Another oil Q

Its time for a oil change and a car parts shop here is having a sale. They've got mobil 1 fully synthetic supersyn (its got a yellow cap) going alot cheaper than the oil I use from the bike shop. Just wondering if anyone uses it or has used a car based oil in their bike
thanks in advance

Don`t use car oil in your bike mate, your bike oil deals with a lot more than car oil can also lubes the clutch plates too.

Thats what I needed to hear, i'll stop being tight and get the proper stuff then

mobile 1 fully synthetic does not have any friction modifiers in there so it's safe on your clutch. what is not safe are auto oils labeled as energy conserving oils.
i use it, many guys on this forum and all other forums use it as well.
get the 15/50 gold cap, but if you're in freezing weather, may want something else.

do a search...it's perfectly safe.

T

Yeah I did a search and thats what made me think I could use it, I wasn't sure though

mobil 1 mx4t

Mobil1 10W-30 DOES have friction modifiers.

Do not ever put a 10W30 oil in your bike.

we're talking 15/50 yellow (GOLD) cap...used to be red cap.
10W40 doesn't have any of that bad stuff too.
just make sure it's non-energy conserving!

So would Castrol GTX 10w40 be okay to run, at least for a little while???

i dont know. might just be me but im always going to use motorcycle specific oil. why? because it's for a motorcycle. car oil is used for lubing the engine only. bike oil is used to lube the engine AND transmission. there are different standards for oils to be classified as motorcycle oil. if the car oil met these demands then i would assume that all of the appropriate ratings would be on the label. and they aren't.

and by the way, i always use the honda 10-40. i figured that if it was good enough to be used by the factory then it must be ok to keep using it.

10-40 car oil is fine as long as it is not labeled as energy conserving. i don't thin any 10-40s are but still, check the label.
as i posted awhile back, one of the guys i used to ride with used dino oil for cars in his ZX10R...he always rides the piss out of it. he had his oil sent to blackstone labs after 3500 miles. they tests came back and all was fine. Just that the oil did show that it was breaking down. they recommended that with that oil and the way he runs his bike to change the oil every 2800 miles.

yes, bike engines rev higher than cars, but it doesn't mean that you can't use car oil. the higher revs will make the oil break down faster so you just need to change it more frequently...which in the end, adds up to about the same as using motorcycle specific oil. now as far as mobile 1 synthetic, i don't know of anyone who's sent it to blackstone but many guys i know that run it have had no issues with it, in particularly the oil breaking down early. I did use Valvoline a couple of times. at the oil changes, i see that the oil was super dirty and very thin, with signs that it's no longer doing it's job well. The Honda stuff was like golden still, so was the motul...and lastly, the Mobile 1...was still pretty good shape that i friend chicken in it and then dumped it.

T

just go w/ mobil 1 10w40 mx4t it's made for motorcycle

pssss...lots of discussion in regards to what makes a motorcycle oil a "motorcycle oil".
other than the labelling, what's different?

i would encourage your guys to do your own research and not just listen to what someone says on a board...LIKE ME!
i did do my research and i would love to post some links and what not, but i think we can't right? or can we?

my conclusion is that there's really nothing making it "motorcycle specific" other than the labelling.

do a search on google, yahoo, msn (wait...msn sucks), etc...and read what others say...in addition, there are the ones that have the scientific information to back it up.

as far as personal experience with dino oil, i do agree that they seem to break down sooner. now given what Blackstone labs said about dino oil that was used in a bike...it showed early break down but if changed at 2800 miles, no problems.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tahoe SC

i did do my research and i would love to post some links and what not, but i think we can't right? or can we?

you can post links to anything you want, as long as it is not a link to another forum. forum to forum linking- bad. forum to website linking- good. anyway, i would really like to see the links that you speak of. regardless where they are from, there is nothing wrong with pm'ing them. thanks

here's one of the first ones that i read as i started getting into mah bike.

http://www.yft.org/tex_vfr/tech/oil.htm

http://www.xs11.com/stories/mcnoil94.htm

but don't just read...do these yourself and see what you find. granted you may not have the money to send samplese to Blackstone, but find someone who has...hahaha...
lucky for me, someone near me with a bike did it.

check out what the oil looks like when it comes out. honestly, Valvoline was like water when it came out...granted i left it in longer...but GN4 not as golden as before but still looks good...etc. but these are only by appearances...for real tests, gots to hit the labs.

good links tahoe. thank you

no 929...you have to do this for yourself mang! go buy cheap walmart oil and use it and then test it against something kosher...at different intervals...and you can really tell the difference as you change the oil! ahahah j/k.

the car stuff is fine, but unless it's synthetic, i would not let it run for more than 3K in the bike. although those links may say differently, i see the stuff that comes out and it just makes me cringe!

quote:

ORIGINAL: Tahoe SC

no 929...you have to do this for yourself mang! go buy cheap walmart oil and use it and then test it against something kosher...at different intervals...and you can really tell the difference as you change the oil! ahahah j/k.

the car stuff is fine, but unless it's synthetic, i would not let it run for more than 3K in the bike. although those links may say differently, i see the stuff that comes out and it just makes me cringe!

i know what you're saying but id rather read it than test it. im not going to put that supertech walmart shat in my bike. just not worth it to me. any damage or wear that could occur is more than i would experience using the honda gn10-40. and i change it every 2500-3000 and it still looks good. i dont mind spending the money for oil. i didn't buy a $5000 bike to put $0.50 quarts of oil into it. the extra money that i spend for the lower grade honda oil is cheap insurance against damage, in my opinion.

and the whole sending the oil off for testing thing sounds like a waste of time and money to me. id rather use oil that i know to be good. besides, the price of testing + price of cheap oil would be more than buying better oil in the first place.

http://www.sportrider.com/tech/146_0308_oil/index.html

and that brings you back to square 1....
says there are differences in motocycle oil and car oil...but as far as these differences affecting performance, other than the race oils...doesn't give much insight on that...or did i skim too quickly?

did you go to the next pages? It does talk about auto and moto :P

quote:

Moly is often referred to as a friction modifier, but it is actually a solid metal dispersed in some oils. Because it has such a high melting temperature (4730¯ F versus 2795¯ F for iron), it works great as a high-temperature, high-pressure antiwear agent. Some claim that because moly is so slick, it can cause clutch slippage. In fact, some motorcycle manufacturers specify oil without moly due to this problem. The moly issue is such that Honda offers its HP4 both with and without it. Looking at the moly graph data, however, shows that even Honda's "moly-free" product contains 71 ppm. Many of the products contain less than five ppm of moly, which is the threshold measurement on this test (meaning any amount less than five ppm will not be detected). Both Torco oils contain a significant dose of moly, while the Maxum Ultra and Motul 300V Factory contain far less. The Mobil 1 automotive oil contains 92 ppm, while the MX4T motorcycle-specific version has an undetectable amount. Only six of the 19 motorcycle oils we tested use moly at all. Those that do, however, average 298 ppm. Considering that many oils contain five ppm or less, 298 ppm is a significant dose.

I tried Castrol Synthetic Blend 10W40 for 3K miles then Motul 5100 Synthetic Blend (MC Oil) for the past 1K miles. I'd have to say that the bike shifts better with the Motul and it's about the same price.

yea i saw the part about the moly. as long as you don't have tons of it in there, it shouldn't pose a problem...heck...the f4i's water pump requires a good dose of moly oil fluid around the shaft area where it connects to another part that turns it...well, all these parts are encased just above the oil pan and get a healthy does of oil with it...so a little bit is not bad for the bike since it's not enough to cause slippage.

as far as shifting is concerned...i got lots of mis-shifts from vavoline...why? dunno, maybe cause my calves were buff back then.
T