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no no i mean an oil made for a bike with wet clutch, the rotella is nothing more then regular oil correct?

Frank



Rotella T Synthetic is what they call a Hydrocracked Dyno Synthetic which is different from a PAO and ester based synthetics.

The majority of oil lubricants, including many motor oils, are mineral oil distillates of crude oil. However, synthetic motor oils also have a share in the market. Historically, synthetic motor oils have been made from the following classes of lubricants.

Polyalpha-olefin (PAO) = Group IV base oil
Synthetic esters = Group V base oil
In the last decade of the 20th century, hydrocracked and/or isomerized (Group III) base oils began to be used in motor oils. These oils are also designated as "synthetic" (although PAO's and esters are sometimes included in a final blend).

What Does Synthetic Lubricant Mean?
It was easy to answer this question 10-15 years ago. At that time synthetic hydrocarbons (PAO –
polyalphaolefin) were the bulk of the synthetic basestocks used in lubricant formulations for automotive and
industrial applications. Often these synthetic lubricants included synthetic esters (the reaction product
formed between organic acids and alcohols) to improve seal compatibility.
Ten to 15 years ago, the term partial-synthetic lubricant was used to describe mixtures of synthetic
basestock (PAO – up to 30%) with conventionally refined petroleum oils produced by the solvent extraction
refinery process.
In the 1980’s, highly refined, very pure and colorless, hydrocracked petroleum oils entered the U.S. market.
They offered significantly higher levels of performance than conventionally refined oils in automotive and
industrial lubricant formulations. Early on, these basestocks were described as semi-synthetic basestocks.
After a federal court ruled that hydrocracked oils are also “synthetic”, a lot of “synthetic lubricant”
formulations were introduced on the market formulated with this high performance petroleum oil
basestocks. Costs for these basestocks are less than the traditional “synthetics” but more than
conventionally refined petroleum oils. Except for extreme high and low temperature characteristics, these
hydrocracked oil formulations are the practical equivalent of PAO’s in most automotive and industrial
lubricant applications.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) developed a classification or grouping of lubricant basestocks to
better show the differences between the different types. Each type of lubricant basestock is included in
one of five groups as summarized below:
Saturate Sulfur Viscosity
Group level (wt.%) content (wt.%) Index (VI) Comment
I <90 >0.03 80< VI <120 Conventional petroleum oil
II >90 <0.03 80< VI <120 Hydrocracked
III > 90 <0.03 > 120 Hydrocracked & isomerized
IV Polyalphaolefins (PAO)
V All other stocks not included in group I, II, III or IV. (Esters, PAG, silicones, etc.)
In the API classification, all the oils except Group I can legally be called “synthetic”, but there are different
chemical properties and characteristics associated with each group II through V.
Source: Universal Lubricants Inc., Technical Services Department
January, 2005
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