Rotella T6 oil

My Walmart no longer stocks motorcycle oil, but they do have Rotella T4 (15w40) and T6 (5w40 synthetic). I prefer synthetic and wonder if anyone has any experience with the T6. At $21 /gal it looks like a good choice. What say you?

 

T6 is JASO MA/MA2 certified. That's all you need to know.

 

That’s what I thought but I have never used a “5” w40 oil.

 

now you will be able to ride in colder weather

 

I call it a day at about 30 degrees, although I have ridden in colder temps when I was younger. ☃️

 

Don't. Get the 15W-40.
https://rotella.shell.com/en_us/pro...e31c1a45ba16a94dded7f4aea73/t6-sae-15w-40.pdf

 

I will have to look for that. All T6 at local walmart was 5w40. Thanks.

 

Check a farm supply store for the Rotella 15w-40 T6.
I'm guessing since you live in Georgia you probably have a farm supply somewhat near

 

Remember two things: The first number in the weight of a multiweight oil is the "basis weight." That is what the oil IS before the additives make it behave like a heavier weight oil as it warms up. So 20W anything is 20W before it warms up; and 5W is 5W before it gets warm.

Yamaha specifies 20W40 for normal operation, which has gone out of fashion. They do say 10W30 for cold weather. These two are points of fact, what follows is my opinion...

I would not run a 5W anything in one of these motors; and because the 550s are dependent upon oil pressure to tension their Hi-Vo primary drive chain, I personally stick to 20W base weight oil, which means 20W50, or 20W40 which has become exceptionally difficult to find. I would not recommend 15W anything in a 550, despite being JASO spec.

I also have no idea what running 15W OR 5W basis-weight oil will do for or to the plain bearing bottom ends, but it's not a bear I wish to poke.

 

Tabaka has 700.

I absolutely agree with your assessment for the 550 though. I'd be concerned that a 15 weight oil would not build enough pressure to allow the hydraulic primary chain adjuster to work reliably at idle. I wouldn't be as concerned about the crankshaft bearings, but that is worth being cautious about.

 

I have been using 10w40 Mobil 1, but apparently Walmart didn't sell enough to keep m/c oil in stock any more. I think I will start using the 15w40 T6 from now on. It never gets too cold in South Georgia.

 

Well.......I guess I have poked that bear, sort of. I've been running Shell Rotella T4 15W 40 heavy duty DIESEL oil in all 3 of my bikes for almost a decade now. and I occasionally (rarely) ride at or even below 30 degrees F. No issues to date, knock on wood. Oh, and just rolled over the odometer on the 550.

 

That's a bunch of miles on your 550. Guess I shouldn't be too worried at about 20,000.

 

Not as many as you think - Canadian model so it’s in km so it’s only about 62,000 miles (It’s actually at 101,053 km now)
That instrument cluster also has a top speed reading of over 110 mph

 

I've always run 10W40 in my bike. Combines the 20W40 and 10W30 recommended oils. Just bought some Yamalube oil for an oil change after a top end rebuild.