Walmart House Brand Motorcycle Oil

[BlueSky]

I was in Walmart a couple of days ago looking for motorcycle oil and noticed that they now have conventional and synthetic motorcycle oil in their house brand for a little less. I bought 4 qts of synthetic for my Kawasaki's oil change.

[cowpuc]

I ran Wally Worlds cheap non synthetic "Supertech" in my 1st Gens for 100's of thousands of miles thru the years and was always impressed with the stuff.. Never an issue,, I never had a catastrophic failure on any of them and always ended up getting well over 200k miles out of the bikes before I retired em and this was bikes that either came to me with 2nd gear missing or had the second gear fail while I was riding it.. Of course, as you know,, the loss of 2nd gear failing had absolutely nothing to do with the cheap oil - just saying that cause some reader that knows nothing of the 1st Gen 2nd gear issue may read this and think it was the oils fault.. I LOVED the Wall Mart stuff cause I could ALWAYS find it,, it was dirt cheap, Walmarts always let me swap oil in the parking lot and dump my old oil back in automotive and the non-High Energy weight selections were awesome (20/50 Supertech = PERFECT for desert temps).. I have always followed my own ideas of when to change oils in a wet clutch oil bath unit construction scoot = I swap when the oil gets dirty = not uncommon to do so around 2500 miles,, 1500 if Tip/Tweeks and I been doing a lot of off roading,, so having a Walmart at every corner always worked Great!!

Will not surprise me even one tiny little bit to here you state that you are extremely pleased with the stuff after using it for a bit Sky!!

Puc

[MiCarl]

I try to run the Supertech oil in everything I own.

 

Unlike 'puc's experience though, my local stores can't be counted on to have it on the shelf.

[videoarizona]

I ran Wally Worlds cheap non synthetic "Supertech" in my 1st Gens for 100's of thousands of miles thru the years and was always impressed with the stuff.. Never an issue,, I never had a catastrophic failure on any of them and always ended up getting well over 200k miles out of the bikes before I retired em and this was bikes that either came to me with 2nd gear missing or had the second gear fail while I was riding it.. Of course, as you know,, the loss of 2nd gear failing had absolutely nothing to do with the cheap oil - just saying that cause some reader that knows nothing of the 1st Gen 2nd gear issue may read this and think it was the oils fault.. I LOVED the Wall Mart stuff cause I could ALWAYS find it,, it was dirt cheap, Walmarts always let me swap oil in the parking lot and dump my old oil back in automotive and the non-High Energy weight selections were awesome (20/50 Supertech = PERFECT for desert temps).. I have always followed my own ideas of when to change oils in a wet clutch oil bath unit construction scoot = I swap when the oil gets dirty = not uncommon to do so around 2500 miles,, 1500 if Tip/Tweeks and I been doing a lot of off roading,, so having a Walmart at every corner always worked Great!!

Will not surprise me even one tiny little bit to here you state that you are extremely pleased with the stuff after using it for a bit Sky!!

Puc

 

That makes three of us. I like the stuff too. 20-50wt in both scoots.

[BlueSky]

An update on the Walmart motorcycle oil. I used the Supertech synthetic oil and the only diffference I've noticed is that the oil light goes out quicker when starting it after it gets up to temperature. It would take 3 to 4 seconds for the oil light to go out with Mobil 1 synthetic 10w40. Now with Supertech synthetic 10w40 the light goes out in about a second on hot startups. I don't know what that means, whether the oil is thicker or thinner or what, just the only difference I've noticed.

[BlueSky]

On the Kawasaki forum, someone suggested that the difference I notice on how quickly the oil pressure light goes out when hot might be due to the Mobil 1 being old versus the fresh Supertech motorcycle oil. Could be the reason. The Mobil 1 had about 2k miles on it but had been in the bike for quite some time.

[saddlebum]

I could be wrong here but for myself I prefer to run the non-synthetic oil. It my do a better job of lubricating but I find my engine/lifters sound a lot noisier with synthethec. I suspect it has to do with the difference in cushioning effect between Dino oil and synthetic. Just IMHO the engine seems to run quieter with dino oil and like I said I could be way out to lunch on this

[grubsie]

Just IMHO the engine seems to run quieter with dino oil and like I said I could be way out to lunch on this

 

You may be out to lunch, but not on this. Engines do run quieter on dino oil. Especially the vtwins. On the vtwin forums, dino is constantly mentioned to quiet things down. It's worked on the Road Stars and the Harley's I have owned over the years.

I never used dino in my 1st gen and my 4 2nd Gens since compared to the v-twins, the engines seem to run quiet to begin with.

[BlueSky]

My thinking was to use synthetic on my air cooled Kawa since the oil may get hotter than in the water cooled Ventures. I think all oils are tested with the NOAC test at 450 degrees F so conventional may take as much temperature as syn these days. Don't know for sure either way? Probably will use dino on the Ventures in the future.

[cowpuc]

As a precursor to this wildly debated opinion that I have lived my motorcycling career by,, most untrained/self taught backyard mechanic/bike builders-restorers-olxd school riders (my self included) have referred to motorcycles with clutches and trannies that share the same oil with their engines crank/valve train have always been referred to as "Unit" constructed,, bikes that have seperate clutch/trannie oil baths from that of the crank/valve train have always been referred to as "Pre-Unit"..

At a price in $$$'s, Synthetic Oils have always been promoted as lubes that easily double,, often triple and even x4 the distance in miles between oil changes while maintaining viscosity in the process of doing so.. My hybrid mini-motorhome (we sleep in our Hyundia Ioniq hybrid) was actually spected from Hyundai to use Quaker State 0-20 Full Syn which I have maintained since Trooper was brand new.. Trooper (what we named our mini-motorhome cause he looks like a miniature Michigan State Trooper squad car) is a Pre-Unit, actually a dry clutch DCT with trannie lubed by engine crank lube so not a true Pre-Unit but because the clutch is not sharing lube so the point I am about to make still applies, that always amazes me with how clean/full viscosity the oil is even when doing a 7500 mile CTFW's adventure and swapping oil at end of it..

I would only ever consider swapping in more expensive Full Syn oil into a Pre-Unit bike as, IMHO, the clutch fibers and other clutch contaminents in a Unit bike demand early and regular oil swaps compared to that of a Pre-Unit as the oil soils sooner. Combine that with any form of off-roading or dirty environment operation and/or riding in extreme high tempts and oil swaps can even be needed as early as 1500 miles.. Personally, I monitor my oil condition thru the sight glass (I still think the sight glass idea was actually born out of the need to SEE the oil condition and not so much as an easier way of checking level) for color and have always swapped when dirty.. 3k miles and toss in another round of cheap Walmart or Dollar Store dino 20/50 when riding tempts above 80 degrees has kept all my Unit bikes, including my MK1's very happy thru the years.. I am also one of the few lop eared varmints out there who also generally notice the difference in shifting smoothness and engine quiteness when making the swap too.. Matter of fact,, on my Unit bikes,, another way to know it's oil swap time is when shifting becomes notchy but,, I have often been told I am a tenderfoot wannabe when it comes to biking so consider the source in this advice..

Puc

[N3FOL]

I've used Walmart oil on my vehicles with no problems for thousands of miles.  I have never seen a SuperTech oil that says motorcycle oil.  Is there one for sure?  I'll have to make a trip to the motor oil isle on of these days.  Now  I am thinking of moving from Mobil Synthetic Moto Oil to Dino Motorcycle Oil on the SVTC for my next oil change.  Maybe.  Just Maybe. 

[luvmy40]

I know my Walmart has a store branded VTwin oil.

I just run Rotella in all my wet clutch bikes.

[N3FOL]

I run Rotella 15W40 on my RSV since I bought it new.  I think the 15W40 Rotella will work just as well on the SVTC.  I'll have to ask around....

[saddlebum]

Back in the sixty's I knew a guy that worked for shell research. They would have test cars and run it extremely way past its recommended  change intervals and he told me back then already that oil does not wear out it only gets dirty and looses its additives. Back then it was recommended that you change oil filters every second oil change and he said that philosophy was actually backwards that  the filter should be changed every so many miles and the oil changed every second or third filter change. Based on what he told me I would change my filters at regular intervals adding oil as needed and replacing my oil once a year. I drive my cars or trucks until the body's are shot and have always got 300,000 miles give or take out of them and never lost an engine. Not that I recommend this practice just saying I got away with it with no ill effects.

Now in the case of our motorcycles with wet clutches I fully agree with @cowpucthat you have to consider the wear material from the clutches, specially if your doing a lot of city driving and or doing a lot of low speed slip clutching. I which case I see no advantage to spending the extra money for synthetic, plus as I stated earlier the engine valve train etc runs quieter with dino oil hence my preference for dino over synthetic.

On another note when I was fleet manager for beeline carriers I ran Rotella 15W40 in all the trucks. These were 400 hp caterpillar diesels which hauled 48 ft dump trailers from dusty quarries  to construction sites so probably one of the worst environments to run an engine in. Our normal practice was to change oil every 20,000 KM. I was also randomly sending oil out for analysis. One thing I noticed was that the test results always came back stating good for 10,000 more km. So I took two trucks and started extending their oil changes. With each oil change on these two trucks  I sent out samples. and each time it would come back good for 10,000 km more and each time I would add 5,000 km to the oil change interval. eventually I was up to 45,000 km and the samples were still coming back good for 10,000 km more.  After this experiment I extended oil changes to 30,000 km without any ill effects. Considering the fleet had 165 trucks (freightliners and western stars holding roughly 30 litres (10 gallons ) of oil each it resulted in a quite a savings with no ill effects. 

Again this is just a point of interest and my personal decision. In no way I am I telling anyone to follow my example.

[N3FOL]

@saddlebumI’ve also heard a lot of good things about Shell oils from my uncle.  He is a mechanical engr and he has been telling me about their vehicles they use to go down in a ‘quarry’.  In short...and just like your finding on used shell oils, it gave them significant evidence that Shell motor oil does give good engine protection on their fleet of vehicles.  I am now feeling more confident that what I use in my RSV will also be ok to use in my SVTC.  Right now, I have 10W40 synthetic in my SVTC which from what I read is better for cold starts this time of the year.  15W40 and 10W40 has similar outside temperature tolerance according to what I’ve read also.  The only advantage 10W40 will have is the cold starts.  
 I am hoping SVTC owners would chime in to my proposed idea of using Shell 15W40 Dino oil.  

[saddlebum]

6 minutes ago, N3FOL said:

@saddlebumI’ve also heard a lot of good things about Shell oils from my uncle.  He is a mechanical engr and he has been telling me about their vehicles they use to go down in a ‘quarry’.  In short...and just like your finding on used shell oils, it gave them significant evidence that Shell motor oil does give good engine protection on their fleet of vehicles.  I am now feeling more confident that what I use in my RSV will also be ok to use in my SVTC.  Right now, I have 10W40 synthetic in my SVTC which from what I read is better for cold starts this time of the year.  15W40 and 10W40 has similar outside temperature tolerance according to what I’ve read also.  The only advantage 10W40 will have is the cold starts.  
 I am hoping SVTC owners would chime in to my proposed idea of using Shell 15W40 Dino oil.  

In winter I also drop to 10w40 dino for cold start ease. You will find I believe the majority of members here use rotella

[luvmy40]

5 minutes ago, N3FOL said:

@saddlebum... I am hoping SVTC owners would chime in to my proposed idea of using Shell 15W40 Dino oil.  

Rotella T4 15w40 IS Shell Dino oil. 

[N3FOL]

Looks like Shell Rotella dino 15W40 for Spring/Summer and Early Fall and 10W40 Synthetic Oil for Late Fall to Early Spring for the SVTC.  I think this is a good plan, since I've read that switching back and forth from Dino oil to Synthetic oil does not cause any problems.  

@saddlebumWhat 10W40 dino oil brand do you use on your motorcycle?