Hi all, I will put my sporty in storage in a couple of weeks, got a question here. I am currently using amsoil synthetic, can I put regular oil in the crankcase during the winter storage? I am not going to run the engine in the winter, the clean oil is just for the bike storage. I heard you cannot mix regular oil with synthetic. When the riding season comes, I will put amsoil back into the engine.
Thanks Alex

 

If the bike is just going to be in storage and not ridden, why would you want to drain the synthetic oil and add 'regular oil'?

Maybe I'm missing something here, as that doesn't make any sense to me....

Anyway, only thing I do differently in the winter is start turning on the battery tender when the temperatures drop into the low 30's or colder.

I pretty much ride year around, and don't like letting a bike sit for extended period without being driven. It gets cold here as well (minus 10, or colder, isn't that uncommon), but cold spells don't last that long, and when it gets in the 20's or higher during the daytime it's warm enough to go for rides if you are dressed correctly.

 

Hey, thanks for your quick reply. From what I heard from other people, before I put the bike in storage, put fuel stabilizer in the fuel tank and run the motor for 15 mins, completely drain the old engine oil and put fresh oil for storage. Am I missing something? Should I just leave to old oil in the crankcase during the winter? I just changed oil 400km ago and I will park the bike for at least 4-5 months. Thanks again!

 

I do the same thing with dyno oil in the winter. Here's why.

Dirty oil has contaminants in it, some of which are corrosive. Storing a bike with dirty oil isn't too cool. I dump the old synthetic and fill with dyno oil. That dyno oil does one job for me it absorbs what's left of the contaminants in the crank case as it sits there. If you search around for some of Poconj's posts on oil analysis, you will see what I mean. I used dyno oil to store with since it's a cheap contaminant sponge. Over the winter I don't have to worry about shear resistance and degradation issues, since the bike is simply parked.

In the spring, I ride the bike about 25 miles with the dyno oil in it, dump it and add fresh Mobil 1. Filters at every change as well.

I guess you could store with fresh synthetic and then dump it in the spring (waste of $, IMO), or run that oil in the spring without changing it out (gives me the creeps).

Remember, oil discussions usually turn ugly, as people are pretty opinionated on the subject - that's why there's a forum devoted just to oil.

 

Thanks a lot


I know what you mean

 

Not to be a smart ***....but.....click the link for my strategy this winter in regards to winterizing my Harley

HARLEY WINTERIZING STRATEGY

 

Not sure where you live, but up here it's less the temperature, but the disasterous effects of riding your bike in road salt.

 

Storage? WTF?