Motor Oil Mixture

Not sure what other folks may think about this, but I made a personal discovery over the past weekend that has me dumbfounded.

When I was desperate for a ride and realized the engine needed some oil added, I pulled this bottle of Valvoline synthetic from my stash and carefully poured it in the crankcase where it mixed with about three qts of Shell T4 Rotella.

Then I went for my ride...

I can not believe the effects this has had on my engine.
The engine operates quieter and smoother.  Shifting gears is easier and smoother as well, and the clutch engagement is all round better.

The Rotella had about 1300 miles on it prior, and I believe adding the Valvoline actually improved the oil viscosity and oil life expectancy.
...and I've added a couple hundred miles to that since.

Just wanted to share this and see what feedback it might generate:

 

Two points.
  1] One is engineered for a big truck [ which I do use in both of my pickups ] and the other for a motorcycle.
  2] One is synthetic and the other is not.
  Another thing it's the additives that wear out not the base oil.
  And another is that synthetic is not supose to  turn to blue smoke out the tail pipe but will find the smallest hole to leak from.


.

For the life of me i cannot understand why folks put car and truck oil in their bikes, modern motor oils have friction modifiers and all other sorts of stuff in them which can be a pain on wet clutches, bike specific does not have the same friction modifiers, i know back in the day we just used motor oil and it was fine because it did not have the additives, strange how some have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

wrote:

For the life of me i cannot understand why folks put car and truck oil in their bikes, modern motor oils have friction modifiers and all other sorts of stuff in them which can be a pain on wet clutches, bike specific does not have the same friction modifiers, i know back in the day we just used motor oil and it was fine because it did not have the additives, strange how some have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
 

Some (not all) truck/car motor oils are JASO-MA compliant.  As an example, take a look at the label on the back of the Shell Rotella oils.  Ed

bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/rotell...-jaso-ma-ma2.281543/

wrote:

wrote:

For the life of me i cannot understand why folks put car and truck oil in their bikes, modern motor oils have friction modifiers and all other sorts of stuff in them which can be a pain on wet clutches, bike specific does not have the same friction modifiers, i know back in the day we just used motor oil and it was fine because it did not have the additives, strange how some have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

 

Some (not all) truck/car motor oils are JASO-MA compliant.  As an example, take a look at the label on the back of the Shell Rotella oils.  Ed

bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/rotell...-jaso-ma-ma2.281543/


Yes, but you and i already know that, it seems this is something that is forever coming up, hence why i always say buy motorcycle specific  because some just cannot be bothered to actually research.
 

I have done a lot of research on oils and have come to the conclusion ignorance is blis.
MA rated oil has high zinc levels for added cam and rocker protection on older bikes. MA2 oil has lower zinc levels to protect O2 sensors and catalitic converters on newer bikes.
I have old bikes. I want MA rated oil for my bikes. Yet most motorcycle specific oils are rated MA/MA2. There is no way they can be both.
Oh no. It's happening again. Must stop thinking oil.

wrote:

For the life of me i cannot understand why folks put car and truck oil in their bikes, modern motor oils have friction modifiers and all other sorts of stuff in them which can be a pain on wet clutches, bike specific does not have the same friction modifiers, i know back in the day we just used motor oil and it was fine because it did not have the additives, strange how some have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

For the life of ME, I don't understand why bike guys waste money on motorcycle oil, which is needlessly expensive. I use diesel engine oil, and have for more than 15 years in my bikes, and I've never had a slipping clutch or any other negative issue.  And I also do not go out of my way to buy MA certified diesel oil either.  No need.

I always used Castrol GTX 20/50 in all my machines. Switched to Rotilla 15/40 on advice here. It's much cheaper and no sludge like with the GTX. 
Steve

wrote:

I always used Castrol GTX 20/50 in all my machines. Switched to Rotilla 15/40 on advice here. It's much cheaper and no sludge like with the GTX. 
Steve


Yea Steve
Castrol 20/50 GTX was the hot ticket  for many , many years
Then they F   ked  it all up to run in modern cars
Oh well  , Shell Rotella   works just fine 
 

wrote:

I have done a lot of research on oils and have come to the conclusion ignorance is blis.
MA rated oil has high zinc levels for added cam and rocker protection on older bikes. MA2 oil has lower zinc levels to protect O2 sensors and catalitic converters on newer bikes.
I have old bikes. I want MA rated oil for my bikes. Yet most motorcycle specific oils are rated MA/MA2. There is no way they can be both.
Oh no. It's happening again. Must stop thinking oil.

ZDDP has drastically dropped over the years.  Reason being, it damages catalytic converters.  This applies for auto, diesel, and motorcycle blend oils.  Taken on face value, some might think this is bad for our old bikes, but truthfully, modern oils protect pretty darn well, so don't worry too much.

How about Shell Rotella T6? Full synthetic, JASO compliant, and I haven't seen a bad review of the stuff.

Lubricants have improved massively over the past 30 years. We're really lucky to have the modern ones. I'm not sure if "additives wear out" - especially as motorcycle oil tends to get changed frequently when compared to industrial engines (I've worked on industrial machines where we never changed oil, only filters, topped the oil up, did oil analysis - all good)

Ian

There are plenty of good websites to get a technical understanding of motor oils.  Anyone with questions should do a little research.

The biggest issue with bikes is lubrication for wet clutches because new oils have too much lubricity for them unless they are M or Jaso rated.  That's not to say you cannot use them, but if you do, and you have a slipping clutch it's likely the oil causing the problem.  I used Castrol 10W40 for years but about a year ago I switched to 15W40 Rotella because it's correctly rated and much cheaper.