50 weight oil?

[Motu]

Got to start somewhere....and there is no point doing a UOA if you keep changing vehicles.The first lot of oil I used in this bike was just some leftovers I didn't intend to carry on with,so the testing starts here.

[Brian d marge]

I'm using Castrol Edge Sport 25-50 in my airhead,it's aimed at the performance V8 market - 2 valve pushrod engines,so I reckon it should be ideal for 2 valve pushrod engines.I had a used oil analysis done on it,and it looks pretty good for the job.Cheap...at Supercheap.

and can I add to the above ..

a good 20/50 is ok , if you need more detergent then a diesel oil will be fine ( can withstand higher loads and has more detergents in it

Fuchs ( silcoline sp is a great oil) , but a straight 50 weight??? , well at running temp it is fine , but on a cold morning its like pushing treacle around your motor

If you are worried about, your engine then modern synthetics are very good ( real synthetics not that modified stuff)

I race my Enfields, they have both a roller big end and a Floating bush ( which I admire )

I run Bp 20/50 and have more trouble with the right hand than the oil,,,( valve touched head in last race ,,,,,,,,)

Stephen

[Voltaire]

I assume Shell still market this product. Also, bevel Ducatis are supposed to use 50wt monograde, so a Duc dealer should be able to supply something

in 20 years I have never run a mono grade oil in my Bevel...or for that matter any of my air cooled VW's.
The manuals both say to, but I suspect multi grade oil was new and un tested...?
Early Bevels had a small big end and no filtration, later ones had a bigger one and sort of filtration.
I fitted a filter to my VW....they have a mesh screen as std and ran a tuned up motor in a Kombi around Europe for 30 000 kms and bearing on tear down some years later were not too bad.
Conclusion...any oil, changed regularly, fit a filter.
I change the Duke oil every 1500 kms and a VW with filter every 5000 kms.

The Duke dealer here does spark plugs for bevels.....and bugger all else, as Ducati are not really the same company as in the 70's.

[Redmoggy]

Now this was only my understanding from an oil company rep in the UK. Roller bearing cranks don't like modern oils. Basically this is because of the way the balls crush the molecules of the oil. An older oil spec such as API/SG or API/CD or CC is much more appropriate. Using a multi-grade should work just fine. Synthetic oils don't allow cast iron rings to bed in properly with a fresh bore and the friction modifiers in the latest oils will cause your clutch to slip if you have a shared primary.

Just my 2c
Roy

[Flip]

The chemical that they add to make multi grade oils and looks like gorilla snot is not very shear stable. What I mean is it slowly breaks down in gear boxes and bearings. The oil slowly thins because the gorilla snot breaks down.

Oils after SG are approved for use in the new European motors and were developed to not pollute the cats, the problem was the metals that were part of the detergent additive package. I believe that some of the new oils are not as good 'lubricant' as some of the old SG ones. Most of the mixed fleet lubes stop at SG because diesel oils need a good strong detergent package.

The best synthetic oils eg Mobil 1 (and i hate the bastards) are very shear stable and have incredibly high film strength, Mobil 1 makes brilliant gear box oil in boxes that run on motor oil. I have seen BMW motors that did half a million km that still had the hone marks in the bores.

[nsrpaul]

ok, castrol gp50 is still availiable in the uk as part of their classic oils range, but not listed on their nz website

no email contact on their website either

[Woodman]

This is what you want.

http://www.penriteoil.com.au/product...le-oils/hd_oil

[nsrpaul]

This is what you want.

http://www.penriteoil.com.au/product...le-oils/hd_oil

thinking it is, have emailed penrite to see if they still do hpr50, if not will order some of that stuff

[Brian d marge]

thinking it is, have emailed penrite to see if they still do hpr50, if not will order some of that stuff

think before you order ...why would you use a straight 50 wt .. I race Enfields and even I dont use a straight 50 , 20 50 / either car or sometimes diesel , the engine is apart quite often ..and I can show you the wear ...nowt

a good quality multi grade is fine ......., 50 /70 ...... I hope you arent going for a ride on a cold morning

ohhh nasty

Stephen

[katben]

first up I'm pretty sure penrite would say use this...

http://www.penriteoil.com.au/product...ine_oils_heavy

the main issue as i understand it with modern multigrade car oil vs older oils is modern oil don't contain nearly as much zink, because kats (in cars) don't like zink. zink is good in motorcycles as it protects from metal on metal wear when all else fails, it seams that in motorcycle engines this happens alot more often than cars (think cams)

as for the idea that roller bearing cranks destroy modern multigrades, haven't herd that one before, but going along with it....

hypoid gear box (manual transmission) oil would probably cope better with the sheering effects of the nasty roller bearings....

and by some magic the rating of gear oil is a different system and the weights are about half or double compared to engine oil, so 70 ish is 30 ish and so on I can't find the link right now

this is from wikipedia

"Most lubricants for manual gearboxes and differentials are hypoid gear oils. These contain extreme pressure (EP) additives and antiwear additives to cope with the sliding action of hypoid bevel gears.

It is extremely important to note that EP additives are corrosive to yellow metals such as copper or brass in bushings or synchronizers. GL1 is the class of gear oils that does not* contain EP additives, so it is the correct gear oil for. Having the same viscosity as 50W motor oil, some owners/operators have switched to this more readily available choice"