thanks Kruz,,, lot of people love the shell rotella.

I guess you dont want to use the engery conserving one thou..

Im about to freshin mine up soon, I will use rotella

Yea, avoid energy conserving oil like the plague. Rotella is non-energy conserving, even though there is now a small amount of molybdenum in the new formula. I find it interesting that Shell advertises they ran the JASO MA test and both the 5W40 synthetic and 15W40 passed including the wet clutch friction test even though Rotella is not marketed as a motorcycle specific oil. As far as I know, they are the only manufacturer to have done this with an oil that is not motorcycle specific. This gives me great confidence in their product.

Kruz

I don't know. I guess I just feel a little disheartened with the new formula Rotella. At 10K using the old formula Rotella, as you can see I pretty much had ZERO engine wear. Now with almost 24K on the bike, and after two changes using the new formula I am seeing some wear. Yes, it is VERY little wear. Nothing to get excited about at all. But I can not help but wonder if this is just normal engine wear for this motor at 24K. Or if the new formula is not doing as great of a job as the old formula did. As they say hind-site is 20/20. But I sure wish I had sent in another sample at 20K when I was still using the old stuff.

If you plan to keep your bike, and to give all of us a better understanding of the wear pattern, I wish a bunch of you would get your oil analyzed. No I don't get a kickback from Blackstone, LOL!! But for 22.50 and maybe a buck fifty mailing cost, it's pretty good piece of mind to know what your motor is doing.

Gorgeous, I always liked that bike Reeves, simple but very classy!

thanks kruz! i wonder what tommy's been up to?

phil, i think it's awesome that you went through this process twice to see how your bike is holding up. personally, i like the 15w so much in my 636 that i'm going to try it in the 14 next. the smoother shifting with the 15w was like night and day, a very noticeable difference too! i can't recommend it for the 14 yet, but i'll soon be able to report my findings. as far as the 15w wearing quicker than the 5w, i haven't found that to be true. another plus is the 15w is even cheaper than the 5w at $12 a gal.

Phil.... your numbers still look great and let's face it you have put another 14,000 miles on it. No engine lasts for ever, some just last longer than others. At the rate you're going, you'll get tired of looking at that thing long before you ever wear it out. Another point is one sample should NEVER be taken by itself. If we see high numbers in a sample, we order another to see if the first was a fluke or skewed for some reason. The more data points you have, the better you can see any wear trends developing. On aircraft engines we do a sample every 100 hours of operation. For peace of mind, do another sample in 2500 miles. I think your engine is doing fine, I crunched the numbers and it's wearing at about 1/3 the rate of a typical ZX-14. That's hard to beat in my book.

Kruz

* Last updated by: Kruz on 7/20/2009 @ 6:51 AM *

thanks kruz! i wonder what tommy's been up to?

Kruz

i don't know about showroom but this bike is definitely a keeper! i can see it lasting a long time with a little maintenance that's required periodically. i just have to keep her in one piece

Kruz,u an AMT also?

Yes sir, been licensed since '83. Now in field technical support for an aircraft engine manufacturer.

Kruz

that's a pretty long time, lol, i'm on the line here in ny with delta only been an amt for about 4 years now :-) pretty big difference in time

You must be a young pup then? I'm an old grouch at 54.

Kruz

yup, only 22

Well hopefully I fixed half the problem with the increase of silicon in that oil sample. Crap plastic air filter cover was warped. I could see a trail of dirt leading past it. Replaced it with one of the metal ones for an 08 or 09. And it looks like my valve cover is now leaking. Probably leaching small amounts of dirt through it. Do any of you that did the washer fix remember what size washers you used?

Of course damaged one of the well nut's that goes into the air box pulling the plastics. I hope the engineer responsible for those two got fired, LOL!!! No, actually I hope he is suffering more than that!!!

Phill, can you let that Rotella go, once for all. I'll talk to Kruz next.

Last oil change I switched off to Valvolene 20w-50 weight and I think I have about 1500-2000 miles on the bike since. I'm getting the cam tensioner rattle and heavier gear clunks than before so the oil is toasted. Had several aggresive rides since then, also the engine heat is constantly very high on the days I ride to work here in New England.

The dealer changed the oil before this one and I don't know what they used. I called them and they said it definitely was not synthetic so I haven't made the switch yet to the syn. I think the 5-10w is too thin for these high temps here.

I'm changing the oil with new filter tonight. This oil thing is a real biatche. Worse than trying to make a decision about what restaurant to go to on a Monday night.

Well hopefully I fixed half the problem with the increase of silicon in that oil sample. Crap plastic air filter cover was warped. I could see a trail of dirt leading past it. Replaced it with one of the metal ones for an 08 or 09.

Phil, maybe it's time to post on that subject again for the '06/'07 owners. I had the same problem a year ago and found that tell tale dirt trail around the filter. Posted on it on the old forum but it may be time to remind folks that plastic cover is junk. I ordered the Cycle Logic billet cover but wish I had just bought the stock '08 one instead.

Kruz

Phill, can you let that Rotella go, once for all. I'll talk to Kruz next.

Steven, I've got an idea. Why not send an oil sample to Blackstone Labs of whatever oil you're running, post the results here and then we can compare wear rates to Phil's? If your oil is better it will show up in the results and I'll eat my words and switch over. That simple, the proof's in the pudding...sound fair to you?

Kruz

* Last updated by: Kruz on 8/6/2009 @ 9:08 AM *

I have a better idea. What if you go to Walmart, buy 2 jugs (8 qt.) of Rotella Sync. 5W-40 in blue jug and change oil in the '97 Merc. again (now at 175 K miles), along with OEM oil filter, all documented with plenty of pics, and will monitor how it's holding up. Once I detect the infamous dry start-ups, which happened before at about 3 k, will drain the oil and send it to Blackstone. I just have a hunch that the Rotella oil will fail this test. I also wonder why did Shell change the formula, recently.

* Last updated by: Steven14 on 8/6/2009 @ 3:10 PM *

sounds like somebody's scerd ^

sounds like somebody's scerd ^

Oh behave now Reeves ...LOL!

Kruz

* Last updated by: Kruz on 8/6/2009 @ 3:00 PM *

Well hopefully I fixed half the problem with the increase of silicon in that oil sample. Crap plastic air filter cover was warped. I could see a trail of dirt leading past it.

Phil, it's that nasty Rotella, it causes deterioration of the airfilter seals. Also been linked to global warming, bovine flatulence and solar flares. LOL!

Kruz

* Last updated by: Kruz on 8/7/2009 @ 9:27 AM *

I have a better idea. What if you go to Wallmart, buy 2 jugs (8 qt.) of Rotella Sync. 5W-40 in blue jug and change oil in the '97 Merc. again (now at 175 K miles), along with OEM oil filter, all documented with plenty of pics, and will monitor how it's holding up. Once I detect the infamous dry start-ups, which happened before at about 3 k, will drain the oil and send it to Blackstone. I just have a hunch that the Rotella oil will fail this test. I aslo wonder why did Shell change the formula, recently.

Even better idea, try this in the old Merc:

or as last resort:

Ok, I'll stop now!

Kruz

Kruz, you don't have to. I am having fun with this Rotella issue. BTW, the Merc. is here to stay. It's one of 5 cars in the garage. I will not list them by make and model, just the following, 1 x'87, 1 x'97, 1 x'00, 1 x'04 & 1 x'08. I will not by buying Rotella any time soon, but I will if you want me to test it again as I stated in my offer. What do you think?

Yes, by all means, I'd say go for it.

Kruz

OK! This will be long ongoing process. I will use this thread to post pics and progress reports. It actually may be fun.
Sooo, everybody interested, stay tuned.