<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>for about 20.00 I get oil and filter from the dealer. It's peace of mind to use exactly what the manufacturer had in mind for your machine and I change twice a year. That's 40.00 a year and I don't have to worry if "brand x" oil is hurting my clutch. </end quote></div>

Synthetic oil is just has many more advantages over regular petroleum. Do a search on the net "full synthetic vs conventional oil" you will find the debate of which oil protects a motor better is long over. Dino oil's ONE AND ONLY advantage is prices. ATVs only take 2 quarts of oil and MObile 1 is only $3.50 at Walmart so who cares about price.

There many Synthetics oils made for wet clutches Amsoil being one of them. HONDA does not offer a FULL sythetic oil just like Harley Davison but they sure recomend them ,They Sell Them thats why ,even though the are no as high a quality. People have to understand Honda and Harley DONT MAKE OIL.

I told my bike mechanic I was using Harley's conventional oil in my solftail and he just laughed at me, He has a R&R Motor in his custom that cost as much as my whole bike and he will not run anything but Sythetic.

I bought a spark Plug once from my Honda dealer and they handed me a over priced NGK BR9ES that was in a box that had "Honda genuine parts" printed on it. LOL

HONDA DON'T MAKE SPARK PLUGS EITHER!

 

Actuallly, until Harley came out with a synthetic oil with their brand on it, their official stance was that it was not necessary. I think their web page read that the main advantage to synthetics was extreme cold pumpability, and since very few people fire up the wide glide when it's below zero... Now they sell synthetic (a blend I believe)...

I agree that synthetics are superior, but I think most of the time in a quad good MA oil of any type gets contaminated from blow by, condensation, clutch material and stuff like that before it begins to break down.

I usually run synthetic, and all I'm saying is that not skipping an oil change is more important, and that many folks get thousands of hours on dino oil.

As far as oil lab results go, those tests are often of more use to determine the condition of the engine than the oil. Often done in diesels, they can detect high silicates which generally indicates dust getting through the air filter, water contamination, fuel contamination, and content of various metals... When they see a spike in copper, for example, it generally indicates bottom end bearings are in trouble. Results that show viscosity has gone out of grade don't necessarily mean the oil has broken down. If it's fuel content is high, it has been thinned by fuel contamination...

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: JeffinTDAs far as oil lab results go, those tests are often of more use to determine the condition of the engine than the oil.</end quote></div>

Exactly! But, you can go to the BITOG site and endlessly read about someone "evaluating oils" by throwing them in some clapped out old junker, then claiming that the oil being tested failed them.....

 

Yeah, kind of like people going "look how quickly the oil went out of grade! Viscosity Breakdown!". Then look a the rest of the results, and like 7% of the sample is fuel and water contamination... Gee, I wonder why the viscosity changed...

Don't get me wrong, I think oil analysis is useful. If I were looking at spending $50 or $60K on a used semi, I'd have a dino run done while measuring blowby, and I'd have the oil sent to blackstone or whoever... I'm just not up for paying to send a sample from every oil change I do on gas engines I already own...


Some of the guys who run full synthetics in OTR diesels along with partial-pass certrifuge oil cleaners use oil analysis to make sure they are still getting decent protection when extending oil change intervals, but to me that only makes economic sense when logistical factors make it very expensive to do regular oil changes on that particular piece of equipment.