Rotella vs Castrol

:dry:









I use the valvoline 15w-40 in my truck. The thing I have noticed most is the oil pressure usually is around the middle of the guage at idle, but with this oil, it's slightly off to the right of center, just a bit. Another thing is less blow-by in the aircleaner. That diesel has been smokey since day one, and running valvoline, it doesn't seem to burn as much. It's still a diesel... any engine with 22.5:1 compression is gonna have lots of blow-by.

For the bikes, I have always used redline. it's expensive to put in a car(deffinitely wouldn't put it in the truck, which holds 16 quarts/4gals.), but I can justify the cost easier when I only have to buy 1 or 2 quarts.

Post edited by: john68, at: 2005/10/27 07:36

RonKZ650 wrote:

Also, has anyone ever considered getting thier oil analized by Blackstone Labrotories? I get my diesel analized every oil change, tells a lot about how your air, oil filtration ect. is working, how much blowby, gas in the oil, sludge, lubrication ability of the oil, how much viscosity lost between changes ect. May be a little overboard in a motorcycle though.
www.blackstone-labs.com/

I get my used fleet oils analyzed by Finning Caterpillar in Vancouver. I've never used Rotella in my bike for comparison, but since I switched to Castrol Grand Prix 10W40 motorcycle oil, my wear metal content has been decreasing with every oil change, as compared to when I got the bike from the original owner. I'm happy with Castrol GP and it is readily available here.

les holt wrote:

...I have seen the effects of shell rotella in a gas engine that was pampered, frequent oil changes, driven on the very easy side, NOT GOOD, don't totally understand why?, and gas engines that were flogged, better than other oils would have performed...

Les Holt

Please describe the negative effects that you have seen.

Ron

The engine was a 305 in a 1/2 ton truck. My brother inlaws dad owned it and was a truck driver. Swore by rotella. I bought the truck when he passed away, it had less than 100,000 miles and you couldn't hardly poor the oil in during the first oil change. The return holes in the head were totally plugged. The lifters chattered something fierce. After that experience I talk to a local farmer that had ran rotella in his pickup, pretty much had the same results. I have seen the same thing from quaker state, been a few years. On my last bike, I ran red line. It did shift smoother, as for other improvements, can't really say. Had been running castrol 20-50 before that.
Les Holt