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newbie garage question...motor oil

Sumo Kid

Sumo Kid

New member
Joined
Nov 7, 2003
Location
Emeryville
Moto(s)
2001 Honda cbr600 F4i (stolen)
For my cbr 600 f4i, manual recommends using Pro Honda GN4 or HP4 4-stroke motor oil.
1) Does it matter much if I use non-OEM motor oil?
2) Is motorcycle motor oil completely different than car motor oil? For example, does 10w-40 car motor oil work for motorcycle requiring 10w-40 viscosity?

Sorry if this is a dumb question :)
 
not the motorcycle oil question again!

use what ever oil you feel comfortable spending money on, just change it often!
 
I would stick to moto oil just for the hell of it.

There is a big debate with car oil in bikes, some people have run it for years and have never had a problem, others will tell you the clutch slipped after running car oil due to it hacving different friction modifiers/whatever.

I know one thing for sure, if you use moto oil it will be fine.

Its just a couple bux more and as far as Im concerned, its no big deal.

I would run whatever brand you want, as long as its bike oil and the same suggested visc.
 
Any oil of the proper weight is fine as long as it doesn't have "energy conserving" in the little circle on the back,bad juju for a wet clutch.A lot of people(me) find diesel oil works very well,I'm currently running a 5w40 diesel oil and my transmission shifts smooooooooth,like butta.
 
I use castrol syn 10-40 and have had no issues, and no slipping clutch on my 929, I can't see spending 7 bucks for golden spectro or the like, Castrol has worked fine so far.....BOOOM oh shit never mind.
 
Motorcycle transmissions are murder on oil, since the shearing action of the gears grind against the viscosity modifiers that make an oil "multi-grade" (flows nicely when cold while not thinning out when hot).

I actually had oil analysis done on my last oil change. 5W40 Shell Rotella T Synthetic (one of the best Group III wax-based commercial-grade oils around, known for its shear stabiliity), 3000 miles on drain. The oil was still doing its job, but had sheared down from a high-40 weight oil to a high-30 weight.

A cheap Group I oil (most car oils, around $1-1.50/qt) will probably shear down to a 20 grade with the same mileage. If you were to cheap out on motorcycle oils, do yourself a favor and get Group II or IIa oils -- examples are Chevron Delo, Shell Rotella T, or Mobil Delvac 1300, all 15W40 grade diesel oils, ~$7/gallon.
 
I think it was Sport Rider that had a big article about this last summer. They compared a bunch of car and bike oils, and found that they are generally quite different. They tended to wear differently, and had different additives. Some car oils should be OK, others might not. If your bike has a wet clutch, watch out for moly, as it may cause slippage.

I ran car oil in my old Radian for a while, when I needed something quick, and found that if I revved it hard, it would burn the oil REAL quick. Again, some other car oils may be fine....

I run motul synthetic belnd 10/40 in the FZR...
 
johnny929 said:
Castrol has worked fine so far.....BOOOM oh shit never mind.
Click to expand...

:laughing

oil is the life of your bike, don't be cheap on oil, find other ways to be cheap, like with your lady or something else less important than your bike.

FULL SYNTHETIC bike oil ;)
 
Last edited:
VroomVroomVroom said:
not the motorcycle oil question again!

use what ever oil you feel comfortable spending money on, just change it often!
Click to expand...
:shhh It's better to give no advice than bad advice.
 
You don't need to spend an arm and a leg on oil. Buy a good quality and most importantly CHANGE OFTEN AND ALWAYS CHANGE THE FILTER EVERY OIL CHANGE.

Bikes are hard on oil. Very hard. Lots of particulates from wet clutches reall exacerbates the situation as well. I think you can take two different approaches here:
1) Buy really good (and really expensive) oil and change out at the recommended intervals.
2) Buy a middle of the road quality and spend the price difference on high quality filters and more frequent changes.

The money probably works out the same and the two philosophies are greatly debated. I use method #2 and so far have had great success. I use Castrol GTX and Wix filters. Lots of them. I buy by the cases for all my vehicles at places like Costco where the oil is cheap. Then I pick up 2 or 3 filters at a time so I have them on hand. Works for me :)
 
i'm using castrol syntec 10/30 car oil in my bike with a k&n filter. runs better than with yamalube4 non-synth motorcycle oil (which cost me twice as much) use a good filter, go with the reccomended viscosity, and don't worry about it unless you can actually feel a difference.
 
I really didn't feel like responding to this post because I don't like typing (or reading) long responses, but at the risk of someone following some of the poor advice posted in this thread, I felt compelled.

The fact is, most synthetic automotive oils (including Castrol Syntec) contain friction-modifiers. Most motorycles use a common sump, so the oil that lubricates your engine also lubricates your transmission and wet clutch. Friction modifiers create a coat on your clutch that cause them to become slippery and will most likely lead to clutch slippage.

Bear in mind that manufacturers are not required to state if their oil contains friction modifiers. Also, not all friction modifiers are bad, it's just that there are so many available and you probably won't know what you're getting. Friction modifiers keep the EPA happy so chances are, you'll be paying more for automotive oil that doesn't have them.

Additionally, phosphorus and catalyctic convertors don't make a happy couple so automotive oils contain far less of this tranny-protecting ingredient than motorcycle oils do. In any event, some automotive synthethics can be safely used, but for what it's worth, my personal opinion is that you're better off paying the extra money for motorcycle-specific blends.
 
Mobil 1 makes a motorcycle synthetic that I've been running. I use a stock filter, and it is SWEET!!
 
From my experience my CBR F4i does best with original Honda motor oil and you can pick it up from the dealer. I ran Semi-blend synthetic once and that is what made my cam chain tensioner get really loud very quickly. Im sticking with the the good ol honda oil for my bike!
JDUB

KevinR1 said:
I really didn't feel like responding to this post because I don't like typing (or reading) long responses, but at the risk of someone following some of the poor advice posted in this thread, I felt compelled.

The fact is, most synthetic automotive oils (including Castrol Syntec) contain friction-modifiers. Most motorycles use a common sump, so the oil that lubricates your engine also lubricates your transmission and wet clutch. Friction modifiers create a coat on your clutch that cause them to become slippery and will most likely lead to clutch slippage.

Bear in mind that manufacturers are not required to state if their oil contains friction modifiers. Also, not all friction modifiers are bad, it's just that there are so many available and you probably won't know what you're getting. Friction modifiers keep the EPA happy so chances are, you'll be paying more for automotive oil that doesn't have them.

Additionally, phosphorus and catalyctic convertors don't make a happy couple so automotive oils contain far less of this tranny-protecting ingredient than motorcycle oils do. In any event, some automotive synthethics can be safely used, but for what it's worth, my personal opinion is that you're better off paying the extra money for motorcycle-specific blends.
Click to expand...
 
mobil 1 15-50 (red cap) and stock or k&n filter. major performance improvement for the same cash as motorcycle oil.

synthetic is the way to go. if you don't want to go with mobil, go with red line oil.
 
Jdub said:
From my experience my CBR F4i does best with original Honda motor oil and you can pick it up from the dealer. I ran Semi-blend synthetic once and that is what made my cam chain tensioner get really loud very quickly. Im sticking with the the good ol honda oil for my bike!
JDUB
Click to expand...
The CCT in the F4i is junk from to begin with so I wouldn't use that as a guage in deciding what oil is best. You're better off addressing that issue head-on by getting a manual cam chain tensioner.
 
I think any oil is fine as long as it is NOT labelled as Energy Conserving. Oils with this label contain the friction modifiers that cause the clutch to slip.

I've run Mobil 1 15W50 auto synth for over 60k miles and have not had a problem.
 
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