Rotella for break=in

Have some Rotella 15w/40 on hand. Suitable for breaking in rebuilt 72 Commando? New pistons and rings and rod bearings. Cam and lifters are original. Will be doing later this fall when temps are in the 60-70 range.

synthetic? (is there a non-syntheic rotella?) it's been beaten into my brain time and time again that motors should not be broken in on synthetic oil. I just had my 750 rebuilt, and for what it's worth, the guy who did the work has been doing norton, triumph, and bsa's his whole life, he told me use nothing but valvoline VR1 forever. doesn't make what he says gospel, but it's a good oil thats less than synth so i'm in!

I buy big jugs of Rotella and can't remember any being synthetic. If ya think about it this is about best 'initial run in' oil [break in -> bad juju] hi detergent for about most dirty condition insides will ever see so best to suspend during the initial instants of bedding in revolutions and dumped out after first warm up re-torque then replace after 50-100 mile, then replace as needed forever more on good ole framer grade diesel oil or thicker as PSI or climate and conscious indicate. I once was pensive of 40 grade till examining Trixie @ 8000ish mark of every kind of operation possible, to see only better burnish polised valve and cam contacts on unrelated ring gap issue. Some day a oil guage face would be nice to judge her temperment to press on.

kevbo82 said:

(is there a non-syntheic rotella?)

Click to expand...

http://kozmik.guelph.on.ca/gtdproject/fluids/shell.htm

What I bought is Rotella T, mineral based.

okay, i never looked that hard i thought all rotella stuff was either full or semi synthetic

Walmart cheap stuff but the Rotella T 30 weight works fine in my old 500 single John Deere 314 garden tractor and has kept it alive. Not synthetic.

I swear by the Redline assembly lube. Slick stuff. Hopefully your cam has been coated with it or equivalent. (I'm sure it has!)

yes assembly lube everywhere except the bores

I have been told many times that older engines should be broken in with a non-detergent oil, such as Aeroshell 100

This oil is non-detergent and is especially recommended for break-in of 4-cycle aircraft piston engines

I've heard since a child to use non-deterg. oil for run in and did so in a number of new builds but as I learned more I can not for the life of me understand the rational for this beyond using cheap poor lube quality oil just to get enough poor lubrication to help bed in-burnish the friction surfaces. I'll call Red Line and Royal Purple and maybe Bob The Oil Guy on how their special run in oils have that regular old framer oil don't. BTW when I first start up Ms Peel she will have Rotella with Bon Ami cleansing powder added. Main this is keep the rpms up from 1st fire to first shut down till cam-liters mated well. My rings seem to seat in smokless within first minute at 2500-3500+ rpm.

I ran all of my BritIron on Rotella T for years, including run-in. I still use it in my TR3A, but I switched over to synthetic Redline in my motorcycles after seeing Alan Goldwater's data on film strength and engine temperature. Rotella T is a dyna product that will not hold up as well at high temperatures; probably just means more frequent changes and certainly ok for run-in. In the seventies I ran Rotella in my air-cooled Porsche, and remember that Rotella was the hot Porsche racing oil of the time, but then it was changed out at every race. The last jug I bought still had lots of ZDDP.

Evidence in Trixie is the oil surfing wedges in 450 mile per day runs steady at it with 15-40 non synthetic Rottela has worked a sweat treat. So its plenty good enough long term, which is not to say best synthetics and heavier grade even better. After about 1500 ppm of ZDDP there can be negative wear effects. Look it up. Also look up what temperature it takes on surfaces to lay down the ZAAP layer so it can be wiped off on next start up instead of the part surfaces. But this is an initial oil use question not long terms and mainly alls its got to do is sweep up the crap and crusts and metalic dust and sealant swarf at rpm enough oil wedge develops then toss it out soon as as possible. In the olden days if detergent oil put in old engine with sludge layers built up then detergent oil could send clots of sludge into passages or pump to kill engine. Initial start up is about the only time an oil filter really make sense on most engines as it only blocks stuff of size that can plug passages, not the size that cause wear. Its educational to slice open that filter after a few 100 miles to see what got caught there and base line for future much much longer look ins.