Where is the best place to good value engine oil

[asung]

I think I paid $12 for 4 quarts of motorcycle specific engine oil.  Is that too pricy?

[scratch]

Nope, that's about right for motorcycle specific oil.

[The Buddha]

I buy 74 cent  :mrgreen:  old car spec oil at walmart. 10W40...made for cars built    before 1990...SF rated...good stuff...No SG, SH, SJ...etc...comes wiht a warning...using it in cars made after 90 will clog up  :guns:  emissions and other sensors...Like it...love it... :kiss:
Cool.
Srinath.

[TheGoodGuy]

that's still cheaper that what i saw at cyclegear.

I just use plain old dino oil Castrol GTX (Heavy Duty) or the Exxon/Mobil stuff.

Costs me 10 bucks for the oil and filter.. I just did it last weekend.. its running good..

[The Buddha]

If you use 20-50 castrol...here is a twist...Walmart has bike specific castrol...for ~10 cents more.
Here is another question...has anyone tried chain saw oil...not in the bike just felt it and tried it...How is it, and how does it stand up to heat and pressure...
Just want to know.
Cool.
Srinath.

[Adam Fraser]

Do you mean bar oil, it is sticky and somewhat thick.  It is not made to stand up to pressure because all it does is seep onto the bar when cutting to lubricate the chain.

[pizzleboy]

Motorcycle oil has low frothing agents in it, sue to the higher revs bikes reach.  It also has clutch saving things in it.

Don't ask me what they are called, but that's why it's "motorcycle" oil.

[KevinC]

According to the Sport Cycle analysis of 20 some oils, motorcycle oils have nothing special at all in them. The mtorycle oils vary all over the map on contents, and so do car oils. There isn't anything in the car oils that will hurt the clutch, just as there is nothing in the motorcycle oils to protect it.

Mobil 15W-50 synthetic car oil still looks like the best stuff out there.

[glenn9171]

I use Castrol Syntec Blend 10W-40 and I have had no problems.  About $2.25 per quart at Wal-Mart.

[The Buddha]

The new car and motorcycle oils are all pretty much made to car specs. Why??...volume. Car oil sales out paces bike oil sales by what...a conservative 100 to 1. They dont bother making anything different, cos it takes effort and research and changing a lot of things to make it possibly...and after all bikes are slowly being built like cars too like sensors everywhere, catalytic converters...They also figure bikers tend to change the oil more often and so the same old car stuff would be OK. So most of the bike oil manufacturers put all their technology into the bottle. There are studies and crap...but SJ oil is SJ oil and makes no diff if its car or bike. The newer that rating (further in the alphabet) is the more protective it is of your delicate sensors...You know the delicate sensore in the GS...BTW My O2 sensor didn't care when I had it in the pipe...but there is more sensors in a car or newer bike.
That lead me to start searching car/hot rod/antique cars and leads me to a VW bus site...and guess what...they use straight 30 wt oil or 40 or 50 with SF rating...and they buy it at walmart. The Accel SF rated oil is for pre 90 cars with no delicate sensors...and it comes out of the bottle virtually black. Has so much additives and friction modifiers in it. The old cra/hot rod/antique crowd has more clout in the market than the bikers do...and the technology is there...they dont have to do anything but mix it and market it. So we got numbers and laziness going for it. Love it.
Cool.
Srinath.

[DavidGS]

I have an RX7. Oil is critical to it's longevity. We have done extensive studies on oil, filters, etc.

What we found was that Valvoline and Mobile1 were much higher quality oils than Castrol and the discount oils. I would never use Castrol in my bike now. In my 929, I use Mobile1 full synthetic ($18.88 for a 5 quart container at Walmart). For the GS, I use what I use in my race RX7 - Valvoline Max Life 10w-40 ($9.xx for a 5 quart container at Walmart).

A very close friend of mine (who rides a 954), tests motor oils for a living. He says that his test showed the same thing. He recommended that I use the Mobile1 for the 929 and the Valvoline for the GS also.

[The Buddha]

Oh..Valvoline and mobil huh...OK. Valvoline 60 wt was in my GS for a while (yes hot California desert summers).
Hey would you/he know anything about the stuff called Lucas Oil stabilizer.
Cool.
Srinath.

[KevinC]

Srinath,

The Sport Bike chemical analysis of the oils didn't show anything to protect sensors, or the lack of anything either (down to the parts per million). Mobil's bike oil oil is different than their car oil, but it still was witin the range of ingredients of the car oils, and didn't seem as good as the 15W-50 car stuff in some ways.

Straight weight oils will cause a lot of wear during start-up of a street vehicle. They are just too thick to pump decently in a cold engine.

There is so much disinformation about oils.

Castrol's oils, both bike and car, were some of the better performing ones.

[dmp221]

My buddy has a Ducati, and uses nothing but extra-virgin olive oil in it...works great!!!    

[The Buddha]

Srinath,

The Sport Bike chemical analysis of the oils didn't show anything to protect sensors, or the lack of anything either (down to the parts per million). Mobil's bike oil oil is different than their car oil, but it still was witin the range of ingredients of the car oils, and didn't seem as good as the 15W-50 car stuff in some ways.

Straight weight oils will cause a lot of wear during start-up of a street vehicle. They are just too thick to pump decently in a cold engine.

There is so much disinformation about oils.

Castrol's oils, both bike and car, were some of the better performing ones.

To protect sensors...Well they are comparing one Proctective sensor oil to another proctective sensor oil...why would it be different...
They should be comparing say 1985 spec...Amsoil or who ever else made synthetics around then to 2003 Mobil 1. I have a can (yes a round can) of 1985 amsoil I can volunteer for the experiment. Zinc/copper etc create ashy smoke when burnt and that clogs up the sensors...well till you step on the gas anyway and then it flies away...But maybe they dont step on the gas in the tests.
Cool.
Srinath.

[pizzleboy]

Happy 100th post to me...happy 100th post to meeeEEEEee....

ANyways, I'm glad I looked at this thread.  I'm tired of paying for Bike oil.  Valvoline max life from here on in.

[brandiwine]

is the Valvoline Max Life 10w-40 synthetic?  i'm not sure unless it tells me on the bottle...and, can you mix regular oil bought from the suzuki dealership with the Valvoline Max Life 10w-40.  my bike burns a bit of oil and i had to add a quart today so i was wondering if the next time i had to top it off it if i could start switching to the Valvoline?  

i have a feeling this is going to be a big   .

[KevinC]

To protect sensors...Well they are comparing one Proctective sensor oil to another proctective sensor oil...why would it be different...
Srinath.

So you are saying the motorcycle oils all are formulated for "sensor protection" too? All the oils Sport Rider tested had various amount of phosphorous and zinc, and some of both the auto and motorcycle oils had moly.

The only real additive change with newer spec oils is the maximum allowable phosphorous content has been lowered from 0.12 % to 0.10 % for automotive SJ oils. Both the auto and motorcycle oils SR tested had closer to 0.01% phosphorous. Silkolene Comp 4, Yamalune and Honda HP4 actually hav the lowest levels of phosphorous, way below the auto SJ rating restriction.

The article indicated that new oil colour is usually the result of dyes and not additives.

The synthetics all had better heat stability than the dino oils (except Castrol GPS dino outperformed the Belray EXS synthetic). From their limited testing (4 oils only, expensive test), it looks like the synthetics survive shearing (like in a motorcycle trnasmission) better than the dino oils, although the Motil 300V 5W-40 synthetic was as bad as the Valvoline 10W-40 auto dino oil for viscosity breakdown.

Mobil 1 15W-50 auto oil looked pretty good overall, and is probably the best performance/$.

[The Buddha]

To protect sensors...Well they are comparing one Proctective sensor oil to another proctective sensor oil...why would it be different...
Srinath.

So you are saying the motorcycle oils all are formulated for "sensor protection" too? All the oils Sport Rider tested had various amount of phosphorous and zinc, and some of both the auto and motorcycle oils had moly.

The only real additive change with newer spec oils is the maximum allowable phosphorous content has been lowered from 0.12 % to 0.10 % for automotive SJ oils. Both the auto and motorcycle oils SR tested had closer to 0.01% phosphorous. Silkolene Comp 4, Yamalune and Honda HP4 actually hav the lowest levels of phosphorous, way below the auto SJ rating restriction.

The article indicated that new oil colour is usually the result of dyes and not additives.

The synthetics all had better heat stability than the dino oils (except Castrol GPS dino outperformed the Belray EXS synthetic). From their limited testing (4 oils only, expensive test), it looks like the synthetics survive shearing (like in a motorcycle trnasmission) better than the dino oils, although the Motil 300V 5W-40 synthetic was as bad as the Valvoline 10W-40 auto dino oil for viscosity breakdown.

Mobil 1 15W-50 auto oil looked pretty good overall, and is probably the best performance/$.

No I am not saying motorcycle oils are formulated for sensor protection...I am saying the Car oils are being re badged for Motorcycles. Moly is also added for almost the same reason as Zinc isn't it...to prevent the bearings from galling and scoring...Yea motorcycle oil basically is the same damn thing as car oil. That's all I am saying. I'd like to see something in motorcycle oil that isn't there in a car oil...please. If they all have .01% phosphorous when you can have 10 times that...why dont they have 10 times that. And in bike oil why not as much as is right for a bike...Nope...too hard to make and just .001% of the business...makes it non profitable.
Color in the newer oils is dyes and coloring...makes sense why Mobil1 is greenish, valvoline is reddish and pennzoil is clear (or as close to it)...The oil I am refering to is old...not re formulated to oil specs (well the 75 cent walmart oil is that - its Accel BTW the make) but I have oil from 1985 and its black...so not refering to the varying shades of clear the new oils have...I am refering to color strong enough to stain your shirt and never go in old oil...and remarkably the same color in re formulated to old specs oil. That after millions of advertising dollars have been spent with Football players wiping off oil pans and smearing it under their eyes convincing people that clear oil is better...If they could make it smell less or look better they would have...its black...like the oil you drain from the motor after 3000 miles.
Bottom line is...Bike oils are different from car oils in the sense that their bottles are different, and Older oil (SF or SE spec) is better for the bike. Yes synthetic is better than dino too when comparing SH to SH, and one SH oil is nearly the same as another SH oil be it car or bike.
That's it.
Cool.
Srinath.

[sprint_9]

Ive got Vavoline Race Oil in my GS. I run 20w50 and have had not troubles. I read a report on this that race oil is probley not a bad choice because of the additives in it. I also like Mobil 1 15w50 but that stuff is dam expensive.