I'm down, ahhhh, I dropped me bike...

[Stirts]

Thanks. Do I get a badge or something? Might need a hand to pin it on though....

Here you go

[MarkH]

Not me I use Motul full 15/50 in thye 955 and Motul semi 15/50 in the rest of the bikes

Semi-synthetic - LOL!

Mobil 1 Racing 4T 10W-40

I've had a cunt of a job finding that (Suzuki specify 10-40w for my scootah) so I bought some Mobil 1 Delvac 10-40w which should work about the same. I'll buy the Mobil 1 Racing 4T next time if I can find the stuff.

[skippa1]

I've had a cunt of a job finding that (Suzuki specify 10-40w for my scootah) so I bought some Mobil 1 Delvac 10-40w which should work about the same. I'll buy the Mobil 1 Racing 4T next time if I can find the stuff.

Yeah, not cheap either. I was paying $118 for 4 litres.

[MarkH]

Yeah, not cheap either. I was paying $118 for 4 litres.

Fuck, that's expensive - I only paid $107.50 for the Delvac and that was for 5 litres.
Luckily the scootah doesn't use much - 1.3L is enough for an oil & filter change, even with a little top-up now & then I should be good for 3 oil changes off 5L of Delvac.

I probably shouldn't have laughed at dogsnbikes - it wasn't long ago that I didn't know what semi-synthetic meant either.

[Owl]

Yeah, not cheap either. I was paying $118 for 4 litres.

I'm sure I posted earlier in this thread, that is can be purchased for $55+gst.

[skippa1]

I'm sure I posted earlier in this thread, that is can be purchased for $55+gst.

You did. Good luck with that, Usual RRP is about $100, our local shop puts his markup on cause we are specialI can get it for less, nowhere near $55.... but freight just pushes it back up there. Where are you getting Mobil 1 4T for $55/4ltrs?

[Owl]

You did. Good luck with that, Usual RRP is about $100, our local shop puts his markup on cause we are specialI can get it for less, nowhere near $55.... but freight just pushes it back up there. Where are you getting Mobil 1 4T for $55/4ltrs?

From here.

http://www.mobmech.co.nz/diesel-truck-mechanic.html

Good bunch of guys and I believe they ship 4lt for about $10. Still better than $100+

I think a lot of the price variation, is that motorcycle shops purchase Mobil 1 from Northern Accessories, who have a RRP of $109. Even the local Allied servo sells it for about $70.

[skippa1]

From here.

http://www.mobmech.co.nz/diesel-truck-mechanic.html

Good bunch of guys and I believe they ship 4lt for about $10. Still better than $100+

I think a lot of the price variation, is that motorcycle shops purchase Mobil 1 from Northern Accessories, who have a RRP of $109. Even the local Allied servo sells it for about $70.

just rang them, what a good price I know where I am going next

[Old Steve]

This is coming from 20 + years in the lubricant industry, last nine in an overseas technical center for one of the large fuel/lube companies in this area.

The term "synthetic" means diddly squat. Years ago Mobil made Mobil1 using man made synthetics such as PAO (poly-alpha-olefins). Castrol in the US started using highly hydro treated mineral basestocks (hydro treating breaks double bonds in the lube molecule which will lead to thermal breakdown/thickening of the oil). Castrol started using the term synthetic for their modified mineral oil based lubricant.

Mobil took them to court, and the judge must have been having a bad day. He approved Castrol's use of the term synthetic for those hydro treated mineral basestocks. Those of us in the lube industry mostly agreed with Mobil, a synthetic is a product made up from smaller molecules, such as polymerising olefins to form PAO.

The thought at the technical level of the lube companies at the time was that a synthetic should be categorised by certain physical and chemical parameters. Viscosity Index (VI) would be a great determination whether an oil should be called synthetic. VI is the measurement of how fast an oil changes viscosity (OK, thats "thickness" to you guys) as temperature changes. The less an oil changes viscosity as temperature changes - ether thins slower as temperature rises or thickens slower as temperature falls - then the higher it's VI is. A well refined mineral oil has a VI around 90 to 95, maybe as high as 100. The US court hydro treated mineral oil type synthetic may have a VI in the range of 110 to 120. A proper synthetic, such as a PAO, will have a VI of 130 or more. I think I saw a paper that suggested that these three VI segments be called mineral (say VI up to 105), semi-synthetic (say VI 110 to 120) and synthetic (say VI above 125 or 130). That would have prevented mineral/"synthetic" mixes being called semi-synthetic so these would have had to be described as "synthetic blend".

So now, any lube manufacturer can use hydro treated mineral basestocks and call them synthetic, or even mix a little hydro treated mineral basestock with straight mineral oil and call it semi-synthetic. Though I think about the time I left the oil industry there were moves to require a minimum percentage of synthetic in a semi-synthetic.

There are a couple of mineral based synthetics which are quite good. Chevron have a plant which produces a product they call ISO-Syn, it's a highly hydro treated and processed mineral basestock with quite a high VI and good oxidation resistance. Shell went outside the box. A good lube oil molecule is as straight chain as you can get, and as wax molecules are perfect very very long straight chain molecules, Shell took wax and broke the molecule length down into lube oil length molecules (and plugged the ends of the new molecules with hydrogen atoms). This is a very good synthetic which comes from a mineral petroleum product base.

[Bonez]

Cheers for that Old Steve.

[Katman]

(OK, thats "thickness" to you guys)

Careful - skippa may take exception to that.

[skippa1]

Careful - skippa may take exception to that.

Ahhh, theres that ol safety message again. Thanks Katman, everything you say is so meaningful