You just answered your own question...a stock shovel with some miles on it, is not going to take well to 20/50 or synthetic...put 60w dino back in it

 

I am a total newbie to the Shovel scene but the guy I just got my '82 off of said they need 60 weight..no idea if he is right but he left me a quart..one less thing to buy lol

 

the 80s shovels were changed inside the motor to use 20 50 oil but it does not seem to matter, i have some that run fine on 50w 60w or 70 w and other that use 20/50 and all with an adder like lucas / we use lucas in everything at a 1/2 quart with changing the engine oil in my shop 20 years or more -- jz

 

My dad ran 20-50 for years, when I went and picked up the bike he still had a case of it in his garage so I could only assume that was the best. Maybe he was running that in his '08 heritage soft tail . I'm going to put some 60w with the Lucas add. Thanks for all the info as always.

 

50W seems to be more available around here. Is there a big difference between 50/60W? Also what brands do you all prefer?

 

Shovels do not like multi weight oil for a number of reasons mostly being the crappy stock hyd. lifters and they really don't do synthetics well they start bleeding like a stuck pig from everywhere shortly including seeping through the case castings on some of the early years . Run 50 or 60 straight and you'll be much happier trust me . Up in your area the 50wt should do you fine you don't have the triple digit heat to deal with all summer , Castrol or GTX is what you'll find the most common at the auto places and sometimes Walmart .

The shovel's had loose hyd. lifters in them and I mean real sloppy tolerances that need the heavier oil to operate anywhere near right . As old as they are now with the wear on them with multi weight oils they do loose lift when hot and you'll see smoking as well as a noticeable drop in performance , like your lugging around a big load or a fat passenger . One of the big reasons so many back in the day went to solid lifters in shovels .

Evo's changed that when they came out with the auto style lifters that could handle the multi weight oils .

 

Good advice given just ahead of me ... Get rid of the synthetic and step up to the straight weight ( 50w ) and you'll be much better off ... as was stated earlier that synthetic will squirt ( sooner or later, probably much sooner ) from every seam in it and it's so thin that it will even make a Shovel sound noisier!

 

Got almost 68K out of the top end on my 84 before going through it. At the same time I had to replace my cam and cam bushing. Thinking if your pop has done two at 100K it could be as simple as jz suggested or maybe valve seal(s) gone bad?

 

thats why i use NOTHING but ULTIMA oil -- 50-60-70 high in zinc -- i also use militech 1 -- since we use it at work on the military M1117 ASV i started using it on my bikes and now everything -- its NOT some autozone teflon scam-o additive -- ya think the military would make us put it in million $ ASV'S hardley --

 

So once I put the correct oil in how long before I should expect it to quit smoking? Will it take a little running or should it be pretty quick?