Suggestions on airhead friendly engine oils, please

The motorcycle specific oils have additives in them to prevent wet clutches from slipping. Some car oils will cause wet clutches to slip like a mofo, some won't. It's kind of a crap shoot. Motorcycle specific oils will never allow that to happen though (at least they shouldn't). These qualities are totally irrelevant for our application of course, but the added ZDDP couldn't hurt.

I'm of the opinion that what oil you use (as long as it's semi-decent) is not nearly as important as how often you change it. I've met too many world travelers with multiple hundreds of thousands of miles on the original untouched bottom end who have to use whatever oil is available where they are. They change it often, but you can't buy royal purple golden spectro super synthetic bla bla bla in rural Bolivia. They just use whatever they can find and their bikes just keep on going. That's a good enough argument for me. I just use castrol GTX 20W-50 and change it every 3000.

I still use BMW High power oil ACEA ;A2 API ;SG SAE 20 / 50 : PART NR 81 22 9 407 685 also has another number on the bottle 220709GS 788297G this is the non synthetic oil supplied for BMW motorcycle air heads and oil heads for years manufactured exclusively for BMW AG Munich.Has all the additives and spec (SG) for airheads its also not so expensive I buy a 12 litre case each time and pay £7.00 Litre. BMW were thinking of dropping the oil from list as not enough people buy it - but it was still listed in March when I bought my last case - but if more did buy it then they would keep producing it I suppose.

OMG, this is turning into a full-blown oil thread.

{sigh}, it's Winter?

I like Avon Roadriders, BTW...

Ah the slippery subject, I live in a cabin....always good for "Cabin fever".

Castrol GTX 20w50, never ever had an oil related problem in near 40 years of using Castrol products. Always saved my used BMW oil and dumped it in my oil burning junkers....never ever had a problem with that, the 83 Toyota just got an oil change that way, overdue after 10 years and 500 Kms of bushwacking.

More used 3,000 miles BMW oil.....I just make wood stain with it, beautiful on cedar around the cabin.

Seriously considering switching to Rotella, JASO specs. If any problems with that I may find out early,will be cheaper, all my bikes have oil pressure gauges.

Yeah...me too...

As long as we are obsessing...

NGK BP6ES.

GL4 or GL5 gear oil?

nearly spay out my drink!! hhahhahahahaha

Oil for a R100GS , pretty much anything you can grab from the corner shop.
locky.

+1

I ran Rotella 5W40 for two years in my Dakar without a burp.

Switching to synthetic pretty much stopped leaks for me


KingsXXX

So, you got two cases (24 quarts) for $48? Holy crap. I just paid that much for one case of Castrol 20w50 at O'Reilly. (Autozone didn't even have any cases of Castrol.)

Or you could fix the leaks. Just a thought.

This is a VERY solid argument!

Thank you for your advice everybody...

I went to the store today and took the time to read every spec on every bottle of oil (I wish I took half that time to pick my toothpaste...) and finally decided that the best of one available at this time was Castrol Actevo 4T 20w50. It is SG rated and also have a small drawing of motorcycle of the front label. (that alone should account for something, right? )



Regards,
Mane

just remember, an airhead is NOT a high tech, 18000 rpm, 200 hp race motor. heck, no use reving them past 6 grand, not alot of power up there anyways. good advice to change it often, that is good advice for any motor. clean oil equals lots of happy miles! I've been using valvoline, havoline, castrol gtx, castrol actevo, and lots of others I've long forgotten about, including some off brand stuff I've had to use on trips. all my motors are still happily spinning away, some with a few hundred thousand miles.

In a way, that is the problem. An older engine with flat tappets, the lifters and camshaft design and metallurgy assumed a common zinc oil additive (ZDDP) at the time to combat lifter wear. Turns out that the zinc additive is not good for catalytic converters and the additive levels have been reduced, thereby promoting lifter wear on older engines.

Oil is like a holywater, everyone has the One and True oil that they use. FWIW.

my favorite is the one on SALE!!

If you've ever had the front cover off an overhead cam diesel like CAT, and seen all those gears that go more than a million miles, you'd see the sense of using diesel rated oil

my 2c

Kings XXX

There were no cases at Autozone, I just bought all their stock at three stores over a couple of weeks as they restocked. At the time the regular price was $3.99 and they had $2 off a quart. They also had a Valvoline M\C 20-50 for the same price.

Keep an eye out for their sales, I am pretty sure that it was on at least a couple of times in the spring and summer. I figured I had enough with the 2 cases, but I will probably top up again if I see the sale in the spring.

I need grips too!???