http://www.bradpennracing.com/Produc...SAE-20W50.aspx

http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/mcv.aspx

Comapre the spec sheets..

If you compare the Flash point on Brad Penn at 425 F and a full synthetic of Amsoil at 464 F, I am willing to say that the Brad Penn can handle the heat just fine. For a mineral base oil it is a very impressive oil in terms of heat at less than half the price. I live in ND and we see temps from 90-100 all summer. These guys that run amsoil and change every 5000 miles in my opinion are nuts. I have an Amsoil guy that lives a few blocks down and chat with him quite often. He knows what I run, and he understands why. There is a reason that numerous race teams run this same oil. Mind you they run the car oil and not the motorcycle oil. I like the synthetics in my liquid cooled vehicles but not an air cooled bike. They just get to thin for me. Mind you I do run Amsoil severe gear in my tranny and change it every 10,000. To each his own I guess. Brad Penn is one of the best mineral base oils out there. Tough to find but well worth it when you can.

 

I went to auto zone here in boston the other day to get new oil for my bike. Im guesing my bike has the HD oil in it as I have never done an oil change yet. This will be be my first oil change on my bike and I bought Mobil 1 V twin 20w-50 oil for it. I took a while to find as it was hidden in the store and not near the Mobil 1 20w-50 "CAR" oil. So is there a difference from my v twin 20w-50 oil than your mobil 1 NON v twin 20-50 oil. I was told that all the other oils are meant for cars not motorcycles.

any input here???

 

Man, when I read the original post I had to do a double take to be sure it wasn't me that had posted it and forgot I did because the exact thing happen to me last summer in Arkansas on a trip. Temps were hovering near 100 degrees in June and a buddy and I were on a 6 day trip to the Ozarks coming from the Houston area. The first day of the trip we stopped for lunch around noon. When I came out from lunch and fired the bike I noticed some engine tapping that I had never heard before. It wasn't super bad so I just rode on and it eventually cleared out. Later on that evening we were close to Hot Springs Arkansas and found a hotel for the evening. Several hours later we came out to the bikes to ride somewhere for dinner and when I fired the bike it was tapping so loud I thought something may come apart. My buddy come over and listened. We checked around, checked the oil level, it was fine. I had Amsoil 20w-50 with roughly 1700 miles on the oil. Amsoil oil filter also. It eventually quieted down some so we rode on to dinner. The next morning we rode straight to Lander's HD in Hot Springs to have it checked out. They said the oil went bad and had broke down. So they changed my oil and filter. Never had the problem again. True story to a T. Since the trip I have switched to Mobil 1 and went back to HD oil filters. Been happy ever since with no more problems. Fortunately I didn't have to tear into my engine like they did Dave's to figure it out. I contacted Amsoil via email about the whole experience and the Amsoil rep came to the conclusion that he thought I acutally had an oil filter go bad instead of the oil going bad. Something to do with the anti-drain valve. Not sure if he was right or not but I didn't care. I could not use anymore Amsoil products after that experience. I was high and mighty on Amsoil prior to that. I realize it was hot out but I could not help but mention to the rep that there slogan "ride hard, run cool" was the exact opposite for me. I acutally like the way my bikes runs with the Mobil 1 better than the Amsoil did before the experience. Like they say, I guess each may be different.

 

I am not qualified to say that Amsoil is good or bad as I have never used it, I worked for a company that had a fleet of new Chevrolet trucks, one of the VPs, sold Amsoil so he talked them into putting it in his and two ( out of 14 ) of the others,( to save money on extended oil changes) in just a little while they all three sounded like "thrashing machines" and two of them had major ( warranty ) engine work. The VPs didn't get that, he fell asleep and totaled his ! the others didn't have any major problems . Just a fluke , right?

 

I am not disagreeing with your experience at all, but it doesn't really make sense to me. I don't use Amsoil and never had, but I do know that it is a quailty product. This is a very interesting story. Hate to here about the hassle so far from home. Sounds like you got good service at Black Hills. Nice to know they have a good mechanic.

Beary

 

WOW ! just a little history lesson I have been running Amsoil in both my Harleys for years a 1993 dyna low rider with engine work and my 2000 electra glide classic never had a problem In my opinion Amsoil is one of the finest syn. out there .I remember when Harley was saying all the bad stuff about Amsoil and all the while Harley RD was coming out with there own oil ,because of all the testing facts ,in fact some Harley dealers due now offer Amsoil and Harley syn .Im old school so I still run 75-90 Amsoil in trans and 20-50 in crankcase . no varnish build ,better lubracation and cooler running engine TEMPS ! I swear by it !

Again it is an opinon

 

Ah, the oil disagreements continue. I have tried them all, haven't noticed much difference in any of the synthetics except my bike ate the Drag Spec oil 20-50 syn. Honestly, all the studies show that the fake stuff handles the high heat better than the real stuff. Other than that use the right HD filter and change often and you will be fine.

 

Personally I'm just the opposite; I want a full synthetic in a high heat environment and will be OK with a non-synthetic in non-high heat environments. My understanding is that the flash point is just one area of measurement that may indicate the quality of the base stock - higher is better. The M1 20/50 V-Twin I use has a flash point of 518 degrees, but I'd be more concerned with the Viscosity Index, Volatility, Oxidation Stability, Zinc & Phosphorous levels. I run MI VT in my engine, BelRay in my primary and Spectro in my trans, so you can see I'm not an Amsoil groupie, but I'll stand by my belief that a good quality 100% synthetic is the best way to go in a high heat environment such as and air cooled v-twin...

 

Finally, an interesting oil thread!

 

If I were you Dave, I would send a sample of the oil you are running now in for test. I'm not so sure you don't have something else going on. I remember a guy back in VA. who ran Amsoil in a F-350 Ford Dually with a Diesel Engine. He had a simular problem as you just described. He quit using Amsoil because he and his mechanic said it was the oil. Later he had the same problem. He found out his engine was dumping too much fuel in diluting his oil. I know you have a lot of money in that engine and want to protect it. Just saying!