synthetic oil

[Anonymous]

What do you think out there about synthetic oils in the Gs's? Thinking of going to Mobil 1, 15/50. I use it in my 98 Honda Valkyrie, my Dakota and my cummins turbo diesel. all with no problems. I have a fresh engine in my 81 GS1100E. I know some people say to wait for rings to seat...BUT, Chevy puts Mobil 1 in thier corvettes from the factory also Porsh and BMW. Anyone using synthetic in thier GS's? Please advise, and thanks.

[oldschoolGS]

I have had excellent results with 15W-50 Mobil 1 in my bike, but do not run it during breakin. Use petroleum based oil for this. I have always liked regular Valvoline 10W-40 for breakin and then at about 1500 miles switch to synthetic. Synthetic oil is so superior it will actually prevent the rings from seating fully. On a fresh motor, I do 3 petroleum oil/filter changes. First at 50 miles, second at 500 miles and third at 1500 miles before starting synthetic. I have never had any clutch slippage problems but I am running aftermarket clutch plates and springs. Good Luck, Ed.
1983 GS750ED

[fastpakr]

My understanding of Porsche and the other manufacturers using synthetic from the factory was that they were running the engines through a break in cycle before they were installed. Meaning that you receive an engine with synthetic in it when you pick up the car, but it had dino oil at some point after it was assembled, and run through an engineered break-in procedure before being switched.

[scotty]

I waited 500 miles after installing pistons before i switched to dyno oil. My clue was that when the oil temperature stopped rising too high while i was cruising, i felt that the rings had seated and it was OK to go to synthetic. just what i did. I dont think there is any hard fast rule. But most folks go with the break in on Dino before the switch. I know a guy who has had about 3 Honda shadows and has always run synthetic in them from day one/ No problems so far????
Ill stick with the break in on Dino and don't leave the first oil in too long either.

[Jeff Tate]

My Kaw dealer said they recommend racking up 6000 miles before useing synth which I did and then switched. Better safe than sorry.

[SqDancerLynn1]

Don't switch to SYN unless your engine has been rebuilt. With old seals and gaskets you will find a lot of leaks you didn't know you had

[fastpakr]

While that may be a very slight possibility, it's mostly gone by the wayside now. If you aren't currently leaking, you have basically nothing to worry about with modern synthetic oils.

[oldschoolGS]

http://mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

I sort of agree with this guy, Manafacture breakin methods are too conserative, If its not fully broke-in by 1000-1500 miles, it is never going to be. I justify running synthetic w/changes at 1500 miles due to the fact that these air/oil cooled motors are much harder on oil than todays liquid cooled machines. Ride On, Ed.
1983 GS750ED

[Keith Winter]

Here's one;
I found out not to long ago that most of the new bike's you read about in most of the current magazine's, are long term tested with Mobile1 15-50 in the crankcase. If those guy's use it with loaner bike's, it must be ok in our bike's.

[dpep]

I used Mobil 15W-50 for the last 90,000 of the first 100,000 miles on my 850. Great stuff. Had times when I had to go long between changes. Had a couple of times when I messed up and ran it very low at highway speeds. It always bailed me out. Bike was still running good on the original set of rings at 100,000 when I had a full rebuild just to make it new for the next 100K.

I kept on dino for amost 10,000 after the rebuild. I switched back over to Mobil 1 for a recent trip, but will be swithcing back to Dino due to an oil consumption problem the rebuild seemed to introduce. I found interstate speeds use a quart every 350-400 miles; not a good figure for synthetic prices. I will be using whatever-is-on-sale dino until I find/fix the problem, and then go back to Mobil.