Did somebody say somethin about OIL?????

 

I've heard a lot of different things about oil. One guy I know runs regular Castrol 20w50 in all three cases. I think he has about 14,000 on his bike and no problems so far, but that is not a lot of miles.

I run Royal Purple 20w50 in the motor on my bike since I had the top end redone. I was running HD standard oil before. My local Indy shop recommends the Royal Purple. It's all he uses. It's not the R. P. motorcycle oil though, it's the regular stuff. He said there is no difference. It says on the back of the bottle that it is good for both gasoline and diesel engines. I'm still running the HD primary and trans. oil in the other boxes.

 

Axin' an erl question in here is always sure to draw out the responses! Too bad far too many depend on innaccurate information.

Try checking out the HDF sub-forum dedicated to oil: https://www.hdforums.com/forum/oil-a...ted-topics-30/

Also check out BITOG: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/

There's a lot of good and accurate info in both places.

 

Thank you but lets take this a bit further as I run that same oil in everything but my 2 strokes. Motorcycle Consumer News wrote an article in February 1994 that dealt directly with the issues relative to mototcycle oils vs. automotive oils. They received comment from John Woolum, a physics professor at the California State University and a motorcyclist. Woolum had submitted his test methodology and results because he too had questioned the why relative to using motorcycle specific oils and found it to be unecessary. I use the Mobil1 15W50 in everything including my metrics which are wet clutch. What I won't use are the oils that are labeled "Energy Conserving" as these oils are generally very thin with advance friction inhibitors. These are the oils that can give a wet clutch nightmares.

 

This is from Mobil 1's site:

Mobil 1 Motorcycle Oils are full synthetic, high-performance engine oils formulated specifically to meet the demanding needs of motorcycle engines. Mobil 1 Racing 4T 10W-40 is designed primarily for on-road, high-performance, 4-cycle sport bikes, however, it may be used in other types of on and off-road 4-cycle motorcycles especially where a 10W-40 viscosity grade is specified. Mobil 1 V-Twin 20W-50 is formulated to offer outstanding protection in 4-cycle, V-Twin type engines, particularly those which are air cooled and tend to run hotter than other types of engines.
Mobil 1 Racing 4T 10W-40 and Mobil 1 V-Twin 20W-50 are recommended for 4-cycle, motorcycles which specify the use of a 10W-40 or a 20W-50 engine oil, respectively. These products will provide excellent performance in motorcycle engines that are designed with a common engine/transmission lubrication system or where the engine lubrication system is separate from the transmission system. In the case of the latter, follow the manufacturer's recommendation for the type of fluid to be used in the transmission. Mobil 1 Racing 4T 10W-40 and Mobil 1 V-Twin 20W-50 engine oils are also designed to provide the proper frictional characteristics necessary for wet-clutch engine/transmission systems. Mobil 1 Racing 4T 10W-40 and Mobil 1 V-Twin 20W-50 exceed the requirements of API Service Categories SJ, SH, SG/CF, CD and JASO MA . They have been fully tested, both on laboratory dynamometers and in the field, to provide optimum horsepower and acceleration.


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Specifications and Approvals

Mobil 1 Motorcycle Oils exceed the following industry specifications
Racing 4T
V-Twin API SJXX API SHXX API SGXX API CDXX API CFXX API TCXX JASO MAXX

Typical Properties

Mobil 1 Motorcycle Oils
Racing 4T
V-Twin Product Number 48138-2 48139-0 Engine/Application Type 4-Cycle 4-Cycle SAE Grade 10W-40 20W-50 Service Classification API SJ,SH, SG/CF API SJ, SH, SG/CF Gravity, API 30.5 29.4 Density, lb/gal @ 60°F 7.28 7.33 Flash Point (ASTM D92), °C (°F) 253 (487) 270 (518) Pour Point, °C (°F) -54 (-65) -51 (-60) Viscosity Kinematic, cSt @ 40°C 86.0 130.0 Kinematic, cSt @ 100°C 13.8 17.7 Cold Cranking, cP 2900 @ -20°C 2930 @ -10°C Pumping, cP 11500 @ -30°C 8500 @ -20°C Viscosity Index 164 150

From what I've read Mobil 1 auto oil is fine for HD motors and there's probably minimal difference in their motorcycle oil and it's probably nothing more than a higher profit product. Personally for $2 more per bottle I'm continuing to use the V-Twin Mobil 1.

 

That's all well and good but it fails to address the issue that it may be any better than simply running the normal automotive grade full synthetic oil. The tests done by Motorcycle Consumer news and professor Woolum were extremely detailed and literally found no advantage.

 

Although I would agree with crapshooter, as he mentioned the same things I did concerning MCNews and friction modifiers, the MCNews testing is now over 15 years old, and many oils on the market today didn't even exist back then (such as Harley's Syn 3), so there may be "improvements" in new oils that are beneficial.

There was another series of articles around 2000 in American Iron called "Oil Wars." It was very direct in stating that there was nothing special about a Harley engine that required a "special" oil, as Harley liked to claim. It was only a few years ago that Harley finally endorsed synthetic oil, but only after introducing and marketing their own Syn 3.

 

Does anyone use the search function anymore?

 

Ditto on Delo 400. 5 quart jug at Wal Mart. I have some diesel farm equipment and some air cooled lawn equipment including a rider and I use it in all of them including the Harleys. Never a problem, it has the proper rating.

 

Sure. How do you think I found this thread?