Engine Oils

[FATAL1TY - X]

Yep! A less viscous oil would give engine a free and easy run but at the cost of wear and tear!! thats for sure for a certain extend...and we need to choose the optimum one..and that's the challenge we are facing.
IMHO for a person like me , who changes his engine oil everu 1800 - 2000 kms, I would recommend Valvoline as it would loose its thermal property at around 1500 kms only, and 2000 would be a safer duration for the lube change. Only need to choose costly ones like Shell, mobil etc if you plan for a longer duration btwn lube changes!!

actually you are not the one who has to worry about that. it is the manufacturers job. that is why they recommend their grades for our usage. trust me shell doesnt offer a great oil for the price. there is a post by me a few pages back where i have posted a page of the shell advance vsx's msds. take a look. but mobil offers a good package.

[cmahajan]

A simple query regarding engine oils..

Does the use of semi synthetic / fully synthetic oil help in reducing the vibrations coming from the bike at high speeds?

If yes, which is the best suited semi synthetic oil for a Honda Stunner? Also, what should be the ideal reading on the odometer before one can switch to semi synthetic from mineral oil ?

[HydBiker]

there is a post by me a few pages back where i have posted a page of the shell advance vsx's msds. take a look. but mobil offers a good package.

Hey, have I missed something important off late (was off the forum for a logn time)....?

Is there an engine oil for Morotcycles from Mobil in India?

Please give more specs of it...

[anmol_1990]

The primary function of oil in an engine is to provide lubrication , that is prevent metal to metal contact friction as much as possible . It also performs the secondary functions of keeping the engine cool by drawing out the combustion heat and losing it to the atmospheric air around it , as well as to clean out the carbon acid etc by containing it within itself as a suspension , to be flushed out later when changed .
Engine oil will so degrade with use through shearing forces within the engine , heat and carbon and acids absorbed , oxidation etc . As it gets used up it becomes thin and dirty and cannot prevent metal to metal contact inside your gearbox as good as when it's new . So you feel the slick gears with your new oil . Now the problem I experienced with HH (bpcl) 10w30 oil ( the same one that they put in your karizma at service ) is that it loses this slickness and coolness after the first 1000Kms of use in summer , which I found unacceptable for an oil specified by the company to run good for 6000Kms .
I ride my bike for repeated short hops of a few kms , park and jump off , do some work then ride off again for another few kms ,and again , through crawling city traffic mostly in 2nd gear , with lots of clutch and gear and brake use .This is considered severe service for an engine and it's oil .

yup that's true. i wonder how can this oil can last for 6000 km.

even the 2000 km old is completely dirty, almost black.

i change every 2000 km.

PS- the oil which they used is manufactured by idemitsu.

[FATAL1TY - X]

Hey, have I missed something important off late (was off the forum for a logn time)....?

Is there an engine oil for Morotcycles from Mobil in India?

Please give more specs of it...

well ,not yet. i'm in search of the mobil1 mx4t. a kind enough member here posted a link a few pages back to a ducati forum where there was some good discussion about this oil, since reading that i am in search of it. but no luck yet. looks like the only best option available for me is the 300v 10w40. any better full synth in your suggestion?

mx4t is blend(but marketed as a full synth like all other full synths) of esters, PAOs and G3 mineral oils with the most part being PAO. that's all i could find about its formulation.

[HydBiker]

^^^ to my knowledge Exxon Mobil India hasn't officially come out with a motorcycle oil. So, anything available would be an import / smuggled! Though that doesn't deter the value of it any bit, I mean to say that availability, if any, is very limited.

I am stuck to Petronas Sprinta 4T 10W40 Fully Synthetic. These are made in Malaysia (their HQ) and imported to India. Sold in Mumbai, Pune & Delhi. No stock in South India. I am buying them in quantities of 1 or 2 crates from Mumbai.

I didn't get a chance to use or even ride a bike with Motul 300v FL 10W40 yet. But have seen the 15W50 in use. It is probably the best. Though I didn't yet ride one single bike with both Motul 300v and Sprinta 50004T, I guess the Motul would be better. But at Rs 850 in comparison to Rs 450 for the Petronas, I am betting on the Sprinta 5000 4T for all my bikes, those of people around me and even my Car (yeah, had to pour it in emergency and it is rocking - 13 months and 12K KMs done on an 86K KMs old Esteem and is doing very good). I change the Sprinta every 3K KMs in my R15. That's purely because of the warranty and that I generally run it on long hauls on the highway. Now the warranty period is over and I am mostly running it in the City - have to see how the oil would be at 3K KMs. Just checked yesterday - almost 2.5K KMs since service and it is damn good. In the Victor and in my brother's RTR 160 it clocks 6K KMs. It does that happily.

I might not look at the Motuls unless the price for Petronas goes even further up & comes close to them. When I first used the Sprinta it costed me Rs 300.

[Mecho]

It all depends upon the bike U have. And also I dont trust the Bike maker's Oil as I have had enough trouble. Once I had to drain oil after a not so long run of a couple hundred kms. So, I dont trust Bike makers oil. and its me who worries about my bike. Manufacturers will worry about their profit only.

[FATAL1TY - X]

^^^ to my knowledge Exxon Mobil India hasn't officially come out with a motorcycle oil. So, anything available would be an import / smuggled! Though that doesn't deter the value of it any bit, I mean to say that availability, if any, is very limited.

I am stuck to Petronas Sprinta 4T 10W40 Fully Synthetic. These are made in Malaysia (their HQ) and imported to India. Sold in Mumbai, Pune & Delhi. No stock in South India. I am buying them in quantities of 1 or 2 crates from Mumbai.

I didn't get a chance to use or even ride a bike with Motul 300v FL 10W40 yet. But have seen the 15W50 in use. It is probably the best. Though I didn't yet ride one single bike with both Motul 300v and Sprinta 50004T, I guess the Motul would be better. But at Rs 850 in comparison to Rs 450 for the Petronas, I am betting on the Sprinta 5000 4T for all my bikes, those of people around me and even my Car (yeah, had to pour it in emergency and it is rocking - 13 months and 12K KMs done on an 86K KMs old Esteem and is doing very good). I change the Sprinta every 3K KMs in my R15. That's purely because of the warranty and that I generally run it on long hauls on the highway. Now the warranty period is over and I am mostly running it in the City - have to see how the oil would be at 3K KMs. Just checked yesterday - almost 2.5K KMs since service and it is damn good. In the Victor and in my brother's RTR 160 it clocks 6K KMs. It does that happily.

I might not look at the Motuls unless the price for Petronas goes even further up & comes close to them. When I first used the Sprinta it costed me Rs 300.

thats damn good vfm for petronas sprinta 5000. but sadly it aint available anywhere near my town. all i have access to is elf moto4 xt tech, shell advance ultra 4, motul 300v fl, mobil1(car oil), yamalube FS and CP1R. i will have to search for mobil1 mx4t(it mostly wil be an imported stuff) and petronas SP5000 during some long tours i've planned which is gonna happen in feb. currently running 300v fl. covered almost 4000kms on it on an r15 which has till date covered 9500kms on the odo. its pretty good as some users have coverd 5000+ kms on this oil without even a top up.

It all depends upon the bike U have. And also I dont trust the Bike maker's Oil as I have had enough trouble. Once I had to drain oil after a not so long run of a couple hundred kms. So, I dont trust Bike makers oil. and its me who worries about my bike. Manufacturers will worry about their profit only.

by all means run any oil you want, i m not saying that you should use the manufacturers oil. they probably will be of low quality stuff and priced steep. all you have to make sure is that it is close to the manufacturer recommended grade and that it is a moto specific oil.

[Pinaki]

... And also I dont trust the Bike maker's Oil as I have had enough trouble. Once I had to drain oil after a not so long run of a couple hundred kms. So, I dont trust Bike makers oil. and its me who worries about my bike. Manufacturers will worry about their profit only.

Bike makers let out the making of oils to oil companies . As with all things in India , the lowest bidder or the one paying the highest kickback gets the contract , and not the best stuff .

None of the bike makers / oil makers have facility for testing oils at their service centre . If I walk in there and ask them to test a sample of my oil for fitness and give me report , they'll probably just laugh at me . . So we don't have any scientific data on fitness of engine oils in practical use , just heresay . I have stopped reading ANY manufacturer published testing data in India looooong time back .

@ Fatality'Jee , My bike manufaturer HeroHonda specifically prints in their warranty conditions that is is void if I use ANYTHING other than their own 10w30 oil . Even any other 10w30 won't do . And this , just since they day started their own oil business . The day before that , they were printing servo 4T in their manuals . Naturally I have that much confidence in their words .

Neither shell , chevron , amsoil , mobil etc oil giants sell their most popular or advanced formula oils like Rotella / Delo / Mobil 1 here . Here they are tied up with local companies because they don't have their own supply network and don't want to build it . So they use existing petrol-pumps and dealers of the partners . The Mobil 1 available here is NOT the same as that in USA . I suspect they are purchasing the base oils from IOL/HP/BPCL govt oil giants here . So don't expect vast improvement from .. say Servo or MAK or HPRacer4 .

damn !! they hiked the petrol price again !!

[FATAL1TY - X]

A simple query regarding engine oils..

Does the use of semi synthetic / fully synthetic oil help in reducing the vibrations coming from the bike at high speeds?

If yes, which is the best suited semi synthetic oil for a Honda Stunner? Also, what should be the ideal reading on the odometer before one can switch to semi synthetic from mineral oil ?

yes and no, it depends. there is loads of information about that in this thread if you look back some pages. this thread is full of information and user reviews about oils.

[Pinaki]

yup that's true. i wonder how can this oil can last for 6000 km.
even the 2000 km old is completely dirty, almost black.
i change every 2000 km.
PS- the oil which they used is manufactured by idemitsu.

You are lucky , here in kolkata I could find only the BPCL variety . Idemitsu is much better in the experience of people here . Can anyone in kolkata report where the Idemitsu HH oil is available here ? I like to stick to pure mineral until 10000 Kilo .

[FATAL1TY - X]

@ Fatality'Jee , My bike manufaturer HeroHonda specifically prints in their warranty conditions that is is void if I use ANYTHING other than their own 10w30 oil . Even any other 10w30 won't do . And this , just since they day started their own oil business . The day before that , they were printing servo 4T in their manuals . Naturally I have that much confidence in their words .
p

damn, never read that part of the manual of a hh. usually no manufacturer will say that you have to use a specific brand of oil(other than some high end manufacturers like audi for their cars like r8 in which they specifically says that they recommend castrol syntec because its additive chemistry is specially made for VW engines and stuff like that). i'm pretty sure that the crappy hh oil doesnt contain special additives for hero honda engines, i hardly think that it has any special additives! in my r15 manual(before the revision) it says "oil which meets API service SG and is of 20w40". you are absolutely sure that hero honda says that you have to use hh 10w30 oil and no other 10w30 oil? meaning, is it mandatory for warranty other than a simple recommendation? if so, then like you said use the stuff which you think is best, because it most probably will be better than the hh oil. and they have no scientific way to check weather you ran a higher end oil than the hh oil, so you will likely keep the warranty too

[Pinaki]

damn, never read that part of the manual of a hh. .....says that you have to use hh 10w30 oil and no other 10w30 oil? meaning, is it mandatory for warranty other than a simple recommendation? ....

I am not absolutely sure ... but from the manual and talking to the HH service manager and the fact that no other 10w30 SJ JASO MA mineral oil in market than theirs ...it seems so to me .I am presently running the recomended oil for your bike 20w40 yamalube ( very good oil !! ) but in the SL variety . The SG is said to be cheaper and better , so naturally yamaha parts counters here doesn't keep it anymore .

[FATAL1TY - X]

I am not absolutely sure ... but from the manual and talking to the HH service manager and the fact that no other 10w30 SJ JASO MA mineral oil in market than theirs ...it seems so to me .I am presently running the recomended oil for your bike 20w40 yamalube ( very good oil !! ) but in the SL variety . The SG is said to be cheaper and better , so naturally yamaha parts counters here doesn't keep it anymore .

it appears from the manual that you have to use hh 10w30 or else the bike will go kaboom! that is one big pile of s*it. what kind of people are running hero honda company these days. orangutans do a better job

and thanks for taking the trouble of taking pictures and posting. you really wanted to enlighten me. didnt you?

[arjunb25]

well i have been using bajaj's new engine oil since 1 month as the bike has done 2500 km from the last service and its new dtsi engine oil to be honest it is not bad but, but sometimes there is a gear slippage like false one from 1 gear to neutral or second gear to neutral thats it well thought of going back to volvoline.