OK lets hear from you guys and gals.
Does Mobil 1 V Twin syn oil make the valve train more or less noisy than HD 360 conventional ???
It is my understanding that the HD syn oil does tend to make the valve train noise more pronounced, but I was wondering what your guys and gals experience has been with Mobil 1.

 

Love it. I don't mind valve train noise...it's an H-D so I expect it to, and the exhaust is loud enough anyway it would never matter to me.

 

If it any louder, I haven't noticed.

 

It seems to vary from bike to bike, or maybe it's one person's perception vs. another.

But, I don't use the V-Twin stuff, it's not needed for Harley motors which have separate holes for the motor oil vs primary/tranny. V-Twin oil of any brand is designed for bikes that have a single, shared, oil supply for the motor, primary and tranny.

Mobil-1 15w-50 (automotive) synthetic works great in the motor and can be purchased for about half the price of the V-Twin stuff.

 

I used the Mobile-1 V-Twin for a good while. With very good results, and it great stuff. I was always a bit concerned about 20W50 weight oil in the winter. That stuff is a bit thick when you fire up a bike at 10 degree temps. I switched to the Mobile-1 15W50 automotive oil with equal success. And it's a heck of a lot less expensive.

And I can speak that it is very good oil from experience. My engine had 65,000 miles when I did the 1250 conversion. After 65,000 miles running Mobile-1 oil, the inside of that engine looked like new. It would have easily gone another 65,000 miles.

 

My 106 got broken in on pennzoil 20w-50 auto oil. I ran that particular oil for the first couple of quick changes while breaking in my motor.
After about 1500 miles I put in the oh so great and mighty mobil 1 and instantly had valvetrain noise so intense it was like a can of marbles bouncing around in there. After about 1000 miles I couldn't stand it anymore and drained it.
I put in royal purple auto oil in the 20w-50 flavour and voila,no more noise.
As already mentioned Harleys big twins do not need that over-priced v-twin oil. It's meant for shared sump bikes which cannot use friction modifiers due to the clutch being part of the same oil bath as the motor.
I suggest using anything other than mobil 1. I used to drink the mobil cool aid however the past few years their oil has gone from great to just adequate.
If you are going to spend the big buck that synthetic costs try royal purple or red line,even amsoil.

 

I will be using Mobil1 VTwin 20W-50 and Mobil1 75W-90 Gear Oil, at my first service.

 

I much prefer Royal Purple over Mobil-1 due to 5-speed tranny experience, but that said I won't run the RP in the Nighty because it's even more expensive and much harder to find. I don't run gear oil in my primary due to possible reaction with the yellow metals in the stator, etc.

 

Which chemical Mobil1 Gear Oil has which fight with metals within the gear box?

 

Not a Mobil-1 specific issue. You pretty well have to call and ask them. I'm pretty sure I called RP and Mobil-1 about this exact issue, but I forget what they said and just decided to run V-Twin on both holes.

"For the most part, any GL4 fluid (NOT GL5 or dual-rated GL4/GL5) will be safe for yellow metals as a rough guideline.

Some dual-rated GL4/GL5 fluids are safe for yellow metals, but they should specifically say so in the specs, otherwise, assume it is not safe."