Engine oil, Car Vs. Bike

Read the article about the oils being somewhat interchangeable
(http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=.
au)
but dont know what to do in my specific case. I have some Castrol GTX3 SAE
15W40 SL/CF class leftover from when I changed my car oil. The motorbike is
asking for SE or SF class (apparently inferior according to the conclusion
in the above linked article??) SAE 10W40, 10W50, 20W40 or 20W50.

So the weight seems right, but is SL/CF class able to be used where the
apparently inferior SE/SF class is asked for?

Google wasnt of alot of us.

Thanks, Alex Kelly.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sun, 29 Aug 2004 15:50:23 +1000

It never hurts to use later model oil.

As long as it's dino oil - not synthetic - if you have been using
non-synthetic before.

In other words, don't use synthetic in a bike that's had non-synthetic
oil unless you change the oil filter and flush the system.

Otherwise, if the weight is close enough, and it seems to be, go for it.

Oil quality isn't as important as frequent changes, You can use
whatever you like as long as you change it early and often.

Zebee

 

I went down this road recently, and ended up by sending an email to
Castrol. Basically, I wanted to standardize on oils, rather than having
one kind for the car, another for the K100, and different one for the XV
and another for the GS (yeah yeah yeah - I know - I OVER emphasising).

My concern was the wet clutch on the XV and the GS. I got a responding
phone call from a tech at Castrol (very impressed with the promptness
and personal approach to the customer) who informed me that NONE of the
Castrol oils now have friction modifiers in them. HOWEVER, for wet
clutches in motorcycles, they do not recommend going anything above an
SG class oil. That means that the GTX-2 and GTX-3 products are a no-no.

---
Cheers

PeterC [aka MildThing]
'81 Suzuki GS450-s
'87 BMW K100RT

www.dmcsc.org.au

 

Not according to the Castrol tech, when it comes to wet clutches.

Agreed. I'd rather use Type-X oil that is half the price of Type-Y, and
change it twice as often.

---
Cheers

PeterC [aka MildThing]
'81 Suzuki GS450-s
'87 BMW K100RT

www.dmcsc.org.au

 

and did they say why not ???

 

Well..... beat this..... a guy came into my shop today and bought oil for
his mower. HE selected Mobil 1 (the TRUE fully synthetic Mobil 1 10w-30,
not the semi-synth 5w-50 stuff) @ $100 a bottle!!
Just a little bit of overkil you think?

Justin

 

you didn't inform him that mowers use straight 30 ??

 

check the BWM site , it actually explains why their oil is better ,
things like additional ashing properties etc .. the Motor Cycle oil does
actually work better in the graphs they display .

 

Depends if you are using Optimax or not.

Aaron
ZX6R

 

You'll find those graphs are made by marketing people, not engineers.

 

My favourite is graphs that don't start at 0.

Almost useless.

Aaron
ZX6R

 

\

I doubt they are far from the mark , this is from the land of anal
engineers remember .

 

.... because his owners manual stated he had to use a 10w-30, so that's all
he wanted to even look at.

 

Virtually spot free.

Hammo

 

That's one seet runnin mower! haha, kick ass!

Cam

 

Not useless. They can be craftily misleading.

Moike

 

I have been using regular unleaded so far...

Can anyone tell me the differences between the various classes of oil, or
link me to a chart that explains it?

Cant find much info on it, thanks for your help so far.

 

*sigh*

 

http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/Oils1.html
http://www.gunsmoke.com/scot/k12/sj_oil.html
http://www.micapeak.com/info/oiled.html
http://www.xs11.com/stories/mcnoil94.shtml
http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/oiltest1.htm
http://www.chrislonghurst.com/carbibles/engineoil_bible.html

 

try this one instead of the last one

http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbibles/engineoil_bible.html