Will Synthetic Oil kill my Clutch?

[Anonymous]

Amsoil

You WONT kill your clutch by using synthetic! Thats malarky. Amsoil has motorcycle oil with no friction modifiers that is totally compatable with wet clutches.

Its also NOT a waste of money. It DOES protect better and lasts longer so you can run twice the milage as conventional oil. Just keep reading on the subject and keep an open mind. There is no performance test in which conventional oil outperforms synthetics, its that simple.

https://www.1stSynthetic.us

[G man]

I would recommend against extending your oil change intervals. Tbarnby is right on about the temperature. If your engine gets to the temperature that would destroy the oil, you have got some real problems.

By extending your oil change intervals, you are leaving contaminants and corrosives inside you engine for longer periods of time.

In my opinion, synthetic oil in our GS's is a waste of money. I use Catrol GTX 10W40 in my 750. I still have a gallon of Honda oil that came with my 850, but it will also go to Castrol GTX when that is up. I doubt you will experience any clutch slippage with synthetic as long as you use 10W40 or heavier weight oil. As jpaul points out, it is the additives in the lighter weight oils marked "Energy Conserving" and "Energy Conserving II" that will cause problems. If you don't mind spending the money, go for it.

I have heard stories about synthetic oil finding leaks that dino oil wouldn't, but that might not be such a big concern with the low-pressure oil system in your '78.

All that said, my old roommate used whatever brand was on sale, 5W30 automobile oil in his Yamaha 600 Radian for several years with no problems. He didn't want to have to buy two different cases of oil so he used what his Integra called for.

[redliner1973]

also realise Synthetics, While superior in the heat range dept., still suffer the same as dino's when it comes to breaking down in the gearbox. if your curious, skip the web sites and do an oil analysis of both dino and synthetics on a wet clutch bike and go from there.... :twisted:

[saaz]

Don't use an energy conserving oil, and change the oil when you should. use a good quality oil. if you want to use more expensive mineral oil or synthetic. Synthetic can run cleaner internally and less varnish etc buildup.

Now ask what is the best tyre, is a chain better than a shaft, etc ect....you will get the same range of opnions as oil!!!

[Anonymous]

G man is right on about using 10w40 or thicker. I had to use 10w30 in my bike for the winter and my clutch was either off or on...I didn't have any control over it really. I put 20w50 in yesterday and now I can ride slow in traffic (like I need to do that...but I can now )

Steve

[Anonymous]

Re: Wow, I love this place

Thanks for all the responses. The interesting thing is this. This guy that I talked to said that I would kill my clutch. It was the same tone as, "don't drink oven cleaner" type of a tone. I looked at clutches on JC Whitney, andd they are less then $100. So, if I kill it, well I guess I get a clutch. I believe, not having years of automotive experiance, that synthetic is by and far better for most motors. Although, I know that it is not the savior of anything. But, I know that my bike can get pretty hot in stop and go traffic. So bottom line. Maybe I should take it to the local bike shop and talk to them. By the way, I totally appreciate all these responses.

i used a JC whitney clutch in my Kawa eliminator (castroll 20 -50))oil and beat the bike to death in 1/4 mile street races--it seemed as good as any other clutch

J.C's clutch plates are okay, but I didn't like their springs at all. They sent me EBC springs, and they were too long. Clutch pull would have been awful. If your clutch slips, it's rarely the oil. Usually it's weak springs. I shimmed mine with spark plug washers...works great. I can't get the clutch to slip under any conditions.

[KrazyKarl02]

I hate synthetic

Ok, I will give you in an engine synthetic oils in general result in higher HP and lower temps, but take this simple example, I own a 1965 Chevelle, all original, V8 283 never been rebuilt! for 35 years this vehicle used normal oil, I swapped to synthetic after reading the hype, the car now burned a quart of oil every 1000 miles!!!! I did this for 3 oil changes! after that I switched to normal oil and it does not burn oil at all, synthetic is "slicker" (excuse my terms if you like I will brake into technical terms), so it does provide less friction, but it can also slide past rings and seals easier on a worn engine like most of us have.
Further more when you change ol in an engine that is synthetic what color is it???? Is it not black??? (for those that do not know it is) why is this, I thought synthetic does not break down? The black domes from bits of carbon that pass through the rings and end up in the oil, this particulate is so small it misses the filter. So the whole stuff about synthetics last longer is kind of BS, yes it does not break down as quickly as others, but there is still crap in it in the engine!
Sorry for such a long post, but just some info I had built up, oh and for any of you that swear by Royal Purple, go visit the plant it is in Porter, Texas! Anyone from South Texas will tell you that anything made in Porter is not worth a crap!

Fire Away,
Karl

[redliner1973]

the reason synths get 'blacker' quicker is because they clean an engine MUCH better than a dino. Black oil is not a broken down oil. it is just doing it's job of keeping suspended material suspended like any detergent oil will. One reason Synths 'burn' more in worn engines is due to that cleaning action, and that synths are not 'slicker' but ususally made on teh lower end of the weight scale. a good example is mobile one. The 10w-30, while still a '30w', is almost a 10w'25' oil. And of course, whe you go back to your favourite 'Dino' oil, they are almost always blended on the 'heavy' side of the weight scale. Hope this explains it alittle better... :twisted:

[Anonymous]

Re: Wow, I love this place

Thanks for all the responses. The interesting thing is this. This guy that I talked to said that I would kill my clutch. It was the same tone as, "don't drink oven cleaner" type of a tone. I looked at clutches on JC Whitney, andd they are less then $100. So, if I kill it, well I guess I get a clutch. I believe, not having years of automotive experiance, that synthetic is by and far better for most motors. Although, I know that it is not the savior of anything. But, I know that my bike can get pretty hot in stop and go traffic. So bottom line. Maybe I should take it to the local bike shop and talk to them. By the way, I totally appreciate all these responses.

i used a JC whitney clutch in my Kawa eliminator (castroll 20 -50))oil and beat the bike to death in 1/4 mile street races--it seemed as good as any other clutch

J.C's clutch plates are okay, but I didn't like their springs at all. They sent me EBC springs, and they were too long. Clutch pull would have been awful. If your clutch slips, it's rarely the oil. Usually it's weak springs. I shimmed mine with spark plug washers...works great. I can't get the clutch to slip under any conditions.

I had the same experience with whitney springs. i picked up a set of HD springs from my repair shop and sent the whitney ones back.