Topic: Not wanting to throw another rock through a hornet's nest, but...

[Saddlewarmer]

synthetic oil seems to have more cleaning properties than regular oil, therefore it cleans the gunk from inside the engine which might be sealing a hole, therefore you now have a seal leaking. seals in good shape, no leaks.
oil for diesels has more detergent for keeping a diesel clean.

[aptech77]

DO NOT use a 30 weight car oil in bikes. This will cause clutch slipage because 30 weight oil has molys, anti-friction modifiers. You need to use a 40 or 50 weight oil, but replace it with in 1k.  It will break down faster that a TRUE cycle oil. Mobile MX4T is a full syn that will work on wet clutch systems. 7-8 bucks a qt.

[nickjtc]

Thanks to all...this is very interesting stuff!

[eldar]

aptech,  iwould re-read the old oil posts. not all oils are the same. I used a 10w30 oil and it did not have moly or energy conserving additives. Worked fine for wet clutches. There was a previous article posted here about tests done on oil which showed that motorcycle oil was no better than auto oil really. Rotella is not a motorcycle oil and you see people here giving it rave reviews.
 
You just have to read the label. It is easy to do and much better than clinging to the old myths put out by motorcycle oil producers.

This article shows that a simple mobil1 synthetic FOR CARS was better than motorcycle oils AND cost less.

http://www.xs11.com/stories/mcnoil94.htm

[BobbyR]

What about diesel engine oil?

Could you temporarily add ATF to help seal leaky valve seals??

Pinhead, ATF is an old school fix amond dirt riders. They would soak the plates in ATF to improve friction. Remember Automatics have clutches inside. I would not run the bike on ATF but as an soak and slow idle you should be fine. Drain it out and put good oil in it

[Pinhead]

What about diesel engine oil?

Could you temporarily add ATF to help seal leaky valve seals??

Pinhead, ATF is an old school fix amond dirt riders. They would soak the plates in ATF to improve friction. Remember Automatics have clutches inside. I would not run the bike on ATF but as an soak and slow idle you should be fine. Drain it out and put good oil in it

Should I top my oil off with a quart or so of ATF and let it idle? Or should I replace all the oil with ATF and let it idle? It would obviously need to be completely changed after the idle time, but what exactly is the procedure?

[eldar]

I have heard of this being done in cars. You only put in like 1 quart on a car. You probably would not want to put in that much on a bike. Maybe half a quart and repeat the next oil change. If it is even recommended.

[jbailey]

There was a previous article posted here about tests done on oil which showed that motorcycle oil was no better than auto oil really. Rotella is not a motorcycle oil and you see people here giving it rave reviews.

Actually there is no such thing as auto, motorcycle, truck, diesel or go-kart oil.  It all has to do with additive packages and marketing.  What you need to do is determine what you need or more importantly do NOT need (such as moly) and pick an oil that fits.

"Automotive" oils are typically decreasing the use zinc and phosphorus, which prevents heavy load engine damage, due to catalytic converter use on cars and the increase of friction modifiers such as moly which causes clutch slip in wet clutch motorcycles.

"Motorcycle" oils generally have higher zinc and phosphorus content for load protection and NO moly for wet clutches.  They usually have a picture of a motorcycle on the front of the bottle.  That picture apparently has royalty fees of a couple of dollars per bottle.

"Diesel" oils generally have higher zinc and phosphorus content for load protection and NO moly for wet clutches. This oil is generally chemically identical to "motorcycle" oils, but do not have the expensive motorcycle picture.  (Hmmmmmm).

Rotella is not a motorcycle oil and you see people here giving it rave reviews.

Why is that?  (Hmmmmmm again).

All oils have dispersants which are commonally called "detergents".  The misconception is that this "detergent" is a cleaner like a laundry soap.  It is actually a dispersant which is designed to keep dirt and combustion by-products suspended in the oil rather than letting it settle and cause sludge.  All engine oils have about the same dispersant action no matter what brand or other characteristics.  The "cleaning" action is preventative to prevent sludge.  Once the sludge is there no oil will "clean" your engine.

Synthetic and conventional oils will work equally in most any modern engine produced except for rotary (Wankel) engines.  There is no way any oil can cause oil leaks, clutch slippage or whatever.  It is all about the additives.

[Pinhead]

When it comes to cleaning the inside of an engine, I remember hearing of an experiment that was ran a while back...

The guys went to a junk yard and got the crappiest, most beat-up looking car they could find. Pulling the valve covers revealed a head full of goo. They proceeded to drain the "oil" out of the pan (which was more like white-brown slime) and changed oil filters. Instead of adding engine oil, they filled the thing to "full" with Liquid Wrench and WD-40. After letting it set for a while they proceeded to crank the engine. At first it wouldln't start and they had to tow the thing (had a manual tranny) around the junk yard for an hour or so. Just before they gave up on the thing it started to sputter and smoke, pop and weeze. When it finally started it smoked like it was running on pure tranny fluid. They ran the crap out of it for a couple of hours around the junk yard, by no means sparing the throttle. When they were done they parked it and re-drained the pan and changed filters. You can only imagine the kind of crap that came out of it this time! They did this once a day for about 3 days, and each time the engine smoked less than before. After three solid days of molesting this engine, it completely stopped smoking! They pulled the valve covers once again and all of the sludge and slime was gone. Added "normal" engine oil and continued maintenance. A tuen-up was obviously required, complete with rocker arm adjustments, new spark plugs, carb cleaning, and everything else that a "normal" person would do to a car that's been setting for a while. The car ran so good that they continued driving the thing to haul stuff around the yard.

While I wouldn't even think about doing this to my motorcycle, I would consider trying it on an old beater bike that's not worth much, especially if the engine is stuck. I'm guessing it stopped smoking because the Liquid Wrench freed up the sticky rings and valve seals. I know that the common method to un-stick an engine is to fill the cyllinders up with WD-40 or Liquid Wrench, but I never thought of filling the entire engine with the stuff! And then running the thing that way!?!

[jbailey]

Just found an interesting review on a HONDA website:

http://tech.vtxoa.com/index.php?action=artikel&cat=39&id=32&artlang=en

[Bob Wessner]

they filled the thing to "full" with Liquid Wrench and WD-40

Seems to me that both of these have about zero viscosity and provide no protection to bearing surfaces.

[aptech77]

Yea, this sound like a BAD idea!!

[78 k550]

I'm using Rotella synthetic in my 75 goldwing and will put it in all my bikes when the oil is do to be changed. It is some really good stuff.

Paul

[Pinhead]

they filled the thing to "full" with Liquid Wrench and WD-40

Seems to me that both of these have about zero viscosity and provide no protection to bearing surfaces.

Yea, this sound like a BAD idea!!

That's why they did it to an old junker that would've been crushed otherwise. But it did seem to work for them. After the thing quit smoking they changed the oil/oil filter again, replacing the WD-40/LiquidWrench mix with 10W-30. Like I said before, I definately wouldn't do it to any engine that is running, only if the motor was stuck or considered "shot" anyway.