Question on oils - need to understand better

all i would say is stick to a good quality oil and dont risk it a few extra dollars/pounds for desent oil will save you a lot in the long run i use silcoline and that only as i have used in race bikes before.use good quality full synthetic or semi synthetic.if castrolr40 or 30 where cheep i would use this instead but at nearly £30 a litre its a no go

chill

yes SJ and BF or BG whatever for the petrol/derv ratings. however all motor oils forget the motorcycles clutch and gearmesh. it goes with the territory.

PM dale lineaweaver as your only chance of restitution.

regards

Taffy

Here is a link for you,
http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/Oils1.html

Happy reading. (long)

here is another link........ http://www.driverstechnology.co.uk/oils.htm ......... it's pretty short and simple and really makes sence of the SG SJ CF and all that stuff. basically gas and diesel oil ratings. the letters keep changing every few years and new letter codes replace old ones. as you know the friction modifiers are our concern in the MC world. Moly seems to be the additive of concern. from what i gathered in my oil obbsession days (when i first got my bike) our bikes can handle about 80ppm (parts per-million) of moly with no issues. a synthetic motor oil with NO energy conserving symbol on bottle commonly has under 100ppm of moly. that's what i'm running mobil1 5w-50 engine oil-85ppm moly. The energy conserving symbol is bad news. that oil has more moly and i think other friction modifiers as well. general Biker consensus seems to be "a good engine oil with NO energy conserving lable will work just fine"... i ran the delo all last year and now i'm trying that mobil 1 $6/litre at canadian tire on sale. i felt the delo was a little thick for canadian winter riding.

cerara said:

here is another link........ http://www.driverstechnology.co.uk/oils.htm ......... it's pretty short and simple and really makes sence of the SG SJ CF and all that stuff. basically gas and diesel oil ratings. the letters keep changing every few years and new letter codes replace old ones. as you know the friction modifiers are our concern in the MC world. Moly seems to be the additive of concern. from what i gathered in my oil obbsession days (when i first got my bike) our bikes can handle about 80ppm (parts per-million) of moly with no issues. a synthetic motor oil with NO energy conserving symbol on bottle commonly has under 100ppm of moly. that's what i'm running mobil1 5w-50 engine oil-85ppm moly. The energy conserving symbol is bad news. that oil has more moly and i think other friction modifiers as well. general Biker consensus seems to be "a good engine oil with NO energy conserving lable will work just fine"... i ran the delo all last year and now i'm trying that mobil 1 $6/litre at canadian tire on sale. i felt the delo was a little thick for canadian winter riding.

Click to expand...

I just pick up a 550 Husaberg and after break in would like to run mobil 1 synthetic in it after break in because I use it in one of my cars already so I always have some around. Is there any issues with using the full synthetic in this bike? Any clutch problems?

Hey there Mark,

I'm not sure that oil and sanity belong in the same sentence, let alone thread, but hey :wink:

As for oil there really is just far too much BS around to make any real sense using a lot of popular sources as the basis for your investigation. At best they tend to be vague and a worst they're positively misleading.

I for one have use both motorcycle and car oils in my motorcycles. I currently use a diesel engine oil from Chevron (NOT Delo 400 as we can't get it over here). Even on my road bike there is absolutely no issue with clutch operation at all!

Chevron's fully synthetic car oil is also fully suitable for motorcycle use so in actualy fact friction modifiers do not always harm a wet clutch, some may do.

If you really want the answers you do have to go to the horse's mouth as ask the oil companies themselves because often you'll find surprising results but always bear in mind "motocycle specific" oils have a very good markup for the oil companies!

The way I look at it is, for example, I have a car whose engine puts out several hundred horsepower (per cylinder its output is more than the nearest comparative size Husaberg engine too). The oil in there lasts a long time. Why shouldn't it also be OK in a bike. An engine is an engine is an engine and every engine deserves a GOOD drink

Cheers,
Simon
PS I probably didn't answer your question..... :wink:

RE: oil in cars vs. bikes

Simon said:

Hey there Mark,

I'm not sure that oil and sanity belong in the same sentence, let alone thread, but hey :wink:

As for oil there really is just far too much BS around to make any real sense using a lot of popular sources as the basis for your investigation. At best they tend to be vague and a worst they're positively misleading.

I for one have use both motorcycle and car oils in my motorcycles. I currently use a diesel engine oil from Chevron (NOT Delo 400 as we can't get it over here). Even on my road bike there is absolutely no issue with clutch operation at all!

Chevron's fully synthetic car oil is also fully suitable for motorcycle use so in actualy fact friction modifiers do not always harm a wet clutch, some may do.

If you really want the answers you do have to go to the horse's mouth as ask the oil companies themselves because often you'll find surprising results but always bear in mind "motocycle specific" oils have a very good markup for the oil companies!

The way I look at it is, for example, I have a car whose engine puts out several hundred horsepower (per cylinder its output is more than the nearest comparative size Husaberg engine too). The oil in there lasts a long time. Why shouldn't it also be OK in a bike. An engine is an engine is an engine and every engine deserves a GOOD drink

Cheers,
Simon
PS I probably didn't answer your question..... :wink:

Click to expand...

I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of motor oils the hard way: I took the advice from a friend and instead of running the Harley oil I was using. I serviced my Harley using less expensive Castrol GTX in lieu of the expensive Harley oil I had been using, and then rode it from Stockton, CA up to Eurekal, Ca on the Redwood Run in 1981, and it got hot and foamed up, losing it's viscosity, and burned out my rod bearings on the way home, I could literally hear the noise above the inherently normally loud Harley noise every time I turned the throttle hard, I heard those rod bearings. When I took the jugs off the bike and grabbed the piston/rods with my bare hands, I could literally see the movement the bearings were so bad. Had to spend a small fortune rebuilding the entire engine, in retrospect, it would have been cheaper for me to pay 10 times the price, and use the best oil I could find. So oils that may work very well in a car or truck, may not be capable of handling the punishment of a hot running motorcycle engine. So I personally will use Amsoil in my bike, for one they don't spend millions of $$$ on advertising, but put the majority of their money back into their product line. Unlike most other oil manufacturers. They let the product speak for itself, not high paid actors or advertising. I notice most good motorcycle shops now have Amsoil on their shelves here in Las Vegas.
Amsoil compares other oils in their own literature, and they could not put it on the bottle or literature if it were not true, otherwise, can you say LAWSUITS. If I lived outside the states, and could not get Amsoil, Then I would most likely use Motorex or another high grade synthetic oil personally. I use only Chevron Premium gas in the bike for fuel. If you use the best fuel and the best oil you can find, your bike will run cooler, better and last longer. Hope this helps !!

Links here re oils maybe of interest

http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/oiltest1.htm

http://husaberg.org/index.php?name=PNph ... 28cc90c374

Steve

RE: oil in cars vs. bikes

.......652berg, you were asking about synthetic in our bergs. they call for a fully synthetic 5w-50. at least in manual that is what it says. no need to brake the motor in on non-synthetic. i have 12 hours on my bike and i'm pretty sure it had synthetic from factory. i have not ran my bike up any crazy hill climbs on the mobil 1 yet, but i have read that guys are using mobil 1 synthetic of all viscocities with no clutch issues.
there must be 1000's of oil debates out there and 1000's of oils. I work in a heavy equipment shop as a mechanic and i like oil analysis. we depend on it to maintain equipment that costs mega-bucks. that is why i talk about the ppm (parts per-million) that makes up a brand of oil. And i really like seeing the analysis results from used and un-used oils that people are using in there bikes. we run our equipment fleet on delo-400 and know doubt it is great! I went throught 20 litres of that stuff last summer in my off road crap. Now with the new berg i figured i'd try some synthetic. i was running amsiol (which i think is awsome) but at $14 a litre in canada - i just couldn't continue. my manual calls for 10hour oil changes , but after 5 hours of riding my oil is dark from clutch material and i want to dump it. the oil has not broken down it's just dirty. so personally i like to buy the mobil on sale and change it every 5 or so hours....i may buy another 5gallon jug of delo for summer riding..it's about $3.90/L up here in canada at cheveron bulk outlets????......that's my story - no more oil talk for me!

As mentuioned in my thread here, http://husaberg.org/index.php?name=PNph ... 28cc90c374 I reckon I got substantially longer life out of the valve gear in my 501 with Delo vs Mobil 1 4T. Same rider, sma eterrain, same riding style, close to double life of roller followers. My 2 cents.

Steve

Thanks for the info, I will be running the Mobil 1 in mine. I have always been good about changing oil often, on the berg I will be doing it every 3 hours..and I know what you mean about the price of amsiol it's way over priced. I live in Manitoba and don't think we have a Chevron dealer here, are you on the west or east side of Canada?

652berg said:

Thanks for the info, I will be running the Mobil 1 in mine. I have always been good about changing oil often, on the berg I will be doing it every 3 hours..and I know what you mean about the price of amsiol it's way over priced. I live in Manitoba and don't think we have a Chevron dealer here, are you on the west or east side of Canada?

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Here is an interesting comparative link:

http://www.performanceoiltechnology.com ... ummins.htm

amsoil motorcycle oil at canadian tire is $12.99 plus tax= $14. so i tried to buy online from amsoil directly and it was $14.60 when all the dust settled (exchange rate, shipping) i bought 4 bottles....ouch!!!!!

Re: RE: oil in cars vs. bikes

pc2mac said:

I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of motor oils the hard way:

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I am very sorry to hear about your misfortune pc2mac. I did, however, say:

"If you really want the answers you do have to go to the horse's mouth and ask the oil companies themselves."

"every engine deserves a GOOD drink "

Cheers,
Simon