Hey everybody,

I just surpassed my 90 day inspection and plan to get the timing, valve stuff checked next week but I went ahead and changed the oil. I switched to the Castrol Synthetic for ATV and Motorcycle engines (It was at the dealer) Anyway, does anyone know of any problems that I may experience?
I do know that now that I have switched to synthetic that I will be unable to go back to regular.

Thanks,

 

I think you made a good choice going with a synthetic oil,but as far as the saying once you use it you cant go back to reguler oil is a myth.Dont get me wrong its great if you continue to run synthetic,but if for some reason you want to go back to reguler it is not going to harm your engine.

 

I just remember someone telling me that it would prematurely wear your clutch out...Not sure why or how but on the other hand WHY! would you want to go back to the regular oil. I run synthetic in everything that I have AFTER it is properly broke in according to the manufacture. I agree with you in that it was a good choice to go with synthetic in the Mojave...

Thanks,

 

Depakote, I have heard the same thing about premature clutch failure. Check with your dealer and see what they recommend. My dealer says use the Bel-Ray oil and not the stuff you can get at an auto parts store.

 

That stuff is all myths.... Everyone's heard that, but no one's experienced it. I have covered the reasons many times in these forums....

Your dealer says that either because he sells BelRay and it's more expensive or he's been sold on the promotional materials from BelRay. You can get the other at Walmart and it's cheaper (and been shown to be better than most "motorcycle oils"), he's got motives behind his recommendations....

 

Ok guy's, help me out. Why use synthetic instead of just plain old oil?

 

Interesting hearing you guys talk about this... I've got my own tidbit. I have a '95 bayou 400 4x4. Well, about a month ago I changed the oil (which I do once a year) and added Pennzoil 10w-40. My owners manual recommended a wide range of oil weights, including the 10w-40. After the oil change, I spent a full day seeding my yard on the four-wheeler, pulling rakes and such across rocky ground, pretty heavy duty stuff... I never really got past granny gear all day. The next day I was going trail riding, but when I went to pull out the driveway... the bayou practically died. It would pull in granny gear and 1st, but when I tried to hit second the motor just revved and I got ZERO pull from my clutch. I thought "great, now I've burned my clutch..." Well, I was on the verge of having a totally new clutch installed when someone suggested to try the synthetic oil, that it would solve all my problems. I thought "yeah right..." but it would only cost about $12 bucks to try whereas a new clutch would cost mega $$$$... so I tried it. Low and behold, as soon as I switched the oil, I took off and it hit 2nd (revved a little), then 3rd, and then 4th. Man, what a difference. I've had the oil in there for a month now and it changes gears and pulls like a totally different machine!!! Say what you want, but that oil did alot of good for my clutch and I haven't had any problems since.

 

First off, synthetic oil doesn't volatize like petroleum oil does. In other words, it doesn't evaporate and therefore maintains its original viscosity. That may be of little importance, as I don't know how it affects engine life. Second, its lubricative properties are by far superior, resulting in greatly extended engine life. It can withstand higher temperatures without breaking down, and flows much better at low temperatures for cold mornings. Its properties also allow it to keep harmful contaminants in suspension, rather than depositing somewhere in your engine. It can also be run for extended periods. For example: Mobil 1 or GM decided to test Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil in the quad 4 engine(made by GM). They put the oil in 2 of the quad 4 equipped automobiles, and ran each car to 200,000 miles. On one car, they changed the oil every 15,000 miles, and every 25,000 miles on the other car. At the end of the 200,000 miles, they removed the engines from the cars, and completely disassembled the engines. Using a micrometer, they measured all internal components of each engine to find that both engines were within GM specs for a new engine. That's pretty remarkable in my book.