Oil change question

[Dexx]

I'm not finding anything putting "oil" in the search box, so here goes. What do you guys recommend? The owners manual says 20W40 and I can't find it anywhere. the closest I can find is 20W50 and I'm not sure if there is a significant difference or not. I really don't want to spend the money on the dealer brand.

[buddy]

Dexx,

 

20w50 will not hurt your bike as long you stay away from the energy saving lable.

I myself use Mobil One Syn.15w50 but the bike has been using mobil one since new.I tried other brands on the bike but Mobil One does me the best job - runs cooler -runs smoother - better gas mileage.

There are other brands you can use - Castrol - Mobil One - Amsoil and so on.I myself stay with 15w50 year round.

Its all up to your taste of oil.

 

 

buddy

[saddlebum]

I'm not finding anything putting "oil" in the search box, so here goes. What do you guys recommend? The owners manual says 20W40 and I can't find it anywhere. the closest I can find is 20W50 and I'm not sure if there is a significant difference or not. I really don't want to spend the money on the dealer brand.

I believe castrol makes a 20w40. however in a warmer climate theres no harm in using 20w50. also your bike being an 89 it will most likely have enough wear and age on it that 20w50 will be fine. . I ran 20w50 in my bike until I switched to amsoil synthetic which I would not recomend because I now have lots of oil leaks which often happens when you switch older engines to synthetic. My next oil change I will be switching back to non synthetic 20w50 oil .

[chabicheka]

thanks for the info....saddlebum. i was just about sold on the idea of using amsoil after talking to their rep at port dover on the 13th. i guess i will stick to non synthetics.

[Kurt]

I use Cenex 15w40 diesel oil. works for me. Lots of opinions on oil. My advice is to use a good quality oil without friction modifiers and change it often.

[saddlebum]

thanks for the info....saddlebum. i was just about sold on the idea of using amsoil after talking to their rep at port dover on the 13th. i guess i will stick to non synthetics.

I made the mistake of switching the diff oils in my old 4x4 pickup truck too and they started leaking as well apperrantly older seals just tend to dry out and get hard with synthetic because the material used was not designed to handle synthetic

BTW chabicheka sorry i missed you at port dover i went into timmys but I didn't see any one

[dray]

i use 20x50 amsoil and im staying with it bike shifts better runs quieter and dont use a drop of oil love it

[Yammer Dan]

I use Castrol 20/50 but just use a good oil and change it often.

[RSTDinPA]

I am using Shell Rotella-T 15w40 dino oil. Bike shifts great and runs well.

[Locomotive]

Yep, Shell Rotella T 15/40 is a very popular choice with liquid cooled bikes. Very popular and reliable. You can buy it at any truck stop and auto parts store even wal mart carries it. It has no friction modifiers so it is safe for our motorcycles. To me 20/50 is a little thick for my part of the country plus our bikes dont run as hot as air cooled bikes. But if people have good results with it ya cant argue with that!! :cool10::cool10:

[91nwl]

The recommended 20W-40 is Yamalube, available at Yamaha dealers. It is semi-synthetic. I use it.

[83 decked out]

same here a little more expensive but seems to run quite. Dont use a oil stabilizer product with oil. Have to clean out makes your clutch slip:no-no-no:

[Doug Hare]

I am using Rotella T 15w40. It has very good shear stability which means that it stays in grade. Motorcycles are very hard on oils shearing them out of grade because most circulate the oil through the transmission.

 

Yesterday I saw this oil for sale at Part Source.

[Guest JGorom]

Lots of opinions on oil. My advice is to use a good quality oil without friction modifiers and change it often.

 

This about sums it all up...

• Use a good quality oil without friction modifiers...
  
• and change it often

On another note however...the issue of oil weight is often misunderstood or not understood at all. The weight on the lower end in particular. A lower weight on the low end means the oil is thinner...i.e. a 5W, 10W, 15W is lighter viscosity and will cover engine parts quicker than a 20 W oil.

 

Since a lot of wear and tear on your engine parts involves starting the engine, I have always gone with a lower weight oil, especially in the Fall and Spring when the temperatures in the North East are cooler. Here a lighter weight oil makes sense because the oil will coat and protect the engine sooner at start up than a heavier weight oil will at start up.

 

The oil weight at the upper end...i.e. 40W simply means that once the engine and oil is warmed up it will go to the higher viscosity...i.e. 40W to protect the engine at that viscosity. But the biggest problem as I have already mention is having a viscosity that will protect at start-up...because once the engine is warmed up and the bike is moving...it will got to the higher viscosity for better engine protection.

 

I personally like Shell Rotella and use 5-40 in the Fall and Spring (because it is colder here int he North East where I live) to get instant protection on my moving parts at start up...and then 15-40 for my region in the Summer. If I lived in the deep South I would probably use 15-40 in the Fall and Spring, and 20-40 or 20-50 in the Summer.

 

Hope you find something your comfortable with...but you cannot beat the advice given by Kurt whom I have quoted above.

 

Later...

[Dexx]

Well, I've always used Penzoil in my other bikes ( to cheap to pay for the dealer branded stuff), I decided to take a shot with the penzoil 20w 50 and all seems good so far. The only snag I hit was that the bolt holding the oil filter cover on was rounded just enough that it wouldn't come out. Dad and I really wanted to go riding yesterday ( the VR was down for two weeks while I was on vacation and waiting for the new clutch reservoir diaphragm, and dad had only got his"new" trike out a couple of times due to other obligations) So I put the new oil in and we went riding. will order a new bolt this week and attack the old one with a pipe wrench or something. Thanks for all the advice.

[Guest venture777]

I Have a 1993 venture/royale and i USE Mobil 1 20w-50 V twin and it is in my opinion the best oil protection you can get for the transmission needs MOTORCYCLE OIL beacause it has zinc and phosphorous that other oils do not have

[Freebird]

Since 1999 I've used Mobil 1 MX4T for Motorcycles in my '99 RSV. On our recent trip to Colorado, Bob Dakin told me that he had switched to 20W/50 (he uses Amsoil) and that his bike was running much quieter and shifting much better with the heavier oil, especially when it got hot. So...when I changed my oil last weekend, I decided to try the 20W/50 (I stuck with Mobile One for Motorcycles though, the VTwin blend). I haven't ridden it enough yet to offer an opinion on how it compares to the MX4T but will try to do that soon.

 

If I'm not mistaken, Spud has been running this oil in his RSV for several years. Maybe he will see this and offer his opinion.

[cmiles3]

I'm using SuperTech 15w40 oil (non synth, Walmart brand). No issues in 30,000 miles on my 1987 Venture (72,000 on the odometer.)

 

Some of the gaskets and O rings swell up using non synth oil. Synthetics don't have the compound that makes them swell, so they shrink a little after the new oil flushes the compound out of the gasket.

 

All w40 multi viscosity oils behave like 40 weight oils at operating temperatures; that's what the lube industry standards measure. 10w, 15w, 20w oils behave like their weight at low temperatures (starting a cold engine). Lower weights are used in cooler climates, higher weights in hotter climates. Cold winters and hot deserts you need to worry about; most of us can use any 10w/15w/20w without worry. But unless you have a reason, I'd stick with the w40 viscosities; 10w40, 15w40, 20w40. This is the oil the engine was designed for; you probably won't notice any difference until you're into the 100,000 plus range.

 

Of course, the friction modifiers in most engine oils limit your choices. The diesel engine oils seem to be mostly free of friction modifiers, if they don't have "energy conserving" on the label. And they're easier to find. But you can get the 20w40 at Yamaha, usually. You might be able to order it at an auto parts store, if you can make them understand the friction modifier/wet clutch problem.

[Freebird]

I've read pretty much everything you have just said and know that it is supposed to be correct. I tell you though, we can argue here forever and I can read many pages about oil but when it comes down to it, I only know what works best for me. I know that some people use YamaLube and have had good results with it but I wouldn't put it in my lawnmower. I've tried it in two different bikes and I can absolutely tell the difference between it and the Mobil 1 that I now use. I truly believe that regardless of what they tell you about the standard oils maintaining their viscosity at higher temperatures, I don't believe it. I know that with the Yamalube, when I was riding on hot days and the bike got good and heated up, the engine was very noisy and it got hard to shift. Finding first gear could get especially difficult.

 

I do not wish to get into another oil debate. I recommend that everybody just use what they have confidence in. For me, that is Mobil 1 for Motorcycles. If I had to switch to something else, I would try Amsoil.

[Venturous Randy]

I will add something else to think about on multi viscosity oil.

For many years I was led to believe that 10w40 oil acted like 10w oil when it was cold and than had the viscosity of 40w oil when it was hot. It was then explained to me by someone that seemed to know a lot about oil viscosities that the way to think about oil and viscosities is like thinking about different size ball bearings. 10w oil has very small ball bearings, and therefore flows very easy in a restricted space and 40w oil has much larger ball bearings and flow much slower in a restricted space.

When you mix the two different ball bearing sizes together, you will get the positive effect of oil flow when cold by the smaller ball bearings moving easier, but with the larger ball bearings mixed in you will still have the thickness of film coverage that is the positive aspect of the thicker oil.

Now, I am not saying that this is absolutely true, but it sure made sense to me and I believe the theory has validity.

Comments welcome.

BTW, my 83 did not do good with Amsoil motorcycle oil. I thought I had an old Harley with all the oil leaks that cropped up.

RandyA