rotella oil
 

ok I know this has been beat to death but...settled on rotella oil for the last few years, many also use it. here's the deal pulled my 500hp down and freshened it after 6 seasons 5 w/procharger, found a fair amount of sludge in bottom of pan ?? now had big cooler, #10 lines, big block and filter adapters, but no oil thermostat for 5 seasons. never ran oil for more than 20 hours of so, but with procharger and no thermostat oil temp never went over 150, added canton thermostat last year and was at 200-210, so just throwing this out there seeing if anybody else seen anything like this with this oil ? or was caused by running so cold ?

I'm very interested in what comes of this post. I used to run Rotella, on my new engines I'm running VR-1 with Eickert oil thermostats. I was thinking maybe it was a bit overkill, but now I'm thinking not.

Is it a possibility of the combination of the Rotella and cooler temps? Good call adding the stats. Keep a look out in this section here before to long. I'm going to start a thread on a pair of built 496's without coolers altogether. This is for test and information only. Will be posting oil temps at 2,800, 4,000 & 5,600 plus along with actual water temps. Coolers and oil stat housings will be nearby however I am going to post the length of time run at each rpm along with oil temps. Going with mobile 1 racing 20-50.

Not an ideal comparison however after doing a quick Google search sounds like your not alone. Granted this is in a diesel truck which sees less rpm yet driven extended periods of time/miles. The dipstick shows heavy signs of sludge even. Only need to see first minute of video. Rest is boring and unnecessary unless you wanna take in some Johnny cash background music. Ha. Regardless here is a case pretty much related to your thread.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HW2-ZLFL9jg

Below is a thread from another forum (Nadia) regarding the subject. Take it for what it's worth. There are few good post though. Some stating they have the sludging issue while others having over 294,000 miles and no issues. Possible application/use?

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=995052

get some joe gibbs marine racine oil and forget all youre problems !!!has everyting a marine engine needs to live ..

Sounds like your oil is getting to hot

or not steaming out the moisture...running to cold

Like the Toyota V6 - lol. Or...doh !

Sludge can happen from other things, to of course.

A typical sludge on the bottom of a pan but not in the rest of the motor, is the inability to remove all oil from the bottom of the pan. Honda has a good design, and Subaru's is fantastic, as far as sump design/ drain plug location.

Anyway, to the OP was this 'sludge' measurable in thickness or is it from wiping your finger on the bottom and feeling/seeing it ?

Back in the day when moly was used more, especially with break in stuff, engine oil pans and trans pans, and rear gear covers would always have , say, a good couple mm's or more , of what I called, moly sludge.

The sludge is oxidation. Caused from oil getting to hot.

Honda drains the pan through the tail pipe don't they?