thx for the heads up mate

 

Being that I am a Amsoil dealer, that's all I use.

 

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NP!

Glad to see the info was useful to you.

Scott

 

First time poster here, looooooong time forum reader, user guy. Wow, 149 pages of religious affirmation at the alter of the petroleum gods. FYI, I'm on a 2005 Ultra. Pretty sure, yeah, air cooled. Little background, I drove a '73 Super Beetle sedan 113 from '78-93. Used Pennzoil 10w30 winter, Pennzoil 10w40 summer. Air cooled engine had 225K miles when I sold it. Had a '74 TX500, used 10w40 and...nothing happened. '79 KZ650....ditto. Wife has Rebel 250, 43K miles with Supertech 15w40 AND... well nothing happened. Runs flawlessly. I put Super Tech 20w50 in and the engine.... well.... nothing happened. Super tech 10w40 in primary and my clutch..... oh wait...nothing happened. Supertech 75w90 syn blend in tranny and it......shifts just fine. 41k on Ultra btw. I know, it's just a matter of time before a piston cuts loose and hits the bimbo in the 'Burb(SUV) next to me in the noggin while she blabs on the cellphone. Was just wondering if I should have used a different oil in the Beetle. Yes gentlemen, I'm real and not a troll. Your bike, your oil, your decision. Used to be ASE certified mechanic years ago. So what is the right oil to use in your bikes, cars, trucks, lawn mowers, etc? What does your owner's manual say? Oh, 10w40 doesn't have friction modifiers, won't fry clutch plates, ditto 15w40(diesel oil). This is what I have used, follow your owner's manual recommendations. AND, thanks to all on this forum, best one for Harley info. Many of you have saved my bank account several times over on baubles and widgets I otherwise would have bought! This was my first Harley.

 

I've been saying this until I was blue in the face. Even though I was an Amsoil dealer and like their product best, I've always said use any brand name oil and filter at the recommended intervals and you won't go wrong. I have NEVER heard of an engine failing due to correct oil changes.

 

What is it about motorcycle oil, the BSA I had and the CB750's never said a thing about motorcycle oil, change it yes, motorcycle oil no, now all of a sudden you have to have oil with motorcycle written all over it?

 

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" What is it about motorcycle oil, the BSA I had and the CB750's never said a thing about motorcycle oil "


Well you may not be aware by there's a good reason 35-40+ yrs ago motorcycle mfg's didnt state to run motorcycle specific motor oil.

That's because 35-40yrs ago most automotive motor oils mfg'd regardless of grade had a healthy anti wear/zddp lvl (esp for older flat tappet cam tech) required to protect air cooled motorcycle motors from gailing/scratching etc due to excessive heat along with them also having little to no friction modifiers in them too that arent always wet clutch friendly.

So there was no issue running automotive motor oil in motorcycle motors 35-40+ yrs ago which hasn't been the case for quite a few yrs.

Since approx 2005-2006 the anti wear agent /zddp lvl's had been reduced to lower lvls due to epa/Gov regs mandating to do so because it was causing emission issues prematurely fouling cat converters.

The zddp/anti wear agent lvl's were reduced from approx 1500-1600ppm on avg 35-40yrs ago to 800ppm on avg todays with a few automotive oils having 900-1k ppm zddp when air cooled bike motors do best with a min of 1300ppm zddp with best being in approx 1500-1800ppm range.

For example,mobil-1 20-50 v-twin syn oil has 1700ppm zddp & Amsoil MCV full syn 20-50 has 1400ppm zddp & spectro v-twin 20-50 has approx 1500ppm zddp.

So on avg todays automotive oils dont cut it wien it comes to best protecting HD's esp when they create extreem heat in summer cond.

But a few hi perf automotive oils like for ex valvoline's VR1 race oil that has 1400ppm zddp / anti wear agent lvl thats ok for an hd motor but not rec for extended use in vehicles with cat converter.

Todays Chevron delo 15w-40 still has 1300ppm zddp, but in late 2006 or early 2007 shells 15w-40 rotella was reduced form approx 1400-1500ppm zddp lvl to now approx 1100-1150ppm zddp (+ - 50-100ppm) being a bit on edge for best protecting air cooled bike motors in extreem heat cond vs a motorcycle specific oil that has the proper additive pkg containing a significantly higher 1400-1500-1700ppm zddp/anti wear agent lvl.

And another issue with todays oils is many of then do in fact have friction modifiers in them thats not always wet clutch friendly sometimes leading to premature clutch slippage and HD's have wet clutches.

It used to be that mostly lower viscosity fuel conserving oils (0w-20/5w-20/5w-30/10w-30) had friction modifiers but today many higher gade oils like 15w-40/20-50 also have friction modifiers in them too which i verified was the case speaking to oil engineer's @ mult oil mfg's.

In a nutshell those are the main reasons to run motorcycle specific oil in motorcycles and why i run (& rec) oil like for example Spectro mfg's thats specifically designed & formulated for lrg disp HD v-twins with the proper additive pkg with plenty of anti wear/zddp in it to better protect HD v-twins from excessive heat along with it also having quality base stock oil too.

If just gets me when i see quite a few people here in HDfroums that will argue all day posting in oil threads about how bike oil is nothing but hype and about making money when they are mistaken refusing to spend a few bucks more to get proper motorcycle specific motor oil with proper additive pkg to " BETTER PROTECT THEIR HD THAT COSTS WHAT,10K-15-20K BUCKS USED & 25K-30-35K + BUCKS NEW!"

Scott

 

2 thumbs up

That's when I switched to motorcycle specific oil - when the motorcycle friendly additives were taken out of automotive oil.

 

Well im thinking that most car engines don't rev to 8-10-16 thousand I'm guessing they are product specific to that requirement of film strengths with out friction modifiers for same engine clutch oil combo's

Just my 2 cents
Colin

 

Castrol V-Twin 20-50 Full Synth