| Author | Message | ||
     Bdrag |
HEY ALL, I am reading the milk in the oil thread. So if I want to change out my oil more often than the book tells me to, I want an inexpensive oil. My Wally World has the Shell Rotella T6 Synthetic for $12.00 a gallon. Is that a decent oil to use? I am not a Purple Madness or Amsoil kinda guy. The Shell meets all the C this and C that which is listed in the manual. Also, OIL FILTER. Do you guys change the filter every time if your short cycling the oil changes? I don't have a problem changing the oil every 1000 to 1500 miles if thats whats needed to keep moisture out and keep any damage to the motor from happening. I was thinking every other oil change to change filters. You all using the HD filters or something from the local auto parts? Thanks. Let the thread roll on now! AHhahaaaaaaaa. BDRAG | ||
| Ulynut |
Oh boy  | ||
| Tootal |
Shell Rotella has always been a good oil but I don't have any experience with the T6 synthetic but there really are no BAD oils today. Technology is really good when it comes to oil. The filter I use is a Purolator Pure One PL14476. Same specs a factory but used a fiberglass medium that goes down to 10 microns and still flows well. I do 5000 mile changes with AMSOIL and the filter is still doing well. Now the real problem your having is when you ride your not riding long enough!! Longer rides and Spring are the real cures! | ||
| Hughlysses |
Shell Rotella-T synthetic is excellent oil, but it is a little thin (5W-40) for your neck of the woods compared to the recommended oils (20W-50 or 40W or 50W). You could always try it and have a Used Oil Analysis (UOA) done by a lab who'll tell you how the oil is holding up and if it's causing excessive wear. http://www.bobistheoilguy.com is a great site for reading up on that kind of stuff. Lots of guys run a Walmart filter which is apparently identical to the factory filter (same manufacturer IIRC) for ~1/3 the price. If you change the oil at 2500 miles or less, I'd think you could get by with reusing the oil filter. Again, a UOA will clearly tell you what's safe and not safe to do. | ||
| Etennuly |
Why not run the non syn Rotella? | ||
| Itileman |
Anybody have the wmt filter #? | ||
| Hughlysses |
Wal-Mart Super Tech ST4967 | ||
| Bdrag |
So what about the other Shell Rotella oils that are offered in a 15-40? Synthetic blend and the regular rotella T? They look like they have the correct C ratings. I agree the 5 wt is kinda thin. I think the 15-40 would be good around here for winter use. Then do a straight wt in the hot months? BDRAG | ||
| Towpro |
Shell Rotella T. 15w40 is a non synthetic diesel rated oil. If you look at the SAE label, you will see it is C rated. C is for compression Ignition or diesel engines, S is for Spark ignition or gas engines. The S oils have had most of the zinc removed because they found it was destroying cat converters when the engine burned oil. The C oils still have the higher levels of Zinc. Zinc is good. Shell Rotella T 15w40 is the preferred oil used by most BMW K100 bike owners. It is great stuff. It also has a high buffer additive package which helps prevent the oil from becoming acidic. I would not hesitate to run it. In fact these milk threads have me thinking about doing frequent changes. But I am running synthetic (amsoil) in the trans. | ||
| Idaho_buelly |
+1 on Amsoil in both tranny/engine w/filter every 4-5,000...  | ||
| Etennuly |
I'm running the Rotella T 15W40 now. Planning to go to straight weights per book for temp ranges without the HD badge pricing. Change it at 3000. | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
"The S oils have had most of the zinc removed because they found it was destroying cat converters when the engine burned oil. The C oils still have the higher levels of Zinc. Zinc is good." +1 If you like zinc, take a look at Valvoline VR1. It has a CD rating instead of the service manual recommended ratings of CF, CG, CH, or CI - the difference being the year that the ratings were obtained. The CD rating is from 1959 and as a result, does not have to meet modern EPA requirements. That means higher levels of zinc which protects basically everything in our pushrod valvetrains. Make sure to avoid the "Specialty Racing" version of VR1. It is not street legal and has a very low detergent content. | ||
| Tocino |
Who doesn't like an oil thread! As Towpro, Etennuly, etc. said, the 'C' oils are good, and even recommended in the owners manual: If it is necessary to add oil and Harley-Davidson oil is not available, use an oil certified for diesel engines. Acceptable diesel engine oil designations include: CF-4, CG-4, CH-4 and CI-4. The preferred viscosities for the diesel engine oils in descending order are: 20W50, 15W40 and 10W40. At the first opportunity, see an authorized dealer to change back to 100 percent Harley-Davidson oil. Gotta love the last sentence! | ||
| Badrap |
The new diesel oils that are CJ-4 don’t have the same zinc levels or some of the other great additives of diesel oil of the past because they have to function in the new low sulfur only diesel engines that have a cat and particulate filters, etc. to meet the newest emissions requirements. If you can find the older CI-4 or CI-4+ oils, which are getting hard to find, then I'd consider using them but otherwise I'd stick with oil that are designed for air cool V-Twins. | ||
| Towpro |
You will find oils made for motorcycles should work fine  Here is a link to a "white paper" all about motorcycle oil. It was written by Amsoil, but it shows lots of other oils in the comparison. http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/mcv.aspx | ||
| Xbimmer |
I've cut open a WalMart ST4967 and the Buell Black. They both appear to be made by the same manufacturer (Champion IIRC), with two noticeable differences. The relief valve on the WM is a plastic spring loaded button, on the Black it's a fancy metal coiled spring assembly. The gasket on the Black is a nice and secure semi o-ring, the WM has a square section gasket held in place with several crimps. I guess it could displace upon installation, but I've never had a problem and it seals fine. Other than that they look the same. Same end cap, filter material, pleat count, canister. Those who like to use super-efficient auto filters may want to read Purolator's own warning: http://purolatorautofilters.net/products/pages/mot orcyclefilters.aspx JMO. | ||
| Badrap |
It's interesting that the Purolator filter recommendation sheet only shows Buell models through 2002 yet others go to 08. I'm sure the filers are the same for all model years. You can use a current Sportster or some HD filters for a Buell. | ||
| Hardlya |
Rotella T in the blue bottle is a full synthetic oil. I run it in my Vstrom, Uly, Nissan 4x4, Kia Rio, 460 Ford motorhome, and Suzuki DRZ 400. Have for years...5w-40 year around with absolutely no issues. Since the Buell motor is a roller bearing motor it is not looking for oil pressure as much as a constant flow to the bearings. I do run the Harley oil in the primary to insure clutch plate friction material is not affected. | ||
| Yamafreak |
So what should I run in my Primary with 8100 mile's on the clock. Bike was a Repo so who know's whats in there? Harley oil? Rotella Amsoil Valoline VR1 | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
I only use VR1 for the engine. Formula+ in the tranny. Soon as I find out who makes it, I'll cut Harley out of the middle. | ||
| Swampy |
For the primary you can use 20W-50 Full Synthetic. | ||
| Eulysses |
I stayed with regular Harley oil at 1000 mile check up til next change so it breaks in more. I seem to be still burning it (1600 or so now)as it was below the add mark again today. The tranny kinda "bangs" with a clank on shift changes...far from a "snick" and is either just what a Sportster engine does or the tranny is low too. Thots? | ||
| Swampy |
The primary level is kind of a vague black hole, It says 1 quart, or up to the bottom of the primary chain, so as long as it's wet in there, as long as there is stuff in there you should be OK to a point. Try adjusting your primary chain first(using your perferred method), then adjust your clutch. These engines seem to take a while to break-in, somewhere around 4,000 miles, I mean the rings are seated and all but the oil consumption begins to taper off around 4,000 miles. Ride, Enjoy, Check oil! | ||
| Bdrag |
Eulysses I have right at 2100 on mine now. I changed to oil out at a little over 900 miles. I added about a pint yesterday with around 2100 miles on the bike now. I think it will get better as others have said. If not I will keep a bottle on the bike while on road trips. We play hard so oil evaporation is not un common. I always change my oil before and after one of our 4 day Arkansas rides. Usually 1700 to 1900 miles in that 4 days. So a bottle will be in the luggage this trip in April... BDRAG | ||
| Motorfish |
Does anyone use Mobil 1 V Twin 20W-50? Their website says it can be used in the primary/trans also. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I've run Mobil 1 V Twin 20W-50 in the engine since ~5100 miles. At 20,000+ miles now. I still run Formula + in the tranny. | ||
| Nobuell |
I have been running M1 V Twin in both holes for 16,000 miles. Shifts well and I can pick up the oil at Advance Auto. All is well. | ||
| Idaho_buelly |
I switched to Mobil 1 because it was on sale,noticed the shifting was rougher to me..Went about 500miles and couldn't stand it anymore and went back to Amsoil...Just my experience...  | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
Similar to idaho_buelly, but I tried royal purple maxcycle 20w50 in the primary and hated the way the shifting felt. I still have half a case that i dont mind using as engine oil in my X1, but wont be buying any more when it's gone. it's not worth $11/quart for me to have purple oil that doesn't seem to be better than any other synthetic | ||
| Eulysses |
And we are not filling the engine hole all the way up the add marks right? Just a quarter way up the add marks if I recall? |
