SAE90 Oil in chain oilers.

[Flyingpony]

Anybody here use SAE90 oil in their chain oiler?

It looks thicker than normal engine oil and thus is probably slow flowing.
Will SAE90 happily mix with thinner oil grades or will they seperate?

My chain oiler is the verstile Loobman which should accept this grade. Only reason I'm considering mixing the two is so the SAE90 oil will reach the rear sprocket while bike is still moving and not end up pooling on the concrete if it needs more time than my ride duration.

Thanks.

[Lou Girardin]

I don't know about your oiler, but I've found that the Scott high temp oil doesn't seem to work as well in our climate as their thinner stuff. 90 grade is thicker again. I wouldn't use it in a Scott or Pixie oiler.

[HDTboy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't SAE90 gear oil? Not engine oil

[Fatjim]

80/90 is what DID recommend for the VM chains. You can mix it with a lower grade oil to get to flow if you need it to. Try it unmixed first.

[Motu]

Gear oils use a different rating system to engine oils - SAE 90 gear oil is the same viscosity as SAE 50 engine oil...so it will flow as good as a 20/50 engine oil.But it clings better and has additives to handle pressure and slidding friction...good stuff for chains.

[Flyingpony]

SAE90 oil is used in diff and gear boxes.

Loobman can handle nearly any oil while Scott etc are more limited with their oil of use.

Currently I'm using full synthetic motorcycle engine oil, 20w-50 (I think). If that's the case, then it's viscosity as Motu points out is roughly the same. As Motu also mentioned, with it's extra properties it sounds like it'll be more suited to the application at hand.

Now to pour this oil through the tiny neck of the Loobman bottle, top it up, and see how it goes.

Thanks!

[XTC]

I use a thin oil in the loobman. Give it a squirt before I ride off and after a 57km trip to work I only get a very small spot on the ground. I tried 90w gear oil and found it wasn't flowing fast enuff and ended up with a large puddle of oil when parked. Go for the thinner oil. And remember that loobman suggest that you activate your luber only once every 150 miles (240odd KM's).

[Lou Girardin]

Don't forget that the oil has to be thin enough to work past the O rings and lube the pins too.

[Pixie]

I don't know about your oiler, but I've found that the Scott high temp oil doesn't seem to work as well in our climate as their thinner stuff. 90 grade is thicker again. I wouldn't use it in a Scott or Pixie oiler.

You can use anything in a pixie oiler

[Pixie]

Don't forget that the oil has to be thin enough to work past the O rings and lube the pins too.

Lubing an o ring chain involves keeping the o rings clean and cool and lubing the rollers.
The oil doesn't and shouldn't get past the o rings.The o rings are there to retain the factory placed grease and that is what lubes the pins and bushes.

[XP@]

I use chainsaw oil in my scotoiler. it's maybe a tad thin (minimum setting required) but it seems to do the job.
It sticks to the chain really well, but unfortuatly sticks to everything else if the setting gets too high.
The main thing is I can't remember when i last changed the chain to needed to tighten it. I am beginning to suspect the cogs will wear before the chain.

[Lou Girardin]

You can use anything in a pixie oiler

Grease?

[Lou Girardin]

Lubing an o ring chain involves keeping the o rings clean and cool and lubing the rollers.
The oil doesn't and shouldn't get past the o rings.The o rings are there to retain the factory placed grease and that is what lubes the pins and bushes.

OK smartarse, why did we have premature chain wear with the high temp Scott oil?

[Pixie]

Maybe it didn't lube the o rings properly and they failed and let the grease out and the water in.

[Pixie]

Grease?

mashed bananas if you want