Best Oil To USE??????

What is the best oil to use on an 82 maxim 650?? people have sayed that castrol GTX would be a good oil to use?? what do you all think

 

I would think it is. Personally I use Valvoline 20-50 Motorcycle Specific but then I like Valvoline. Youngest Daughter likes Castrol. More a matter of individual preference than anything else.

 

This topic has been going around and around and around (you get the idea) on another forum that I watch. I finally went out to the oil company sites myself and did a little poking around.

I learned that:

The oil companies have been forced to remove zinc and one other important element from their automotive oils in order to meet federal emission standards.

The companies did NOT remove these critical compounds from their motorcycle products

These compounds are especially critical for air cooled wet clutch motorcycles.

I am water cooled with a dry clutch and I will still run the motorcycle oils ONLY.

FWIW

Loren

 

Yeah there's now a difference between good ol' Castrol GTX that USED to be great for cars and bikes and Castrol 4T for motorcycles.

I would definitely stick to actual "motorcycle" oil from here on out.

I run Spectro 20W40 (conventional, not synth) or Castrol 4T 20W50 now.

 

I use Royal Purple synthetic in my XJ specifically made for motorcycles/ATVs. I like it and it works great. More miles between oil changes too.

 

Ooooh? did they change Royal Purple to synthetic ? It was Not... last time I checked.. Not that it matters though, it's still good but pricey oil :lol:

 

Okay, now you have me wondering about the synthetics. I was told by a bike mechanic not to use synthetic oils in our "vintage" bikes, I forgot the exact reason but I think he said it was because it does nasty things to our wet clutches. does anyone know more or care to explain?

 

Not to horribly simplify the process, but while making gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, they boil crude oil and put the enclosed, pressurized steam into towers. They collect the heavy, long molecules of oil in the lower sections.

Motor oil is made from many different lengths and kinds of molecules.
It's basically made from leftovers.

Synthetic oils (supposedly) are made from natural gas using some catalyst, producing an ideal length molecular chain with better properties than the worst molecules in "regular" oil. These bad molecules oxidize, roast in valve guides and ring lands, and turn to sludge.

But- - we can't get 25,000 miles out of synthetic in a bike engine due to gear shear, so we have to drain that expensive oil on a regular basis anyway.

 

I started riding in '71. I had never lost an engine in all those years, no matter what I was riding. Couple years ago I blew the engine on my '01 Triumph Thunderbird Sport. The original owner had used Castrol Semi-Synthetic and I followed suit. Lost the engine with only 35K on it. ;^(

 

Synth OR Dino oils is irrelevant as long as it's Intended for Moto Uses (clutch issues mainly but there may be more currently)
Regular changes are Key though.
IMO I suspect the Triumph failure may have been the result of the errr 'British Craftsmanship' as much as anything.

 

Synthetic Motorcycle oils are Ok as long as they are JASO MA rated (not JASO MB) as they are specifically designed to avoid the clutch slippage..high heat etc. to know more visit this link.
http://www.maxim-x.com/oil_change.html

 

thanks littlegiant, that article was very enlightening for me, it explained everything I wanted to know and gave me more info than I thought I wanted to know.

 

TIME is right though, a lot of the advantages of synthetics are offset by the other reasons we have for doing more frequent oil changes.

Motorcycle synthetics seem to be QUITE expensive, kind of a double-whammy. I'm also not so sure about changing from conventional to synthetic after your clutch has been bathing in (and soaked up quite a bit of) conventional oil. If I were to even consider switching (which I'm not) it would have to be right after a clutch rebuild for me to feel good about it.

I'm sticking with dinosaur juice.

 

See I have to do the clutch in my bike, and theirs so many oils, I just didn't know if regular motor oil like GTX would hurt my clutch "WET SYSTEM" I'm going to have to stop over and talk to the guy that I got it off of, becasue I'm kinda wondering what he used in it, but I've really noticed that all the oils have turned in to water almost, I've been running kendall in my trucks because I refuse to buy anything else anymore, and I run Brad penn "GREEN MOTOR OIL" in my race cars, I don't know but with them taking stuff out of the oils it's going to be crazy whats going to start happening to all motors

 

I missed the part about having race cars. . .
If you spin wrenches, you could buy 6 washers and shim the clutch springs and that will help you out until you can sort out a better clutch.

Use the search feature and look at other oil threads.
Don't use friction modifiers.

 

Just looked up "GREEN MOTOR OIL"

http://www.matternetwork.com/2008/7/get ... or-oil.cfm
http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20071106 ... vironment/

It turns to - - "SOIL?" - - dirt? and wouldn't the suspended contaminants ruin your vegetable garden, if you disposed of it there?

I was also looking up Lucas oil on the Dixie Chopper site - -makes the motor run 15 * cooler than Ams-Oil ?? Lucas makes motorcycle compatible conventional oil. How well does that work with our starter clutch? You think Lucas would make an XJ run 15* cooler?