Tech Tips

Motorcycle Oil, myth and facts

I think there are more urban legends about internal combustion motor lubrication than any other topic. Urban legends like; A racer I know uses this so I should too, This is the motor oil my dad used so I will too, This product is more money so it must be better, I heard on TV that this oil is the best so I am going to use it, You can use car oil in your motorcycle, etc, etc, etc.

This article is also about your warranty. To keep your warranty, there are things you should do, for example, change the oil at recommended internals. And things you should avoid, like using oil additives. The owner's manual says what is required to keep your warranty in effect and that's what you should do. However, read on if you wish to know more.

Oil in a modern motorcycle engine does many things, like cool engine parts, lubricate metal to metal surfaces, even collect metal shavings and carry them to the filter. Modern engines are very complex and like most things in life these days, are far beyond the comprehension of the layman. Modern engine and oil technology has evolved for the last 30 years at break neck speed, involving thousands of people dedicating millions of man-hours to arriving at a carefully orchestrated balance. You see, engine manufactures are not oil experts, and oil experts are not engine experts. Plus, each industry has individual objectives, motivations, and political issues. Many separate groups with years of input developed the consumer oils and engines of today. Because of this standards were born, and everybody in the motorcycle industry knows the standards. For motor oils, the standards are SG, SE, SC, etc. and provide the minimum accepted standards for motor oils. Motorcycle engine designers build engines that use the oil standards. So you do need to select the proper oil for your motorcycle, as car/truck engines use different oils than motorcycles. But you can use ANY brand oil that meets the standard required by your motorcycle manufacture. The required type of oil is in your owner's manual.

So now you know which oil you need to fulfill the minimum warranty requirements. But, you think, that is the minimum, what if I run oil that is better than the standard? OK, good question. But first, I need to know what is a "better" oil. Better in terms of what? Better due to: lower emissions, better protection in metal to metal surfaces, longer lasting in terms of viscosity-retention, more consistent viscosity through use, better flow through small passages, improved heat conductivity, improved ability to pick up metal shavings, ability to carry metal impurities to the filter, better density, improved , lower sulfur content, and on and on. There are literally hundreds of considerations when selecting an oil other than recommended by the motorcycle manufacturer. Most of the time, when you try to improve one aspect of an oil another aspect is reduced.

A good example for consideration is racing. When track racing a motorcycle, several things occur that do not normally occur. First, special things are done to a race engine that are not done to street engines so they have different requirements. Second, race engines are run in the higher RPMs - much higher than street riding so there is a lot of pressure and the engines also get hotter. Third, racing is done in controlled circumstances, usually on warm days, with the engines carefully inspected before each race. Fourth, after the race the oil is changed right away - not at very 3,000 miles. And racers are willing to forgo oil properties that lengthen the life of the engine because the engine is only used for a few races, one season at the most. The oils they choose do not offer as much protection, are usually single weight because they do not start their bike in 40 degree temperatures, and do everything to minimize friction and improve engine power. So racers have different priorities from street riders. Street riders typically want to prevent premature engine wear and would like to wait 3,000 miles before changing the oil instead of changing the oil every time they ride. Therefore, the oil for a racer is not a good choice for a street rider. The bottom line is if you mess with type of oil you are running in your motorcycle, you had better know what you are doing and not blindly accept advise from less informed people.

Another thing to keep in mind is that oils have changed many times in the last twenty years. So if you happen to find a drum of oil from 30 years ago, do not think you have hit pay dirt and use the oil in your modern engine. Along the same line, do not trust 20 year old advice or published reports from more than 15 years ago.

At Rapid Cycle, we carry many different brands and types of motorcycle oils to suit your riding and engine requirements. We are experts at the Hyosung brand of motorcycles and will be able to recommend many different options for you.

Oil additives are generally a bad idea. All the additives needed for your motorcycle are in the oil so don't add more. Additional additives can block oil passages and foul spark plugs. Plus, there is a lot of scientific evidence that points out the additives can harm your engine. In fact, DuPont recommends against using Teflon in engines but many oil additives contain the same ingredient.

In closing, let me clarify a couple of other urban legends. Synthetic oils are better in many ways to the petroleum-based oils. Synthetic oils are fine to run in your motorcycle once PAST the break in period. Do not run synthetic oil during the break in period. After the break in, many people are happy with synthetics oils, especially if the extend oil change intervals or they ride the bike harder than most people. The synthetics will last longer and it is OK to extend the oil change interval.

Some people say it is OK to run car engine oil in their motorcycle and maybe at some point in the past, this may have worked. But let's think about what they are doing. Cars and trucks have separate oil for the engine and transmission, motorcycles have the same oil for both. When you look at the oil requirements for engines and transmissions, you see that the engine uses very little oil and the transmission uses a lot - so much that the transmission is flooded with it to the point on keeping the gears in the oil. The engine on the other hand, has small oil channels that carry oil to specific points that do not use much oil at all. The motorcycle uses the same oil for both and considering the volume of oil used for the transmission, it would have been better to use car transmission oil for the motorcycle, so why do they say to use the ENGINE oil? Plus, a lot of the stress placed on oil is from the meshing of gears, which happens in the transmission and hardly ever in the engine. So why do some people say it's OK to run the car's ENGINE oil in a motorcycle when it seems like it should be the car's transmission fluid. And if you run the car's engine oil in a motorcycle, why can't you run the car's engine oil in the car's transmission - that's what they are doing to the motorcycle. How many people do you know that run the same oil in their car's motor and transmission? I think it is a very bad idea to run car's engine oil in a car's transmission. So why do people say it is OK to do it in a motorcycle?

The last thing I will mention is that Rapid Cycle offers for sale the oil analysis kits from AMSOIL. We have mentioned these kits in other issues of this newsletter and they are very useful in "seeing" what is happening inside your engine. For example, let's say you run racing type oil in your bike and after riding 3,00 miles decide to do an oil test. The oil test may show elevates levels of aluminum and iron. Elevated levels of these metals would indicate higher than normal wear inside your engine. For example, the iron may indicate that your rings are wearing faster that then they should. Next time somebody gives you advise about motorcycles oils, and they recommend something different than your owners manual, ask them if they follow their own advice and if they do, ask them if they have a done an oil analysis on their bike. If not, then they probabily do not have any evidence to support their opinion.