[tzzoooma]

Ready to do my 600 mile change on my vulcan.

Can I use car oil from wally world or auto parts place?
Would it void the warranty? What's cheap and recommended?

 

[pat0021]

Depends on the car oil. There are a tons of threads on here about it if you want all the oil info you could ever handle. Short answer is if it has friction modifers in it you're clutch isn't going to work. The only oil I personally will buy from wally world for the bike is Shell Rotella 15W 40. It has just received the proper certs for our bikes.

 

[CarGuy]

Depends on the car oil. There are a tons of threads on here about it if you want all the oil info you could ever handle. Short answer is if it has friction modifers in it you're clutch isn't going to work. The only oil I personally will buy from wally world for the bike is Shell Rotella 15W 40. It has just received the proper certs for our bikes.

+1 with Rotella

 

[Clarxhouse]

I use Honda GN4 10W40 SJ. Just make sure that it is for motorcycles because unlike car oils it is for your tranny and clutch also. Myself I would rather pay the price for oil now than for repairs later.

 

[northernman]

Cheap go with rotella 15w40......its as good as most other oils costing 3 times as much, and what I use in my own bikes, and customers.

If you fell better spending more cash on oil, buy Mobil 1 20w50 v-twin oil.

Stay away from amsoil crap, that stuff IMO is trash and ruins cranks, and cam bearings.

 

[tzzoooma]

thanks for the short answers, better than reading a hundred threads.

i think advance auto parts has pennzoil motorcycle oil. will check them out
and if that doesn't work, i'll head back to wally and get the rotella.

 

[Belrix]

is "Rotella" good enough for buying it (beyond the viscosity) or is there lines within the brand to pay attention to?

 

[northernman]

is "Rotella" good enough for buying it (beyond the viscosity) or is there lines within the brand to pay attention to?

I would get the rotella 15w40 only.

Its the one proven for many years, by literaly 10's of thousands of bikes, to be a great oil.

 

[Ride4Life]

I started using Rotela T 15w40 and will never go back to motorcycle oil, my tranny feels so much smoother and all my engine ticks are gone.

 

[herk]

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[bluestringer]

The Rotella 15w40 dino is JASO-MA certified. The Rotella 5w40 synthetic, now known as T6 is also JASO-MA. There is also a Rotella 10w40 known as T5, but it does not have the JASO-MA rating.

 

[mrfix]

Ready to do my 600 mile change on my vulcan.

Can I use car oil from wally world or auto parts place?
Would it void the warranty? What's cheap and recommended?

For what it's worth, For 38 years I've used the latest and greatest oil technology in my prized possesions. Now I own a 2008 vulcan 2000 LT and a 2005 KLR, I was using Spectro golden 4, 10W-40 in both, they both ran well and shifted smoothly at $12.00 a quart. I decided to do a test and started using good old Kawi. $4.00 per quart dino oil in the KLR to see what would happen. I started with the dino cheap stuff at 20,000 miles, now I'm at 42,000 miles and I gotta tell ya the old KLR runs quieter, uses no oil and shifts smoother than it ever did. I still use the Spectro in the vulcan but I'm thinking about the benefit of a $25.00 oil change. I'm starting to think this whole oil thing is one heck of a a marketing ploy. When I do valve checks on the KLR the grind marks are still on the cams and all the balancer chains and cam chains measure like new. I guess I wasted a lot of hard earned cash on good marketing.

What do you all think?

Mrfix

 

[07Ninja250]

I think that while it seems to be doing a very good job of preventing wear in your case, it's been proven time and time again that conventional oils can leave nasty stuff behind depending on what's going on in your engine. I'd never run a conventional oil in my hot-running, hard working motorcycle engine because I've seen what heat can do to conventional oil. Sludge and varnish are non-existant in engines that are run from the beginning with good quality synthetics.

I can't testify to whether or not oil A causes rougher / smoother shifting than oil B. The only bad side effect from using synthetics that I've encountered in the last 4 years is when Mobil 1 MX4T caused the clutch in my 94 Ninja 250 start acting more like an on-off switch than a clutch. I switched it over to Castrol synthetic and it went back to normal.

Agreed, there is a TON of marketing involved in the oil industry, but for the most part, the oil companies are held to a certain standard of 'truth in advertising'. But my experiences over the years with all my different cars, and more recently with my bikes has given me my own frame of reference when I consider the differences between oils. It's synthetics all the way for me....even in my lawnmower.

 

[V-Twin]

Castrol, Valvoline and others make a cheap motorcycle oil. When I say cheap yes, it is still more expensive than automobile oils but not as expensive as motorcycle top notch oils.

 

[northernman]

I think that while it seems to be doing a very good job of preventing wear in your case, it's been proven time and time again that conventional oils can leave nasty stuff behind depending on what's going on in your engine. I'd never run a conventional oil in my hot-running, hard working motorcycle engine because I've seen what heat can do to conventional oil. Sludge and varnish are non-existant in engines that are run from the beginning with good quality synthetics.

I can't testify to whether or not oil A causes rougher / smoother shifting than oil B. The only bad side effect from using synthetics that I've encountered in the last 4 years is when Mobil 1 MX4T caused the clutch in my 94 Ninja 250 start acting more like an on-off switch than a clutch. I switched it over to Castrol synthetic and it went back to normal.

Agreed, there is a TON of marketing involved in the oil industry, but for the most part, the oil companies are held to a certain standard of 'truth in advertising'. But my experiences over the years with all my different cars, and more recently with my bikes has given me my own frame of reference when I consider the differences between oils. It's synthetics all the way for me....even in my lawnmower.

I have not ever noticed that.
I often see dino oil only engines, a lot cleaner than synthetic oil users.

Seems the dino guys often change it a little more regularly, and the guys using scamsoil pay so much they leave it in, and it gets the engine innards filthy.

Just what I see in my shop is all.

 

[Glenn Sparks]

I use amsoil 10w-40 synthetic in my bike and change it every 3000 miles,i hope it's a good oil thats what my dealer suggested.i use nothing but mobil-1 in my cars,any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.:mrgreen:

 

[TejasDevil]

I started using Rotela T 15w40 and will never go back to motorcycle oil, my tranny feels so much smoother and all my engine ticks are gone.

Ditto, Rotella T Dino, tranny smooth as butter.

 

[herk]

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[northernman]

Ditto, Rotella T Dino, tranny smooth as butter.

Thats what I find as well.

I recently bought a used bike that was very well cared for.
The owner had used amsoil in it from new, and changed it about every 4,000 kms ( 2500 miles), and he said he had just given it a fresh oil change no more than 600 kms before I bought it.
I hate amsoil, as I have seen way too much engine damage from it, so I changed the oil in it a few days after I bought it to Rotella.
Instantly the engine was quieter, and it shifted better.
The shifting kept getting better each ride to, and now it has over 1,000 kms on it with the Rotella 15w40 and it shifts great, and runs better and quieter than when I bought it.

I used to rebuild a lot of damaged snowmobile motors due to amsoil, and I got all my customers to change oils, and now they rarely blow up, and if they do need work, its pistons and rings, not failed cranks etc.

 

[Glenn Sparks]

I will be changing brands next oil change northernman, you sound like you have experience in this field.have you had any experience with royal purple oils,i would like to stay with a synthetic oil.i know rotella 15w-40 is a great oil i have seen it for myself in cars.fork lift and auto mechanic for 24 years.:-D