Hello everyone! I just got my 2008 HD crossbones 7800 miles. I do not know what type of oil was used. I took it to a mechanic and he put in it non-synthetic 20W50 Lucas HP oil. What do you think? Could I switch back to synthetic. I put maybe 50 miles since he did it. I am thinking about switching to Amsoil 20W50 full synthetic. Any thoughts? Could it be to slick for the engine?
Thanks for any thoughts

 

well this is a topic to which has been beaten to death.. its all about personal preference .. personally I use redline synthetic in the primary and trans only .. I use regular HD dinosaur oil for the engine.. Harley makes syn3 for all cavities but I found the bike made lots of noise so I switched back.. noise isn't good lol ... oil gets dirty from carbon and it doesn't care whether you spent lots of money on synthetic oil.. they say you get more miles on synthetic oil, but that means the bearings are getting dirty oil for a longer period of time which imo spell disaster.. again personal opinion here I use dinosaur oil and change it every 5000kms or 3000miles oil is always clean.. clean oil means longer bearing life. that's a fact and not just my .02

anyone else going to beat this dead horse a while..

 

As a past engineer at many engine manufacturers, we did a lot of testing of oils. I will explain very simply. Imagine a pool table filled with ***** (molecules) of all different sizes. That is conventional oil. Now imagine the same pool table filled with smaller ***** but they are all the same size. That is synthetic oil. So basically when they say synthetic oil does not break down, it’s because it already is. I had a 2002 Ultra with 73,000 miles on it when it developed an engine knock. I worked with my engine builder to rebuild it as he was also rebuilding his twin cam with 178,000 miles on it. The piston in my 02 was scored badly and his with over twice as many miles looked great. I used Amsoil and he used conventional oil. Also I was having lifter noise on my then new 2012 Ultra. The first thing the master tech at the dealer asked is if I was using synthetic oil and I said Amsoil. He said don’t and I changed over to conventional oil and presto, no lifter noise. Synthetic oil is great for any plain bearing, water cooled engine. It’s in everything engine I own but not my Harley with roller/needle bearings. Think of the roller bearings as rolling out pizza dough. The roller/needle bearings need the larger ***** of conventional oil for proper protection. Use conventional oil and change every 2,000 to 3,000 and you’ll be just fine. Also only use gear oil in your transmission, such as 80W90 or higher not motor oil. Gears roll against each other and need the protection gear oil provides.