Motor oil and gear oil

Anyone got any suggestions regarding oil and rear end oil? I went to buy some oil and was very confused regarding synthetic and partially synthetic and not synthetic oil. $^*&%&^%^%%$

I would suggest that you go to your local Yamaha dealer and purchase the recommended lubricants.

I will be nice...

... and suggest Rotella T 15W-40 for engine oil.

... and Mobil 1 75W-90 LS gear lube for the rear drive!

Let the madness begin.

Taking this as a discussion of oil composition and not brand, I'll offer some good faith information before this puppy goes to NEPRT faster than the speed of light.

Any brand name oil you buy will meet API service requirements which means none are bad.

Non synthetic oil is pumped out of the ground and distilled into factions at a refinery and the worst thing that can be said about a natural oil base is that it does contain some elements that can't be removed. And, it really doesn't matter. Additives get put in the oil and off you go.

Synthetic oil is a formulation base which is a lab brew that tends to hold the molecular chains together a bit better (doesn't thin out), handles temperature extremes better and perhaps is a bit more slippery. Additives get put in the oil and off you go.

Partly synthetic oil has a refined petroleum base mixed with a synthetic base, additives get put in the oil and off you go.

Motorcycles are particularly hard on engine oil because unlike cars, the motorcycle transmission sits in the engine oil and the gears shear the molecular chains. Synthetic oil is in theory better able to resist this.

As hard as it is to believe, the major difference in oils is the marketing and price Any name brand oil that is API certified, and of the correct weight will do a good job. Some with a synthetic base may last longer.

Whew! Yes, I used the KISS method and left out 27.36e16 pages of information

puppychow said:

I will be nice...
... and suggest Rotella T 15W-40 for engine oil.

... and Mobil 1 75W-90 LS gear lube for the rear drive!

Let the madness begin.

Click to expand...

This is my exact combo. Coming up on 50K and all looked good inside the motor when I shimmed my valves recently.

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=fjr1300+oil

I am here to post in this important thread before it becomes NEPRT!

rotella 5W-40 and Mobile 1 75-90 LS.

I use Valvoline 10w-40 full synthetic and Valvoline 80-90 DuraBlend gear oil & change engine oil and filter around 4k miles, gear oil 10-12k miles.

One thing noone has mentioned explicitly yet is that some motor oils have additives that will not work well with your clutch.

From https://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/Oils1.html

"Avoid oils that say "energy conserving" in the bottom half of the donut. These oils contain friction modifier additives that could cause clutch slipping over time. Essentially all 0w-20, 5w-30 and 10w-30 oils are energy conserving, and should not be used in your motorcycle."

I can't believe this hasn't gone NEPRT yet. Are the admins all together somewhere drinking? I'll be really hurt if I wasn't invited.

David, Trust me, I am an expert. These bikes do need oil; preferably clean oil . I highly recommend using oil.

And, I recommend that you do a bit of research prior to asking such a question in the future. Remember, I am an expert.

Valvoline 10w-40 motorcycle and Mobil 1 75w-90 gear FTW!

Now that we've had all the nice responses, where is HotrodZilla to welcome our new member?

(edit... doh!!!! missed him)

So, what's wrong, if anything, with using Mobil 1 75w-140 LS for the final drive???

Back on topic, Geezer's post is very important. You do NOT want an energy conserving oil, it will make your clutch slip.

You can't search for oil using the Forum's search engine, it can't search on three letter words, the search term has to be four letters or more. If you do try to search on OIL it will come back blank because it is three letters. You can use Google though, in the Google search box type: OIL SITE:FJRFORUM.COM. You can search anything in the Forum like this.

If you go to the main page, scroll down the topics until you find Never Ending, Pointless, Repeating Threads (NEPRT) and page through this topic, you will find oil quite well represented and should provide 610% of the information you are looking for.

I just can't believe we are talking about oil in an oil thread....... AND for the record I'm not telling... what you should use or even what I put in my bike(s).

If I posted this it would have been in NERPT before the second post! Is it me? Or are we seeing a kinder gentler Mod? I'm thinking it's me, not the subject matter.

Dunno why this hasn't hit NEPRT yet. I do think the admins are equal opportunity topic movers and don't focus on specific people. And with this drifting off topic of the thread NEPRT creeps up.

A difference between this thread that the 8,698 other oil topics is the OP is asking about the oil base and not about what brand to use.

...and was very confused regarding synthetic and partially synthetic and not synthetic oil...

Click to expand...

Which Geezer and I addressed.

Edit to add: IMO, high mileage engine oils may not be the best for our FRJs. The high mileage oils contain seal swelling agents which may well swell the valve stem seals. Tight valve stem seals caused some Gen I valve stems to have insufficient oil which led to valve guide wear a.k.a. a 'ticker'. To fix this kind of problem the cylinder head has to be pulled and a machine shop has to install new valve guides. YMMV.

I'm just surprised that one of the Amsoil guys hasen't popped in to berate all lesser oils. Isn't about time for an Amsoil guy ?

Amsoil