Engine Oils

[madhav krishna]

Shell advance VSX4 - made entirely from group 3 base stock(severely hydro treated mineral oil) and they call it a blend or semi synthetic when it is actually a highly refined mineral oil and contains nothing synthetic!(currently using this one in my R15. i did some digging after i found that the engine got rough after 1000 or so kms. and found these facts!)

Shell advance Ultra - made from group 3 and 5 base stocks("blend of severely hydro treated slack wax and synthetic esters"). it is actually a blend or semi synth in technical terms and they call it Full synthetic!

Mobil 1 Full synthetic - made from group 4 base stocks(PAO) and qualifies as a full synthetic. but unfortunately this oil is not formulated for motorcycles

Motul 300V FL - Made from group 5 base stocks or esters. qualifies as a true synthetic.

God knows what power one Racing and agip FS are made from. i couldnt get their Technical data sheets. Agip is most probably a blend of group 3 and 4 base stocks. but i'm sure it is better than CP1R. and gotta appreciate Shell, Motul and Mobil for providing the Material Safety Data Sheet and Techical Data Sheet of their oils.

for those who find the 300v evaporating fast, try a higher viscosity grade.

I was planning to use the shell VSX in my bike & now you have turned me down on it. I had always thought that the shell VSX is a Semi synthetic oil. Anyways thanks for sharing the info with us.

BTW are you sure on what you had said about AGIP FS oil?? Do you have any sheet like the one you have provided for the shell VSX??

Thanks a lot Fatility..ive been using MOTUL and wanted to try out SHELL...now im back to MOTUL


@all i have a query
FZ's recommended grade is 20W40 for Mineral...so will i be able to use a w50 sem syhth?

I wouldnt recommend it. If you use a much thicker oil than the one recommended then you can face a few problems. In a few rare cases you oil pump can be jammed. You might have morning starting troubles since the thicker oil might find difficult in flowing.

[FATAL1TY - X]

Thanks a lot Fatility..ive been using MOTUL and wanted to try out SHELL...now im back to MOTUL


@all i have a query
FZ's recommended grade is 20W40 for Mineral...so will i be able to use a w50 sem syhth?

try and stick to the w40 grade oil. what madhav have said about the flow problem is entirely true. the thicker the oil is, the lower the flow.

I was planning to use the shell VSX in my bike & now you have turned me down on it. I had always thought that the shell VSX is a Semi synthetic oil. Anyways thanks for sharing the info with us.

BTW are you sure on what you had said about AGIP FS oil?? Do you have any sheet like the one you have provided for the shell VSX??


I wouldnt recommend it. If you use a much thicker oil than the one recommended then you can face a few problems. In a few rare cases you oil pump can be jammed. You might have morning starting troubles since the thicker oil might find difficult in flowing.

agip do provide datasheets. but the details are limited. it says that it has synthetics as base stocks, but fails to provide which group. any ways it will be a group 4 oil most probably because of the price point. ester based oils cost much more than PAO based. yes it will be a synthetic.

and vsx is not such a bad oil. it just requires a shorter drain interval. i personally use it in my R15. it looses viscosity within 2000kms and it requires changing before 3000kms. engine runs cooler too i think. never had the radiator fan turned on after all these 1600kms on that oil(which shows it higher flow rate than the other oils i've used. this is partly because of its viscosity loss. i guess some additives also has something to do with it). it can be called as a high quality mineral oil than a semi. and the price is not as high as other real semi synths like motul 5100.

[RanjithMN]

I wouldnt recommend it. If you use a much thicker oil than the one recommended then you can face a few problems. In a few rare cases you oil pump can be jammed. You might have morning starting troubles since the thicker oil might find difficult in flowing.

try and stick to the w40 grade oil. what madhav have said about the flow problem is entirely true. the thicker the oil is, the lower the flow.

Thanks for the response guys.
I have always been very particular about using the recommend grade and have never used anything else from W40 in my FZ.
Now W40 is the recommended MINERAL GRADE...recently i read somewhere around here that for a W40 Mineral recommend engines its fine to use W50 semi-synthetic...hence popped the question.

BTW how important is the Shelf Life?MOTUL doesn't guarantee for their oils with more than 2 years of shelf life...and most of the MOTUL 10W40 smei syth around my place are around dusty 2 year old stock

[FATAL1TY - X]

Thanks for the response guys.
I have always been very particular about using the recommend grade and have never used anything else from W40 in my FZ.
Now W40 is the recommended MINERAL GRADE...recently i read somewhere around here that for a W40 Mineral recommend engines its fine to use W50 semi-synthetic...hence popped the question.

BTW how important is the Shelf Life?MOTUL doesn't guarantee for their oils with more than 2 years of shelf life...and most of the MOTUL 10W40 smei syth around my place are around dusty 2 year old stock

thicker oil lasts longer because it evaporates much slower because it flows less. i think you guys know a user named "svjhonda"(rob in orkut) in xbhp. he said once that his w50 300v lasted for 5000kms. while drainig there still where around 700-800 ml oil left in the sump. running a grade higher is(in this case w50 instead of w40) okay in most cases because there will be sufficient flow because the oil passages and pumps can handle flows higher than what manufacturers say. but that is not recommended. the problem is a higher grade oil will be thicker when cold than a lower grade oil. and its when during cold startups that a higher grade oil poses most threat. and it is also at that time when most low quality oils fail to do their job. so when using a higher grade oil make sure to use the best quality oils(for eg full synthetics)

i've read that shelf life for most petroleum based oils are 3 years. but the non petroleum(ester) based oils might have a lower shelf life.

[madhav krishna]

BTW how important is the Shelf Life?MOTUL doesn't guarantee for their oils with more than 2 years of shelf life...and most of the MOTUL 10W40 smei syth around my place are around dusty 2 year old stock

I had once called the AGIP guys about enquiring the shelf life of oil since i had brought an oil of 2007 in the june of this month. They told me that the oil has an infinite life until the seal of the bottle is not open & any moisture or dirt doesnt enter it. When i had used it i felt no difference in the performance & it was performing as it was earlier.

[RanjithMN]

Thanks for the response Fatility and Madhav!
@Madhav
yeah even i use to beleive that the oil is all good unless its open but the following is what got me thinking

What is oil shelf life ?
Motul is ISO 9001 certified and according to our quality procedure, Motul products are guaranteed for 2 years after the production date. To be sure, we keep one sample of each produced batch and check it from time to time during 2 years. After 2 years we have no experience therefore we cannot guarantee our products.

Motul

[madhav krishna]

Thanks for the response Fatility and Madhav!
@Madhav
yeah even i use to beleive that the oil is all good unless its open but the following is what got me thinking

Motul

Bro even i had read this & thats why even i am confused about the shelf life. Maybe the AGIP guys were fooling me for getting the oil bottle sold. Or maybe they are saying truth.

Anyways the motul guys said that they provide the guarantee for 2 years. They didnt say that the oil will get spoiled after 2 years. Even bikes have a warranty of 2 years. That doesnt mean that the bike will not work after 2 years.

[rajit999]

Oil change

Hello Xbhpians first of all i request you all to get a hand over the xbhp magazine, i am sure all you guys would love the way the magazine is and the content.

i have bee using the semi-synthetic engine oil provided by Yamaha for my r-15 prior to this i used motul fully synthetic 15-50.

my bike is 2 yrs old and all i have ridden is around 7000 kms, the guy at the svc asks me to change engine oil at every 1000 kms.

guys plz do tell me at what intervals should i change and also what is the life of a synthetic engine oil to semi synthetic to a normal mineral oil

the motul guy told me that a synthetic would run up to 4000 kms where as a semi-synthetic would go up to 3000 kms and a normal engine oil would go up to a max of 2000 kms.

plz help me clarify my doubts.

Regards,
Raman

[rajit999]

what kind of guarantee do the motul guys provide? will they be responsible for the bike if the oil doesn't do well?

Bro even i had read this & thats why even i am confused about the shelf life. Maybe the AGIP guys were fooling me for getting the oil bottle sold. Or maybe they are saying truth.

Anyways the motul guys said that they provide the guarantee for 2 years. They didnt say that the oil will get spoiled after 2 years. Even bikes have a warranty of 2 years. That doesnt mean that the bike will not work after 2 years.

[RanjithMN]

That doesnt mean that the bike will not work after 2 years.

Yep that's my view too now!

[madhav krishna]

what kind of guarantee do the motul guys provide? will they be responsible for the bike if the oil doesn't do well?

Yep i guess they do.

[rajit999]

yep i guess they do.

i don't think so, get yourself clarified

[FATAL1TY - X]

i don't think so, get yourself clarified

true. since motul 5100,300v, 800, 510 etc are imported by local suppliers, i dont think they'll guarantee anything.

[FATAL1TY - X]

Hello Xbhpians first of all i request you all to get a hand over the xbhp magazine, i am sure all you guys would love the way the magazine is and the content.

i have bee using the semi-synthetic engine oil provided by Yamaha for my r-15 prior to this i used motul fully synthetic 15-50.

my bike is 2 yrs old and all i have ridden is around 7000 kms, the guy at the svc asks me to change engine oil at every 1000 kms.

guys plz do tell me at what intervals should i change and also what is the life of a synthetic engine oil to semi synthetic to a normal mineral oil

the motul guy told me that a synthetic would run up to 4000 kms where as a semi-synthetic would go up to 3000 kms and a normal engine oil would go up to a max of 2000 kms.

plz help me clarify my doubts.

Regards,
Raman

even a mineral oil lasts more than 3000kms. but that is not the point. the point is to check the oil level every week, better every two days. if you find the oil level low make sure to top it up. that way a mineral oil is good for 3000kms a full synthetic capable of more than 5000kms and a semi synthetic somewhere in between. if you are running the right grade, a mineral oil will last 2500-3000kms assuming you top it up when the level is low. changing oil at 1000 kms is overkill.

[kinshuk.arya]

hey guys,

have been using the veedol full synthetic from the past 2.5k km but have started to feel the engine hrashness.... i want to go for castrol power1 racing 10w40 for the fz which has run 7k overall.... please suggest if its a good oil and how much does it cost and any other recommendations for oil as well..