The OIL thread. All oil related questions here.

[Bill Kratzenberg]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

I run valvoline 10w40 motorcycle oil.
I used to run with mobil 1 synthetic, but i had to replace my clutch.
From what i hear, it's not a good idea to run synthetic oil.

 

[Robbarrie]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

I run 10/40 - Just regular blend. I think it's better to change more often. Then use the good stuff longer. Everyone is different. It's my 2cents. I also run regular gas as well. No need to run premimum. If I'm not mistaken, the manual calls for 20/40.

 

[Bill Seward]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

Castrol GTX 20-50.
Worked so far for 117,000 miles!

 

[maleko89]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

20W-40 Catepillar oil for diesel/gasoline engines

 

[turbostang]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

I run valvoline 10w40 motorcycle oil.
I used to run with mobil 1 synthetic, but i had to replace my clutch.
From what i hear, it's not a good idea to run synthetic oil.

Me too, one oil change and one clutch change please.:bang head: :damn angry:

Castrol 10w40 now.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

Diesel oils typically have a lot more zinc in them which is a realy good thing. "car" oils have drastically reduce the amount of zinc over the years (by epa mandate I believe) as it is hard on catalytic coverters and o2 sensors.

 

[Jayhawk]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

I run valvoline 10w40 motorcycle oil.
I used to run with mobil 1 synthetic, but i had to replace my clutch.
From what i hear, it's not a good idea to run synthetic oil.

Did you run the motorcycle version of Mobil 1 synthetic? If so, yikes. It's marketed as being safe for wet clutches.

 

[turbostang]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

Did you run the motorcycle version of Mobil 1 synthetic? If so, yikes. It's marketed as being safe for wet clutches.

I actually used Castrol Syntec, got about 1 week out of my clutch.
Made for an expensive oil change.
Have never used the Mobil motorcycle oil.

 

[Calimus]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

I run 20-50 year round. However, up in Minn, you should be able to run 20-50 in the summer and then switch to something thinner in the winter if you intend to ride year round.

 

[MaxPower]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

Diesel oils typically have a lot more zinc in them which is a realy good thing. "car" oils have drastically reduce the amount of zinc over the years (by epa mandate I believe) as it is hard on catalytic coverters and o2 sensors.

I've heard from multiple sources (not that it means they're right) that I should not run diesel specific oil in my bike as it contains to many detergients and could lead to ring failure. :ummm:

I think I'm going to use some 20w50 Valvoline Racing.

Thanks for the responses guys!

 

[maleko89]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

This oil is for both diesels and regular gasoline engines. My friend works at Catepillar and swears by the stuff. He also told me to stay away from Fram oil filters. Little fibers break off and cause premature wear. They did extensive testing on them in the Cat engines.

 

[clintard]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

This oil is for both diesels and regular gasoline engines. My friend works at Catepillar and swears by the stuff. He also told me to stay away from Fram oil filters. Little fibers break off and cause premature wear. They did extensive testing on them in the Cat engines.

where does your friend work at, i just turned down a job offer for fork truck driver at caterpillar in decatur illinois. Got used to the traveling thing and being young, single, with no kids, i wanna have fun before im stuck in a factory somewhere hehe

Woulda took the job but it was "supplemental" no benefits untill your hired on as a full time employee and you can be layed off at any time. Still get in the union and get payed the same but F that supplemental crap. Reminds me of a temp service and both should be illegal

 

[maleko89]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

He works at the Cat shop here in Omaha.

 

[vmaxx05stud]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

i use 10-50 semi synethic yam. oil. it seems to work fairly well and shifts good. i used 20-50 and it was hard to shift.

 

[srx2002]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

I use Yamalube 4 -cycle 20-40 for the warmer temps, then the same only 10-30 for the cooler months. At least that's what my Factory service manual suggests

Any reason why it don't seem to be popular on this forum?

I use Yamalube 2 -stoke in my SRX. ( when temps dip below -30 deg. cel. ....it still flows better than most oils I have tried.......so I figure for 4-stroke....the guys at Yami applies the same principles when making the 4-stoke oils. )

P.S where I live ( Northern Canada ) snowmobiles are more popular than Cars, and every family got at least 2. All the Apex's, Venture's, VK professionals,Phazer, etc... all use the Yamalube 4 cycle .....highly recommended up here for cold weather and hard working wood hauling 4 strokes.

 

[Robbarrie]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

There is no reason at all, it's all personal preference. Bottom line. It's just like every stock Max is not exactly the same. There will always be slight differences. I bet ya that it's the same with what oil you run (within reason) I think it has more to do with how well someone maintains it and riding habbits will determine how many miles you'll get out of an engine.

 

[TheFleshRocket]

Re: What Oil Wieght & Type?

I run 10/40 - Just regular blend. I think it's better to change more often. Then use the good stuff longer. Everyone is different. It's my 2cents. I also run regular gas as well. No need to run premimum. If I'm not mistaken, the manual calls for 10/40.

I've run into a few people who have that mindset--use cheap dino oil and change it more often, instead of using synthetic and leaving it in longer.

That just plain doesn't make sense, unless you like abusing your engine, throwing your money away, and wasting time in the garage.

Synthetic oil protects better than dino oil. Period. It doesn't matter whether the synthetic is fresh or has 10,000 miles on it--it protects better than dino oil even if the dino oil came from a bottle fresh off the delivery truck. So using dino oil simply means you have to change it more often (it loses its additives and shears much more quickly than synthetic oil) and you're putting more wear and tear on your engine than you would be if you used synthetic.

Don't get me wrong, I don't really care what anyone runs in their bike. Hell, run it on vegetable oil for all I care. But it makes me want to bang my head on the wall when people think that using dino oil and changing it often is somehow comparable (or, God forbid, better) than using synthetic oil.

For the record, I use Mobil1 15W50 car oil, the 15K mile formula, in all of my bikes. My change intervals are around 7500 miles, although I'll go as high as 10K miles. I changed my GSX-R1000's oil after 7500 miles and sent in a sample to Blackstone Labs for testing. The oil came back with a little bit high aluminum count (momentary drops in oil pressure after wheelies caused that--rectified by raising the oil level a little) and a bit high on hydrocarbons (the bike likes to idle too low when cold and I think that the less-than-efficient combustion has resulted in a little of the unburned gas making it into the oil) but the oil still had plenty of additives left and the lab said that it could have been used for quite a bit longer.

 

[44 magnum]

Oil Change intervals and smooth shifts

Is it a pretty common thing with you guys to know by the way your Max shifts that it's time to change the oil? Other guys I ride with report the same thing so I'm guessing some if not many of you do too??

4gasem has me really thinking about this subject of oil.

By the way, I was thumbing through the manual last night and found that Yamaha recommends something like 8000 miles between oil/filter changes.

:surprise:
Sorry, but not with Yamalube in there. I'm not that brave.

 

[4gasem]

Re: Oil Change intervals and smooth shifts

Is it a pretty common thing with you guys to know by the way your Max shifts that it's time to change the oil? Other guys I ride with report the same thing so I'm guessing some if not many of you do too??

4gasem has me really thinking about this subject of oil.

By the way, I was thumbing through the manual last night and found that Yamaha recommends something like 8000 miles between oil/filter changes.

:surprise:
Sorry, but not with Yamalube in there. I'm not that brave.

Go to the VMF links above and check out the oil link I put in there... Pretty interesting read actually... Amazing how fast oil looses viscosity...:whistlin:

I don't go by the way it shifts... I go by mileage and at the rate I am going now I won't have to change it for 10 years...:bang head:

 

[44 magnum]

Re: Oil Change intervals and smooth shifts

Nah, I'm with you on changing oil via set milage. I was just wondering if anyone else could feel it shift differently like I do when it's time to change it.

I haven't checked out all the links, but that one you sent us a few weeks ago was excellent. I've poured over that one quite a bit and found it really helpful. I guess I was pretty much an Oil Dummy because that was the first I'd learned about oil "additive packages".

Good stuff man. :biglaugh: