time MMRanch took me down Main Street in Gatlinburg in 90+ temperatures, and we were just crawling through town and I shut my engine off several times as we sat and waited for some kind of movement.

The only oil related failures I am aware of come from:  1)  Most are cam bearing failures from running the engine at too low of an idle speed.  2) The next most common failure is cam lobe or rocker failure from running an oil with too low ZDDP content.  3) Some folks have clutch slippage from running an automotive oil that is energy saving and has friction modifiers.  4)  Some members have run their engines on the interstate at high speeds for extended periods and run low on oil and suffered from piston/cylinder seizures.......two members had Wiseco piston seizures during the "break in" period (one pushed his bike to 80 mph for an extended period....the other one has never reported back on why his may have seized - The Wiseco pistons have proven to be reliable when they are broken in properly).

So....the bottom line is that you most likely don't need to worry about an oil related engine failure as long as you keep 1,200 ppm of ZDDP, don't use friction modifiers, and keep an eye on the oil level, and keep your idle speed up around 1,100 rpm.  We also don't recommend letting your bike warm up while idling on the side stand - start the bike up, give it a few seconds to get the oil flowing....then slowly ride off and allow the bike to warm up a bit before using full throttle.

Here is the oil chart from the Owners manual.  10W-40 and 10W-50 appear to be interchangeable from -4 degrees to over 104 degrees of air temperature.  20W-50 is good down to 14 degrees!

The Rotella T 15W-40 works from 5 degrees up to over 104 degrees.

Suzuki doesn't seem to care if you use the 40 or 50 for the upper number.......but do prefer the thinner oils as the temperatures drops below freezing.

Shell states the ZDDP content is still 1,200 ppm, and that is an acceptable level I believe.  Levels over 1,400 ppm can be OK for break in of cams - but it is believed that over 1,400 ppm can cause damage when used long term.

I really don't think you need to add anything to the Rotella T for your backhoe.....I don't add anything to the oil when I use it in my diesel tractor or yard equipment.

Bumping the level from 1,200 ppm to 1,400 ppm for use in the Savage requires using 1/2 oz of Redline for the approximately 2 quarts to be used.

I really don't think that you "must" add anything to the Rotella T or T-6.  Nobody has reported any damage from using oils that have the old standard of 1,200 ppm of ZDDP.  The damage occurs when riders use the modern oils that have ZDDP levels down around 600 ppm.