Valvoline 20/50 conv vs valvoline 4 stroke 20/50

[James Ardrey]

I usually buy Valvoline 20/50 4 stroke mc oil @ my local oil and lube place. He was out of 20/50. He said that the Valvoline oil reps told him that there was no difference between 20/50 conventional and mc 20/50 and that valvoline was discontinuing mc oil. That the only difference was the label. He said that the synthetics were going to follow suit because there is no difference other than the label. I find all of this hard to believe. I tried to go onto the valvoline websight, but it is temporarily down for maintenance. They probably put conventional computer oil into there 4 cycle system lol! If anyone can shed some light on this dilemma please feel free. This world is becoming twilight Zoney! do do do do do do do do.

[Wanderer]

There probably is no difference. If they label MC oil then motorcyclist will automatically assume it's good for the motorcycle and purchase it instead of another brand. Makes sense to me.

[M61A1MECH]

One difference between conventional automobile oils and motorcycle oils is the addition of friction inhibitors in the automobile oils. For motorcycles with wet clutches that share the same oil for the clutch and the crankcase ( like the Royal Star line) you can get clutch slippage form those oils with friction inhibitors.

 

There are lots of threads on this and other forums that talk about this, should be easy to get as many diferent opinions as you care to read pretty easily.

 

Me; if it does not say "formulated for wet clutches" , it is not going in my bike.

[venture101]

Has anyone used the Royal Purple Max Cycle 20w50? I'm torn between dino and synthetic. I have never used synthetic in anything, but would like to see if there is any difference in performance or noise level. Can you increase the oil change interval with synthetic? My understanding is oil does not wear out, it just gets impurities in it. Wouldn't the synthetic get the same impurities? I just bought the Purolator PL14610 filter ($5.99), so I think I'm good on filtering. Hard to justifiy $12.99/qt for the Royal Purple vs $3.98/qt for Valvoline. I am willing to pay if it's worth it. Thanks for any response.

[Pegasus1300]

I have been using the Valvolene 20-50 regular oil in my 1st gen Ventures and now in my RSTD.I have had 3 1st generation.milage on the 83 was 105K, the 86 went to 165k and I am still putting miles on the 87 at 62k.Only the clutch in the 86 ever needed to be replaced and that was at 80k.The 87 clutch is still doing fine.The engine in the 86 was still going strong when I retired it for parts and did not use any oil. It has been my experience that the only oils that will cause clutch slippage are oils that which say "energy conserving" or words to that effect.20/50 oils do not fall in that category.The Valvolene 20/50 has been good for me for 25 years and I still use it.

[camos]

There is a test of various oils on the Amsoil site that might be of interest. These tests have been done on Royal Purple Max-Cycle and Valvoline 4-stroke among others.

[footsie]

On a majority of products there is no difference in the product just the labeling, oil are the same way. Most of the time motorcycle labeling is just that, a label.

I was once told that chevron delo 400 could not be used in a wet clutch, strange about that is the old caterpilliar motorgraders had wet clutches, shared the engines oil, we typically put 10,000 hour on a clutch.

 

Most any oil you chose to run will work, only the 5-20, 10-40, energy conserving should be avoided in a wet clutch situation.