should i use synthetic?

[GRU]

well my motor has just under 7K miles on it but i want preformance and protection....i was thinking about using mobil 1 syn 15W50 for cars or just castrol 10W40 non synthetic motorcycle oil....i live in a city with a lot of humidity and sometimes very hot...what should i do?

thanks

[tkm433]

well my motor has just under 7K miles on it but i want preformance and protection....i was thinking about using mobil 1 syn 15W50 for cars or just castrol 10W40 non synthetic motorcycle oil....i live in a city with a lot of humidity and sometimes very hot...what should i do?

thanks

Do not use the Mobil 1 for cars.  Mobil 1 makes some oil that are designed to work with motorcyles that have wet clutches such as the GS500.  

Most oils designed for use in cars have some additives that where not designed with a wet clutch in mind and might cause your clutch not to work as well.

Stick with oils designed for motorcycles and you should have no problems.

Mobil 1, Motul and others offer motorcycle specific oils.

[GRU]

ok thanks....the reason i asked is because a lot of people here said that they use motoroil for cars and i was suprised to here that....i like castrol (non synthetic) for cars and want to use it in my bike but castrol doesn't make good synthetic oil....mobil 1 has the best syn motoroil for cars so i thought about using it in my bike

[Kerry]

I've used 15W50 Mobil 1 auto oil year-round for all but the first 6,000 or so of my 30,000 miles.  Not saying it's the best, but it can't be all bad!

Note: The climate here in Utah is generally dry, but we experience somewhat extreme heat and cold during the year.  Orem is at an elevation of about 4,800 feet if that makes a difference.  Having said that ... about 10,000 of my miles were ridden elsewhere in the country....  :mrgreen:

[mp183]

I use Castrol 10W40 GTX.  GS shifts like a champ.  Better than my
DL 650.

[Frost]

kerry...is that car oil?

[Kerry]

kerry...is that car oil?

Yep - read again.  

[GaryIF]

For the 4,000 mile service on my 2001, I treated it to its first synthetic bath -- Red Line 10W-40.  It's applications include, explicitly, motorcycles and wet clutch use.  I've put a few hundred miles on the bike since and so far so good.  It shifts better, especially when cold (the beauty of synthetic is better flow when cold).

[Frost]

can anyone tell me...
WHY SYNTHETIC???

[MATTXR250R]

You can use Mobil-1 15W-50...but you need to get the 15W-50 that has the "RED CAP".  The Red cap doesn't have any friction modifiers at all and alot of guys that ride dirt bikes use it..I use it in the transmission on my CR250R.  It is a bit thick though which would be fine I think for summer but might be a bit to thick in the winter where it might not offer as much start up protection as the oil will be thicker when its colder.

Mobil-1 also makes a 4-stroke motorcyle oil...its called Mobil-1 MX4T...that will work to but the RED CAP i mentioned above will be just fine.

[Frost]

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

[gsJack]

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

That's my favorite write up on motorcycle oils.  I used the 15W-50 Mobil 1 in my 97 for about 70k miles and then switched to 15W-40 Delvac 1300 after reading this article and others like it.  My 97 GS runs cooler on the Delvac than it did on the Mobil 1 and will run on a lower grade of gasoline w/o pinging under load in hot weather.  Using the Delvac in both bikes now.  About $6-7 a GALLON at any Walmart.

[Mike Harman]

Has anyone ever commented about Suzuki 4-stroke oil? Good, bad, indifferent? My local dealer has it for $2.50/qt.

[ignoreance]

I forget what  rider mag (Cycle News?) did a cut on oils the other (aug 03 ? ) month but they said moble  1 works fine and infact it had the best  heat controll of all the oils the only thing was it broke down quicker  it also had a rather high moly count but not much higher than OEM Honda recomended oil you make your  choices even with all the add ins  its still better than standard oil  for motorcycles or just mix  a bottle of  moble 1 with  Motorcycle Synthetic and get the best of both worlds thats what I do.

[jake42]

i've used castrol syntec 10w40 in both my bikes without any probs. And the one is 35 years old.

Jake

[Frost]

do synthetic oil last longer??
how often do i have to change for synthetic?

[Frost]

so...GRU...what did you end up choosing??

[chupacabrah]

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

That's my favorite write up on motorcycle oils.  I used the 15W-50 Mobil 1 in my 97 for about 70k miles and then switched to 15W-40 Delvac 1300 after reading this article and others like it.  My 97 GS runs cooler on the Delvac than it did on the Mobil 1 and will run on a lower grade of gasoline w/o pinging under load in hot weather.  Using the Delvac in both bikes now.  About $6-7 a GALLON at any Walmart.

I picked up some of that stuff (delvac).   $5.88/gallon.
gonna slap it in there sometime soon.

The mobil 1 15w50 red cap is like $5/QUART.  screw that.

of course, it's highly arguable, and there's never really a "best", but what are you guys' favorite engine oils?
mobil?   is the shell rotella t any better?  all the same?  haha

[Frost]

how often do you guys change synthetic oil??

[GRU]

i didn't change my oil yet...i have about 150 KM on new but cheap oil so i wanna put in better stuff.....i'm probobly not gonna use synthetic


yeah frost, synthetic lasts longer