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The Official Oil Thread


HispanicSlammer

What Kind Of Oil Do You Use?  

1,244 members have voted

  1. 1. Oil Type?

    • Synthetic
      835
    • Dino/Organic
      238
    • Blend
      173
  2. 2. Motorcycle or Generic oil?

    • Motorcycle Specific
      735
    • Major Brands
      460
    • Generic Automotive
      84
  3. 3. Which Brand?

    • Honda Branded
      188
    • Mobile One
      325
    • AMSOil
      109
    • Castrol
      114
    • Penzoil
      11
    • Lucus
      3
    • Havoline
      1
    • Quaker State
      4
    • Motul
      107
    • Valvoline
      33
    • Golden Spectro
      16
    • Rotella
      209
    • Other
      126


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Guest slither

I'll chuck in damn near anything that meets what the manual lists as far as specifications go...

That said I normally use silkolene, as that is what my favorite parts store carries, and I'm more than happy to drop cash in their hands in exchange for the excellent service I've come to expect.

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  • Member Contributer

So you had 4500 miles on T6 oil, thats a little long for me, i always try to change mine with T6 at 2000 miles(bike has 60,000 mile) but now I know nobody rides the sameway. It would be interesting to see what the T6 looks like at 2500 miles. Dont like the metal in the oil..

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  • Member Contributer

If you can afford it...like racers do, I'd change oil every weekend. Most people won't change early at 2000 miles. I use T6 and change at 6000...to each his own. I might get a package from Blackstone and do the test as this is a new bike to me...3000 the first time and 6000 the next...bike has 73k mi.

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  • Member Contributer

So you had 4500 miles on T6 oil, thats a little long for me, i always try to change mine with T6 at 2000 miles(bike has 60,000 mile) but now I know nobody rides the sameway. It would be interesting to see what the T6 looks like at 2500 miles. Dont like the metal in the oil..

I normally haven't gone that far either. In this case I took a 4,000 + mile trip so there wasn't much choice. Had the trip been further I might have found some place along the way to change it. The longer interval is what made me want to have the analysis done.

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If you can afford it...like racers do, I'd change oil every weekend. Most people won't change early at 2000 miles. I use T6 and change at 6000...to each his own. I might get a package from Blackstone and do the test as this is a new bike to me...3000 the first time and 6000 the next...bike has 73k mi.

+1 just curious to see if I'm changing mine to soon.

So you had 4500 miles on T6 oil, thats a little long for me, i always try to change mine with T6 at 2000 miles(bike has 60,000 mile) but now I know nobody rides the sameway. It would be interesting to see what the T6 looks like at 2500 miles. Dont like the metal in the oil..

I normally haven't gone that far either. In this case I took a 4,000 + mile trip so there wasn't much choice. Had the trip been further I might have found some place along the way to change it. The longer interval is what made me want to have the analysis done.

Yeah i agree sometimes have to go long.

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  • Member Contributer

Ive looked at a few of these Blackstone reports, and they strike me as an engine health report more than an oil report. Yes, they do the analysis of the elements in the oil. But are they saying the sample is acceptable and can run farther, longer? Are they saying you can run another 4000 miles? - Interpretation is key.

What do you guys think?

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  • Member Contributer

I was thinking the same thing MD...my interpretation of the oil sample that Cogswell (of Spacely's Sprockets no doubt) posted was that at 4591 miles the oil looked like any oil that had run for 2900 miles and that the additives were 3.9 and anything above 1.0 is still active and working so check back in 4,000 more miles...

I would certainly call Blackstone and ask for them to walk my dumbazz through that report...on second thought I will send for their sample kit and send them my own oil so I can have them explain it to me.

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  • Member Contributer

I hadn't planned on posting this, but since it was suggested above and this is a long running post, here it is.

Silver huh? Lost a nose piercing while doing the oil change? :laugh:

Thats a money maker, I wish mine was making silver.

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Guest slither

Yeah cant imagine mc oil of any kind lasting 8000 miles.

My VFR manual specs out 8k intervals for changing the oil, my Ducati specs out 7.5k miles.

Seen BMW cars with something like 16k mile oil change intervals. Heck some cars (corvettes for one) don't even have mileage recommendations, they have an oil change light that turns on depending on a whole host of programmed conditions.

Why not go with what the manufacturer calls for?

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  • Member Contributer

Yeah cant imagine mc oil of any kind lasting 8000 miles.

My VFR manual specs out 8k intervals for changing the oil, my Ducati specs out 7.5k miles.

Seen BMW cars with something like 16k mile oil change intervals. Heck some cars (corvettes for one) don't even have mileage recommendations, they have an oil change light that turns on depending on a whole host of programmed conditions.

Why not go with what the manufacturer calls for?

Lots of people are under the impression that the engineers get to write the specifications to the letter that they want and believe is correct. Well, in a large corporation, quite often, that is only partially true. Some corps, it is a policy from the top, that they want to promote the appearance that they are Pro Green policy. Honda is big on this. So, what happens quite often is that marketing gets its orders and they have to take that and wrestle with the engineers to agree on a balance of policy and the balance of technical reality. So here, specing out a 8k interval may be totally possible, and some have demontrated it, as a company promoting long intervals seems to be a pro green, environmental help the earth thing and that is good PR for the manufacturer. But assuming 8k interval fits everybodys situation? Probably not true. (Why Blackstone gets business.)

As an automotive engineer, I have been in quite a few situations that marketing insists that we have to change something for a policy or a cost issue. - Engineer says I need $25 to do this right, marketing come back and demands you only get $20. So your stuck and have to lowball components to put it together. Ad nausem. (sucks) - I'm guessing this happened to VFR wire harnesses.

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  • Member Contributer

Yeah cant imagine mc oil of any kind lasting 8000 miles.

My VFR manual specs out 8k intervals for changing the oil, my Ducati specs out 7.5k miles.

Seen BMW cars with something like 16k mile oil change intervals. Heck some cars (corvettes for one) don't even have mileage recommendations, they have an oil change light that turns on depending on a whole host of programmed conditions.

Why not go with what the manufacturer calls for?

Main reason I dont is because of the way i ride. Pretty hard on VFR so I always change around 2000 mile.

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  • Member Contributer

Why not go with what the manufacturer calls for?

You'll find owners who change your oil at 2K all the way to 8K manufactures recommendation but whats constant is the fact not one of them complains about wearing out their engine before its time... 8K interval is the safe limit of how long the additive package last according to the test by the Honda engineers... if an owner is in doubt then I suggest sending a sample to Blackstone labs to know for sure if their additive package is still robust enough for use or not... the only thing I hate is not knowing something...

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Guest slither

Why not go with what the manufacturer calls for?

You'll find owners who change your oil at 2K all the way to 8K manufactures recommendation but whats constant is the fact not one of them complains about wearing out their engine before its time... 8K interval is the safe limit of how long the additive package last according to the test by the Honda engineers... if an owner is in doubt then I suggest sending a sample to Blackstone labs to know for sure if their additive package is still robust enough for use or not... the only thing I hate is not knowing something...

I've gotten Blackstone reports on the oil out of both my Honda and Ducati. Never seen anything that they said was of concern, except for once when I replaced a clutch. That stuff went away with the next oil change.

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  • 5 months later...

Just had my first oil test done on the VFR, I was going to do it at 100K, but didn't have a test jar and didn't feel like holding on to old oil. I've had this bike since around 45K miles, and in this time, other than change the oil/filter and clean the air filter (once), done absolutely nothing to the engine.

post-7517-0-96360700-1379093904.jpg

Edited by xrcris
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  • Member Contributer

+1 Looks like your engine likes the Rotella T. Have you been always running that oil? That is the non-synthetic, right?

Oh, and what is your usual change interval and filter brand?

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  • Member Contributer

T6 synthetic is 5w-40, the T is 15w-40 like the report specifies...

Oops's your that's dino..

The Doc is right... Rotella T6 5w-40 is full synthetic, the Rotella T 15w-40 is dino diesel engine oil.

What XRCRIS posted was his report from a sample of Rotella T 15w-40 dino oil

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  • Member Contributer

T6 synthetic is 5w-40, the T is 15w-40 like the report specifies...

Oops's your that's dino..

The Doc is right... Rotella T6 5w-40 is full synthetic, the Rotella T 15w-40 is dino diesel engine oil.

What XRCRIS posted was his report from a sample of Rotella T 15w-40 dino oil

And since it IS the Rotella T and not synthetic, it is all the more impressive!

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