Which type of motor oil?

[DRider]

Hey folks,

So, this year, rather than spend over £100 to get my bike serviced, me and my mate (who's also a mechanic, by chance) are going to do it ourselves, for about £20.

We're pretty much ready to go; I've bought an oil filter, DOT4 brake fluid, we're going to clean the air filter, etc. and I know that I need 10W/40 oil, but I'm not sure whether I could do with part-synthetic or fully synthetic. I know it's been running part-synthetic for the past two years, so I'm tempted to just go with that, but I wanted to try and give fully synthetic a go and see what it's like, but, at the same time, I hear very mixed reviews about using fully-synth online.

Could anybody give some advice on which it would be best to use? Fully synth or part-synth? My bike is a Suzuki Intruder VL 125, and it gets maybe 3000-4000 miles per year; not very much.

Thanks.

 

[TheDiabeticBiker]

I would always go with fully-synthetic but best to see what your manual says to use if you have one.

 

[Chris033081]

If you can get your hands on it, go with AmsOil. It is the same stuff they use in a majority of racing engines and performance machines.

www.amsoil.com/‎

 

[YTStrider]

Check your manual.

So first off, the brand and blend is less important than if it rated for your engine. Some oils add certain chemicals to make the oil smoother, and these WILL NOT work with wet clutches, so check that.
For example, I cannot use anything that is not JASO-MA approved because of the wet clutch in my 84 Honda Nighthawk.
To be certain, check your manual.

Lastly, this is not the first Oil Thread that's popped up on a moto site. However, the best piece of advice I can give you as far as Castrol, Amsoil, etc is something I heard from a mechanic friend of mine.

"I've told people their car died because they ran it too hard. I've told people their car died because they put no oil in it. I've never told anyone their car died because they put the wrong brand of oil in it."

Of course, this being said, we are on bikes and we have clutches inside the engine unless your on a Ducati or similar, but the premise is the same.
IMO, YMMV

 

[Trinith]

I've run the last 150,000ish miles with full synthetic oil that doesn't have the "energy conserving" section on the SAE stamp (pictured below). (That's what tells you whether or not the additives in the oil will cause your clutch to slip.) Brand is not very important, though I tend to prefer Valvoline because it's not terribly pricy. Weight is a bit more important, but you should know that what's listed in your manual isn't a hard set rule. The oil used in a bike ridden mostly in Newfoundland should not be used in a bike mostly ridden in Las Vegas. The engine will prefer a range of weights, but the weather will dictate which ones are better. Thinner oil in colder climates, thicker oil in warmer climates.

 

[YTStrider]

+1
Additives is the word I was looking for, thanks Trin. At 10pm I had already been up way too long hahah
And also, +1 on weights. I used to live in the midwest and we'd run 10-40 in the summer and 10-30 in the winter. Would it make much of a difference? No, probably not. But the temp ranges in that region were ~105 in the summer to ~0 in the winter. It's a precaution.

 

[TheDiabeticBiker]

The 10 only means it'll still be good to use at certain low temps whereas the 30/40 is for the high temps. Wouldn't have thought it'd make much difference. Between summer and winter. Can't remember the exact temps 10W30/10W40 operate at as it's been a few months since I last looked at it.

I'd just stick in what it's already running on.

 

[Trinith]

Wouldn't have thought it'd make much difference. Between summer and winter.

I run straight 30wt in my truck to help make it leak a little slower, it's pretty close to tar when it comes out of the bottle. There's a HUGE difference between summer and winter with this crap. During the summer everything is fine, but on the really cold mornings all winter the battery struggles a bit to get the motor turning. After a second or so everything is fine and the difference goes away. I don't mind putting that kind of stress on my old, worn out V6, but I wouldn't want to do it to my bike. The tolerances are still nice and tight.

As far as weights go, I forget the numbers exactly but there's a set of weights that are always additive free. They're very close to more conventional weights, so the difference is small enough to be unimportant. Once you can figure out what these weights are then finding additive free oils at whatever auto shop you want will be a whole lot easier.

 

[janx101]

yesterday i changed the filter & oil in my 2006 Suzuki GS500F (tractor technology!!) .. Valvoline Super Diesel 15w/40 .. cos i have a 44gal drum of the stuff for trucks...

yes i checked before using it for top ups a year ago too!! ..

it gives me zero dramas ... i wouldnt neccessarily use it in the latest tech bikes... but while my bike is only 7 years old.. the engine tech is 30+ years old? ... it'll live!!

 

[6Foot4Honda]

I use AMSoil, works great on my cbr 250.. Noticed a difference in performance too

 

[Slipperymongoose]

Depends on how much you wanna spend I guess. As long as it meets the requirements that you bike states then whatever you want hey. Personally I use Mobil 1 full synthetic bike runs smooth as silk and gear changes are nice and slick in the good way. Makes clutch less up and down shifting a breeze

 

[NastyEvilNinja]

You won't NEED fully synthetic unless you're racing, and even then you probably won't.

Semi these days is about 10 times better all round than the best oil of 10 years ago, so you can't go wrong with it. Not worth spending more for fully synth, to be honest.