What kind of engine oil

[gsJack]

Mr. Jack! Hi............I've never heard of Delvac oil..........you say I can buy it at Wally World?.....7 bucks a gallon sounds great to me.
So it has never presented you any probs in the GS? Do you use it in your Autos as well? Thanks, Wilson

Young Mr W, I chose the Mobil Delvac 1300 because I saw it regularly available everywhere in this area.  It comes in a rectangular shaped black gallon jug with tapered sides.  The Shell Rotella is also available by the quart and is a bit more expensive bought that way but I have grabbed a couple when I wanted to take a quart with on a trip. These oils are available from many sources including Walmarts own brand but I'll stick with the Delvac, cheap enough for me and easily obtained.

From the Mike Guillory article refered to above:

"Heavy-Duty Oils

My favorite oils and the ones I most mostly recommend for motorcycle use, are the "heavy-duty" oils. They are commonly misunderstood, and often referred to as "diesel oils." They are NOT energy conserving, have higher zinc levels, as high as 0.16%, and by virtue of their multi-duty have a better engine protection package than an oil that is only rated "SL". These heavy-duty oils are rated SJ or SL, plus CH-4. They are currently closer in formulation to the motorcycle specific oils and to the "SG" oils that many motorcycle makers recommend. Following are some examples of these oils, generally 15w40 oils by industry convention. There may be several other 15w40 oils that I am not familiar with.

Castrol RX Super 15w40
Chevron Delo 400 15w40
Mobil Delvac 1300 Super 15w40
Pennzoil Long-Life 15w40
Quaker State 4X4 Synthetic Blend 15w40
Shell Rotella-T 15w40 (my personal favorite)
SuperTech 2000 (WalMart) 15w40
Valvoline All Fleet 15w40
Castrol Syntec Blend Truck and 4X4 15w40"

I see there is a 10W-30 available now but I use only the 15W-40 in the bikes.  I quit changing my own car oil a few years ago and since we traded our old 94 Buick Century with 150k+ miles on it for a 04 Elantra with a 10yr 100k mile warranty, I've been getting the oil changed at the dealer.  Don't know what oil they use, but they are cheaper than the quick oil change places and take care of other little things at same time.  We get a new car every ten years whether we need it or not.  :lol:

[toole2go]

I use Mobil 1 in my car and it is a little bit on the expensive side but hell it's only $20 for every six months. I pay more than that every time I fill my tank and I'm not complaining.

Question... is Mobil 1 a bad choice for the GS and must I get the motorcycle blend? According to the link posted above the article recommended not to use it...

For years Mobil One 15w50 has been a favorite of motorcyclists. In recent years it has gone from its original formulation to an improved SJ "TriSynthetic", and more recently as SL "SuperSyn." several of us have received conflicting information on this new "flavor" of Mobil One, but the consensus appears to be that the new SuperSyn has additional friction modifiers and may no longer be a good choice for motorcycles. However, I have heard from several VFR owners still using it with favorable results. Therefore, YMMV. Mobil naturally recommends their motorcycle Mobil One.

[FearedGS500]

i use amsoil or maxima  . i'd like to run motul i'v heard that stuff is out standing .. but at 10-15 a court ...... its a bit out of my range

[toole2go]

k.. digging into the Mobil 1 it looks like the heavy favourites for bikes were 15w50 (sometimes quoted redcap because of the red cap on the bottles) till around mid 2005 when they switched formulas. They dropped the 15w50 out of the main Mobil 1 lines and created a new Extended Performance line where they dumped the 15w50 as well as a new 10w40(which for my gs is the recommended weight).  The formula has changed slightly but they did not put any energy conserving additives (the rest of the mobil 1 lines have energy conserving additives GF-4 which causes slippage issues to clutches).  Now I've had posts where people were fine with the new EP 15w50 but the article above mentions to avoid it?

Also I noticed people were having higher temps with the 15w50 even with the redcaps for the gs (maybe because of the 50 weight instead of the 40 that's recommended?) So far I haven't found anyone that used the new 10w40 EP...

Did I get all of that correct?

So I've decided on using the ol dino Shell Rotella-T 15w40 till maybe my next change where I'll try the Mobil 1 EP 10w40 (so I'll be able to tell if the oil makes a difference..)