Is rotella a good oil for my 2013 FZ8?

[Gusm91]

I see there is a lot of different rotellas. I also noticed a lot of people use rotella as their oil for their bikes but which one? can someone provide a link or picture to the one I should be using in my bike? I see they go no more than $25 at walmart. If this is an oil a lot of people use, do you recommend it for our FZ8's? is it safe for our clutch, engine and transmission? Has anyone had any bad experiences? also, what weight should I use ?

 

[cmurder]

pretty sure T6 only comes in 5w40 (full synth). its good, cheap , and always available at walmart
if ya like dino the t5 also works and is $13 a gallon used that for years on my jap Vtwins

 

[Rotaryknight]

I see there is a lot of different rotellas. I also noticed a lot of people use rotella as their oil for their bikes but which one? can someone provide a link or picture to the one I should be using in my bike? I see they go no more than $25 at walmart. If this is an oil a lot of people use, do you recommend it for our FZ8's? is it safe for our clutch, engine and transmission? Has anyone had any bad experiences? also, what weight should I use ?

I use Rotella T6 which is the one that people use. It only comes in one weight, 5w-40
I put on 7-8k miles on the oil and havent noticed anything wrong with engine or transmission and I ride hard. Normally changing oils you would notice some kind of feeling with clutch engagement but I have not notice any change with Rotella T6. The main reason why people started using the Rotella T6 was because it was JASO MA certified some years ago, the certification just means that it is certified to use in wet clutch applications like motorcycles, that and its is cheap lol

I would also like to add that for regular riding and the occasional thrashing is good on the T6 oil, but if you are doing track I suggest using heavy weight amsoil oil.

 

[FZ8Panda]

T6 is the only oil I use. It's cheap and it does the job. My friend has been using it on all his bikes for many years with zero problems.

 

[Gusm91]

Good to hear that people actually use it. So, can this oil really take a beating (just in case I want to redline one day...you know.) ? Also, will using this oil void any warranty or damage any engine or transmission components what so ever?( I see the weight of the oil isn't listed on the owners manual) If anyone else uses it please put it out here and your opinions.

and BTW , I DONT do track..

 

[Gusm91]

pretty sure T6 only comes in 5w40 (full synth). its good, cheap , and always available at walmart
if ya like dino the t5 also works and is $13 a gallon used that for years on my jap Vtwins

What is dyno?

 

[pajkrubi]

Rotella is a HDEO (Heavy Duty Engine Oil) and is probably more stout than any "motorcycle" oil on the planet. It' a VERY good oil and was made to be run in diesel engines under extreme pressures and heat so it'll more than hold up to anything you can throw at it in a bike. Their are many, many threads on bobistheoilguy.com about rotella in all orts of bikes from air cooled harleys and victorys to high end RR's and they all do fine. Their are a lot of oil analysis results on there too that show how good it holds up under use.

Just run it and a good filter like a K&N or napa old and go enjoy the bike. People worry waaaaay too much about oils nowdays. Pretty much ANY modern oil is a good oil these days, even the dino oils have plenty of additives and stuff in them to easliy run 5,000 miles with a good filter. The only oil you do NOT want to put in a bike is an automobile oil that is "energy conserving" because it has friction modifiers in it that will make your wet clutches slip and ruin them. With the quality of modern oil people NEED to focus more on what filter they run. I see idiots all the time with a jug of mobil 1 and a fram filter! Fram filters are complete garbage along with several others on the market. There's many tests out there of all the different filters and how they perform and how they're made along with several youtbe videos howing the internals. The main good one's are purolators (both classic and the pure one), K&N and the napa golds along with some others I'm forgetting about.

Here's great read on filters!

http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/FilterStudy.html

 

[Gusm91]

Rotella is a HDEO (Heavy Duty Engine Oil) and is probably more stout than any "motorcycle" oil on the planet. It' a VERY good oil and was made to be run in diesel engines under extreme pressures and heat so it'll more than hold up to naything you can throw at it in a bike. Their are many, many threads on bobistheoilguy.com about rotella in all orts of bikes from air cooled harleys and victorys to high end RR's and they all do fine. Their are a lot of oil analysis results on there too that show how good it holds up under use.

Thank you, so that oil is perfectly compatible with my 2013 fz8?

 

[pajkrubi]

What is dyno?

Most people refer to basic, non-synthetic oil as dino(dinosaur) oil because it comes out of the ground and is a fossil fuel. It's just a quick way to say conventional, non-synthetic oil. Lol

 

[pajkrubi]

Thank you, so that oil is perfectly compatible with my 2013 fz8?

Yes. JASO MA certification (which rotella is certified at) means that the oil has been tested and is approved to be used in motorcycles with wet clutches. Our bikes and pretty much anything but a harley and victory use a wet clutch set up which means that the engine and transmission share the same oil. Harleys and victorys have a seperate oil for the engine and transmission like a car or truck has.

 

[Gusm91]

Rotella is a HDEO (Heavy Duty Engine Oil) and is probably more stout than any "motorcycle" oil on the planet. It' a VERY good oil and was made to be run in diesel engines under extreme pressures and heat so it'll more than hold up to anything you can throw at it in a bike. Their are many, many threads on bobistheoilguy.com about rotella in all orts of bikes from air cooled harleys and victorys to high end RR's and they all do fine. Their are a lot of oil analysis results on there too that show how good it holds up under use.

Just run it and a good filter like a K&N or napa old and go enjoy the bike. People worry waaaaay too much about oils nowdays. Pretty much ANY modern oil is a good oil these days, even the dino oils have plenty of additives and stuff in them to easliy run 5,000 miles with a good filter. The only oil you do NOT want to put in a bike is an automobile oil that is "energy conserving" because it has friction modifiers in it that will make your wet clutches slip and ruin them. With the quality of modern oil people NEED to focus more on what filter they run. I see idiots all the time with a jug of mobil 1 and a fram filter! Fram filters are complete garbage along with several others on the market. There's many tests out there of all the different filters and how they perform and how they're made along with several youtbe videos howing the internals. The main good one's are purolators (both classic and the pure one), K&N and the napa golds along with some others I'm forgetting about.

Here's great read on filters!

Motorcycle Oil Filter Comparison

I bought a K&N KN-204 for my FZ8 just waiting to be used with the right oil. Is Rotella T6 5W-40 energy conserving? Will this oil be perfect to use with a K&N Filter? Hey and thanks for your quick replies. I am anxious to go to wallymart to check out the oil. I want to make sure this is the correct oil. Can you please verify? http://www.walmart.com/ip/Shell-Rotella-Synthetic-5W-40-Motor-Oil-1-Gal/14958681

 

[pajkrubi]

No rotella oils are not energy conserving they are all rated JASO MA so any of them are safe for motorcycle use from the base dino to the full synthetic T6. The K&N is a very good oil filter so you chose wisely on that part.

Most of you energy conserving oils are in the VERY thin weights like 5-20 and so on. They will also say right on the front of the bottle that it's energy conserving and usually has a little green leaf on it like the hybrid cars have.

 

[pajkrubi]

Can you please verify? Get the Shell Rotella Motor Oil for less at Walmart.com. Save money. Live better.

Yep, that's the full synthetic rotella. Very good stuff. The white bottle of rotella is the dino oil and the silver bottle is the synthetic blend (T5 I believe). Any of them will work fine in your bike. How many miles do you have? If this is for your first 600 mile change I would recommend staying with the conventional for a bit longer. Sometimes full synthetic too early can halt or slow down your final breaking in of your engine. I like to wait until at least about 1,500-2,000 miles before going to a full synthetic.

 

[Gusm91]

No rotella oils are not energy conserving they are all rated JASO MA so any of them are safe for motorcycle use from the base dino to the full synthetic T6. The K&N is a very good oil filter so you chose wisely on that part.

Most of you energy conserving oils are in the VERY thin weights like 5-20 and so on. They will also say righton the front of the bottle that it's energy conserving and usually has a little green leaf on it like the hybrid cars have.

So, I actually read the motorcycle oil filter comparison and I see that they rated the K&N a C....It says K&N KN-204 is not recommended.

 

[pajkrubi]

Really? I haven't read that one that I posted (it was just a quick google search) but a lot of the others I read it got pretty high reviews.

 

[pajkrubi]

Wow, after looking at that review he didn't appear to rate ANY of them good! Lol. Even the wix got a C and wix are very good filters. Sorry for posting that one, I don't think that guy did a very good job because everyhting was C and lower?? Well other than the pure one which is a very good filter but so are a lot of the others like the napa gold, K&N and wix.

 

[Gusm91]

Wow, after looking at that review he didn't appear to rate ANY of them good! Lol. Even the wix got a C and wix are very good filters. Sorry for posting that one, I don't think that guy did a very good job because everyhting was C and lower?? Well other than the pure one which is a very good filter but so are a lot of the others like the napa gold, K&N and wix.

Yea I noticed the same thing. He wasn't happy with any of the filters he tested.

 

[pajkrubi]

Here's another good one that I've actrually read. You have to click on the filters on the side and it'll bring up the review and picture. Be sure to check out how awful the factory yamaha filter looks!

http://www.tobycreek.org/oil_filters/index.shtml

 

[Gusm91]

Here's another good one that I've actrually read. You have to click on the filters on the side and it'll bring up the review and picture. Be sure to check out how awful the factory yamaha filter looks!

OIL FILTERS EXPOSED! - Introduction

I will be looking at that in a minute!


So what do you think, is my FZ8 ready for fresh oil? I just came back from wall mart and found it for $21.36

 

[pajkrubi]

Looks like you're good to go! Enjoy the feeling and pride of doing it yourself and KNOWING it was done right. Not to mention it saves a boatload of money doing it yourself. I'll guarantee you that a dealer would charge $60+ to do an oil change with sythetic oil and it would be a toss up on whether they used the right oil (aka use dino oil and pocket the extra cash), right amount or stripped bolts. People seem to think that "techs" at dealers are some sort of god and know everything about every bike when the fact is a LOT of them know less than your average DIY'er on here and have to read a book to figure out what they're doing on these bikes just like any of us would. Plus it's not their bike so they could care less if it's done right and it's almost impossible now days to hold them accountable for anything (they always use the "well it was like that when you brought it in here" line) so they do as they please. As you can tell I hate taking anything to a stealership unless I just have to. So many of them are scam artists and crooks now days.