Brotella T6 Synthetic oil compared to Yamalube Conventional


sti491

Member
So my friends urged me to try Shell Rotella T6. I bought my 2012 Fizzer with 2200 miles on it last year. I knew the former original owner, who unfortunately passed away suddenly. I have the receipts for every year when he had the stealership inspect the bike and change the oil & filter every July. It has only had Yamalube conventional in it's entire life.

So about one year after it's last dealer service (LAST EVER!... I do my own service, mods and repairs), and 4,000 miles I put on it, I just changed the oil & filter. This last 4,000 mi included many performance mods and ripping on it pretty seriously.

I don't want to start an another oil debate thread. All I want is to share the difference. I was VERY surprised. The bike shifts like butter with T6 by comparison. With a short warm-up 1st gear clunk is minimized. Honestly, the first few times I shifted 2-3-4 I was like, really.... It slides into gear like a fried egg on a teflon pan!

So, FYI. Your results may vary.

Also, at Walmart, a gallon of T6 is cheap.
 
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arnie

New Member
I was doing one of those endless internet searches on oil recently. Specifically Rotella T6, Mobile 1 4T, or Amsoil. After probably 25 hours of reading I gave up. I’m not ballsy enough to go with the “out of spec” diesel oil, and I didn’t feel I needed the more expensive Amsoil, so I choose the latter.
 

sti491

Member
Hey Arnie. I'm not trying to argue, rather to clarify;T6 is not "out of spec" at all. It meets or exceeds Yamaha specs.

The key to motorcycle oil specification is 3-fold as I understand it. The viscosity rating 5W30, 10W40, etc which you can vary per the Yamaha manual depending mostly on on temperature and also a few other conditions. That it is JASO MA certified for wet pack clutches. And, that it doesn't contain friction modifiers.

Rotella T6 5W-40 Synthetic lists the JASO MA standard; this information can be found on the bottle adjacent to the SAE/API rating stamp. JASO is an acronym that stands for "The Japanese Automotive Standards Organization." We need this for the clutch pack.

Shell makes it clear on their website that this oil is for both diesel (very high heat and rough environment), gasoline and motorcycle use.

Keep in mind, Yamalube is not made by Yamaha. It is Torco oil. Torco is a good oil. So is Amsoil and many, many other brands. The key is that whatever we use, is that it meets the Yamaha specifications. Rotella T6 5w-40 full synthetic meets those specifications. It is a nice benefit that it is readily available and it is relatively inexpensive.

Not claiming to be the oil professor or anything, I just didn't want your comments to be misunderstood by other readers. I will make this claim: On MY bike, there was a very noticeable improvement is how the bike shifts using T6 over conventional Yamalube. Your results may vary :)
 
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sti491

Member

MrFrzZ

New Member
FWIW, Motul makes some really goo products. I opted to go with the 300V for my CBR and while I really didnt notice any smoother upshifts, I DID notice my downshifts were much less clunky. Since most of my downshifts come very hard and fast, often putting the bike in the higher end of the rev range, I like not having that clunk that feels like the bike is bucking a bit. The other side of the coin is that I'll probably have to change it around 2500-2700 miles as it wont last as long.

Point of the story - Motul 7100 is probably a product that will fit in line with the mobil1's, amsoils, etc and is worth a peek.
 
So my friends urged me to try Shell Rotella T6. I bought my 2012 Fizzer with 2200 miles on it last year. I knew the former original owner, who unfortunately passed away suddenly. I have the receipts for every year when he had the stealership inspect the bike and change the oil & filter every July. It has only had Yamalube conventional in it's entire life.

So about one year after it's last dealer service (LAST EVER!... I do my own service, mods and repairs), and 4,000 miles I put on it, I just changed the oil & filter. This last 4,000 mi included many performance mods and ripping on it pretty seriously.

I don't want to start an another oil debate thread. All I want is to share the difference. I was VERY surprised. The bike shifts like butter with T6 by comparison. With a short warm-up 1st gear clunk is minimized. Honestly, the first few times I shifted 2-3-4 I was like, really.... It slides into gear like a fried egg on a teflon pan!

So, FYI. Your results may vary.

Also, at Walmart, a gallon of T6 is cheap.
Hey sti491 I was wondering what oil weight you used exactly? Was it Rotella T6 5w-40 full synthetic? ima total newbie when it come to my FZ6R and I have an oil change coming up and wanted to try this oil out to possibly help out making the shifting more smooth.
Thanks in advance!:thumbup:
 

sti491

Member
Yes: Rotella T6 5w-40 full synthetic. It's really is nice having the smoother shifting, up and down. I'm sure other may brands do this as well... It might just be that it's full Synth where the Yamalube it had previously was always dino. Just be sure whatever you use it is JASO MA certified for wet pack clutches.

Hey sti491 I was wondering what oil weight you used exactly? Was it Rotella T6 5w-40 full synthetic? ima total newbie when it come to my FZ6R and I have an oil change coming up and wanted to try this oil out to possibly help out making the shifting more smooth.
Thanks in advance!:thumbup:
 

sti491

Member
My bike was on the Yamalube conventional per the dealer choice as it had been serviced previously. If you want to use Yamalube conventional or full Synthetic, just buy Torco. Exact same oil but cheaper. The only reason I don't use it is like Motul, it's priceed like liquid gold.
 

Marthy

World Most Bad A$$ 6R
Elite Member

sti491

Member
My bike now has about 6,200 miles, all but the last 600 on conventional Yamalube. I actually bought a quart of Torco (Yamalube) to top off after I took an engine cover off early on when I first go it. To my amazement after plenty of thrashing, my bike used zero oil up to changing to T6 Full Syn.

I have always has a bias that full synthetic will leak past seals more, especially on an older high mileage vehicle... And at least on my turboed car, where I changing oil & filter every 3,000 mi due to turbo heat and blow-by potential (and habit), why pay for full syn?

So trying this on my bike is stepping out of my comfort zone. I may do an oil analysis eventually on the bike and the Sti. I would be curious to see what it says.
 

adazine

Premium Member

dart1963

Super Moderator
Elite Member

vcdstroyr

Member
I'm about to jump on the Rotella bandwagon here soon.

I bought the bike with 5k miles on it so don't know what the previous owner ran. I have put nearly 24k miles on the bike my self and have always used either full or semi synthetic Castrol. Just depended on which one was on sale at Cycle Gear. I did oil changes at 5500-6000 miles.

I ran castrol on my VStar 950 for about 50K+ miles and always ran great. (Both semi and full synthetic depending price).

I'm willing to spend the 20 bucks on a gallon of Rotella and try it out.
 


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