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synthetic Rotella 5W-40

2K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  VoIPDoc 
#1 ·
This is a segway from DIRTRACK650's 11K rpm thread...

To cut down on the coffee grinder noise, I switched to synthetic Rotella 5W-40 three oil changes ago. While it helped, I still have it. How bout you guys...any have same experience?
 
#5 ·
The coffee grinder is alot less common, but I can still produce it on a cold engine. It's alot better than before however, and I really like the protection and clean internals of the engine with the Rotella.
 
#6 ·
All previous oil changes on my '06 have been done by the dealer and I've always had coffee grinder to some extent. On one of those previous dealer oil changes I paid for the full synthetic (Castrol I believe). It greatly reduced the coffee grinder, but did not eliminated it completely. The full synthetic also seem to have much smoother shifting, but it was expensive and overall didn't think the added prices was worth it.

I've heard good things about Rotella's T6 from this forum and others (it is very popular with bikers of all makes and models), and wanted to try it. So, I recently did my own oil change with Rotella T6 to see first hand if it would solve the coffee grinder issue. Prices was right at $18/gallon and $6 for a Bosch 3323 oil filter making the total half what the dealer is charging. However, I had similar coffee grinder results as with the dealer's synthetic oil; greatly reduced, but not eliminated. I was hoping that it would improve over time, but perhaps not according to your results. However, for the price I think it is a better deal, for me, over the dealer oil change.

Side note: I used a Bosch 3323 oil filter and the oil light goes out much faster than it did after a dealer oil change (using an OEM oil filter). I don't know if that is due to the Bosch oil filter (i.e., larger capacity, better flow, anti drain back valve or some combination), the oil (5w being a bit thinner when cold) or both. Either way, I like it.
 
#7 ·
Clarification please---

Coffee grinder sound is a slightly high pitch, but not quite squealing, kinda gritty sound coming from the right side? of the engine during high RPMs (above idle). This is just my guess because I just noticed this sound.

If this is an accurate description, what are the cause(s) or is that uncertain?

Finally, Rotella synthetic helps reduce it, but conventional doesn't?
 
#8 ·
I read that the problem is caused by cold oil trapped in the clutch basket keeping the plates from connecting smoothly. Once the oil warms and works its way out of the clutch it starts working right.
 
#10 ·
Makes sense.

I read on an oil web site something that has kept me from buying 5w40. Multi-viscosity oil is made by taking a base oil and adding a thickening agent that's heat-activated. It's a molecule that coils up small at room temperature and then uncoils when heated. A bottle of 5w40 is really the same base oil as a bottle of 5w30 but with a higher percentage of thickening agent. 10w40 has less thickening agent (about half) than 5w40 because it is a thicker base oil to begin with. 20w50 has the least percentage of thickener. Here's my concern: the thickening agent is not a lubricant, it just thickens your oil when hot to slow down the flow and help it stick to parts just a little bit longer. Am I worrying over nothing? I would rather be putting lubricant in my engine than thickeners. I can learn to live with the coffee grinder.
Maybe Fergy will chime in....he's the forum oil guru.
 
#9 ·
I read on an oil web site something that has kept me from buying 5w40. Multi-viscosity oil is made by taking a base oil and adding a thickening agent that's heat-activated. It's a molecule that coils up small at room temperature and then uncoils when heated. A bottle of 5w40 is really the same base oil as a bottle of 5w30 but with a higher percentage of thickening agent. 10w40 has less thickening agent (about half) than 5w40 because it is a thicker base oil to begin with. 20w50 has the least percentage of thickener. Here's my concern: the thickening agent is not a lubricant, it just thickens your oil when hot to slow down the flow and help it stick to parts just a little bit longer. Am I worrying over nothing? I would rather be putting lubricant in my engine than thickeners. I can learn to live with the coffee grinder.
 
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