minral or semi sinthetic
 

hi there my xt is a 1985 43f 20,000 miles . which oil are you guys useing . minral or semi sinthetic in the early xt,s . i have had it 9 months and done 3,000 miles on castral gp 10,40 minral the same as i use in my early zed . it seems to run fine i change it every 2,000 kms . i am thinking of changing to semi and changing it every 3,000 kms . so which brand are you guys useing and which is to be avoided for any reason . the xt uses virtualy zero oil between changes and no overheating problems , so i am open to your many wise comments many thanks zigzag :thumbup1:

I've been using Semi in my '02 xt6e as a compromise between cost and lubing performance, in Southern Europe recently the temps the bike's had to cope with low 40'sC temps and up to 40kg load so a synthetic element to the oil was useful. But then again the daily mileage was high so the oil got up to temp properly. Short trips knock out the oil's properties pronto but reducing the oilchange intervals is a good idea, as you are doing. I'll stick with Halford's-own Semi but if you're on a tight budget and happy with reduced intervals then Mineral's fine IMHO :mchappy:

Shell helix 15/40 SG rated is a good mineral oil, and not expensive.

The best oil is clean fresh oil...... of the correct viscosity.. So your regime of 2000M is sensible.. On my 1985 BMW R 80RT I used sg rated 20/50. It has done 180K Km on it and does not use oil between 3k mile oil changes. Sadly these days my preferred SG oil also meets sl and sf spec so it might not be as good as it ought to be.

Synthetic Oils
 

Synthetic oils are mineral oils - they are just more highly refined petro oils.
Technically they are better at the extremes, i.e. extreme hot or cold. Practically, you will not see any difference - what is most important is that you use a quality product and the right viscosity.

Synthetics get dirty just as fast as regular oil - dirty oil is the primary reason for changing your oil on a regular basis. The oil does not change - but it gets dirty and the anti foaming and cleaning agents do breakdown.

I got recommended Miller CRF.

It's supposed to be THE best for XT's.

minral or synthetic
 

hi there thanks for your views ,tenere tom you seid millers crf . ive been on there site but carnt seem to see it , have you used this in your early xt ,is it semi or minral ,also is it a car or bike oil. i know this is a old topic , but there are a lot of old xt,s still running out there, so what is there favarate oil . also you guys in hot countrys are you on 10/40 15/40 15/50 20/50 etc . like i seid before an old topic , but like the old wise man seid oil is not JUST oil, more views please . many thanks zigzag?c?

So where are you planning on going to? Just get the grade that's suitable for the environment - and it's one thing wanting a particular oil, but actually getting it may be a smidge more difficult.

- are you sure you want to open this particular Pandora's Box, it'll fry a few brain cells...

minral or synthetic
 

hi guys , the only minral oil in ready supply localy is castral gp 10/40 , and thats £20.00 for 4 liters . for that money, in fact less i can get semi synthetic putoline ,so cost is not realy the issue. although semi could be changed at longer intivivals as seid earlyer this is a pandorers box as i dont intend selling my xt or doing any rtwt,s on the thing what i am after is long term earler xt owners views , as a long term zed owner (20 years ) mineral is the only oil i put in it, so what gos in long term xt owners bikes. so let me fry a few brains, and open the box .many thanks,take care zig zag :thumbup1:

Can you not get BMW SG rated 20/50 oil, or Harley V twin oil ?? Both exceed the specification by a large amount.. Your cams and followers will last forever with it.

Whoa there Oldbmw! Harley Oil is formulated specifically for HD engines, and don't forget they have a separate gearbox so the engine oil isn't formulated for gearbox EP(Extreme Pressure)-use. It's really good value, mind...

Oil is far from being all the same in my experience. I ran my 34L on Castrol mineral oil for a while, and in common with other posts, it didn't use a drop between changes, which surprised me no end.

Then, prior to The Big Trip, I changed to some fully synthetic oil (sorry, too long ago, don't remember make, but grade would have been similar to what I used previously 10/40) ... to find the bike drank it like it was going out of fashion!

I don't understand why (but I'd love to learn), but needless to say I switched rapidly back to mineral oil and haven't had a problem in the many years since.

Getgeared Is Good!
 

Hello Guys,

I have been putting this stuff in my 1999 XT600E -

PROCYCLE Semi-Synthetic Mineral Engine Oil 4 Stroke SAE 10W-40

It's super quality stuff (ticks all the boxes re standards etc) and only costs £16 for a large tub. Oh and it's GERMAN so should be A OKAY for all bikes.

GETGEARED deliver next day without fail.

:thumbup1:

Well that's odd. This morning there was a reply with a nice explanation to my post (basically, air cooled thumpers have wide tolerances and are better suited to mineral oil) ... and now its disappeared. :confused1:

Just for the sake of correctness:

Strictly speaking this is not true, see;
Synthetic oil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Synthetic oils were originally developed specifically for jet aero engines because the single bearing at the centre of these engines gets very hot and traditional mineral oils used to carbonise (burn) causing the period between engine rebuilds (and failures) to be very short.

There is a hell of a lot of good information about oils both on this forum and many other locations on the web, a quick google will pull up a cornucopia of information.

I think that pretty much any oil of the correct specification is fine tbh and changing it regularly is the best love a man can give his engine :)

Just for the record, I use a 10/40 semi (and I'm probably wasting my money)

In view of the posts above and the fact it's almost a 50-50 either way (for and against), I'd recommend you use SEMI-SINTHETIC oil which meets both lines of thought halfway.

xt frog the dissapeared post was by me late last night and a bit tipsy when I re read it it did not come across right the way I had tried to explain the dynamics of oil science - looked great after a bottle of red wine though ! so anyway i deleted it so that some clever fart did not come along and rip me to bits. But seems you got the jist Synthetics flow under very fine surfaces where mineral oils cant get namely under seals and piston rings on older engines with tolerences far larger than modern engines are built to. Synthetic oil used in bikes like bmw airheads can weep through the rear crank seal and get onto the dry clutch so I suppose if it can do that it can get into other areas that should be dry of oil having done so you record a loss in the sump. Mineral oils rule for older bikes. Add a seal improver additive evry 20,000 miles and this helps swell the seals - something the old oils used to do but cant any more as the additives are not regarded as nice for the world outside of your engine so they dont put them in anymore. jake.

Thanks for the explication Jake - good to know I wasn't going mad after all!

(your original post read just fine to me, btw)

Just to add my two cents worth of contrariness- changing oil every 3000 km or less is a waste of money unless you are running your bike extremely hard , as a racer , or in extemely dirty conditions. Or if you only ride 3000km in a year.
Under normal riding conditions modern oils are quite good enough to serve for more than 5 or 6 thousand km .And I have found there is no need to obsess about the debate over whether regular oil , synthetic or semi synth is better. They are all rated with the letter system, SG being hard to find now as the code has already progressed to SL and SK . So a synth oil rated as SL is guaranteeing that it is just as good as , but no better than , a regular SL oil. But , hey, they are all oily and work fine if you stick to the viscosity ratings recommended for your bike.
How do I know this? - from 42 years of running all my bikes on any oil I could find within the viscosity and close to the class rating recommended. The famous brands as well as any store brand which was at hand when an oil change was needed , anywhere up to 9000km intervals. I have run a 1994 airhead BMW R100 like that and after 273000 km the motor was still running well with no smoking , only once replaced the pushrod tube seals because they shrank and dribbled oil like my old'66 BSA 500. Likewise I used ( abused some will say) BMW R65 , R80 , XL600 Honda,CB350F,CB400F,XJ750 Yamaha,XJ600, and others and currently a KLR650 and a BMWR1100 now with 224000km on it.
Never in 42 years have I lost an engine because the oil failed to do its work. The trick is to keep oil in the bike! Dirty oil or cheap is better than no oil, and the store brands are just a s good as the stuff from the multinationals because it is made usually by those same big corporations, just the bottles are different.Same goes for oil branded by the bike makers- they don't have oil wells- they just order a batch from Shell, BP, or Exxon-Mobil etc.etc. . Sure there may be minor variations in the formulas but they all work satisfactorally.And isn't it funny to read on an oil containeer label that it is designed with " anti - wear " properties? Gee, why else do we pour in oil.?

minaral or synthetic
 

hi guys thanks for the comments ,my 43f is due another oil and filter change soon , so i think i will stick with mineral changed very regualy , its worked fine so far ,and my old zed with 92,000 miles on the origanal untouched motor seems to agree. thanks jake for your comments about synthetic getting past seals etc . a couple of my mates have the jap home market srx 600,s the motor basicaly a xt 600e both are on semi and use more oil than i like and my xt uses vertualy nil . so thanks again , and please keep adding comments , pandorers box is proving very interesting . takecare zigzag :thumbup1:

WHOOPS... Forgot myself there... I have to say I had old Triumphs and BMW bikes in mind :(

If you have a high tech "white goods" bike with the gearbox gears chewing up your engine oil, you will have to run with synthetic oil unless you want to chang every 1500/2000 miles.

and if you have EFI, and or catalytic converter do not use 20/50 SG rated oil. The anti wear phosphorus/zinc/calcium will knacker the sensors. Also with these engines, they generally need higher flow of oil to lubricate and cool so generally run with thinner oils.

just a footnote bmw have stopped selling the very high quality sg oil so i am using castrol act>evo gt t4 20/50 this is actually rated as a SG rating - not a higher rating oil that includes the sg qualifier. might be of interest to someone. But I have to agree with Mr Bakker that largely oil of the right type should do the job fine dont pay loads extra for something your engine does not need, almost all oils have to meet minimum spec thats noted on the container and if it meets the spec of your bike it should do the job. Jake.

This is exactly wrong. Sg rating guarantees it will have less than 0.12% anti wear additives. For SF/SL grade the limit is 0.10% Ie they guarantee the oIl wil not exceed the stated grade.
This is contrary to every other form of labelling. The reason is that vehicle manufacturers need to know what they can run which will not ruin teh EFI/engine management sensors. The 50 weight oils are excempt from the restriction because they are designated for old non efi engines. The BMW oil actually had 0.36% additives. But an oil might not contain any additives at all and still be entitled to claim compliance with many grades. beware an oil that meets many grades. IF oil was petrol they could sell kerosene as 100 octane because it is less than 100 octane. This is counter to what you would expect. In other words chip oil meets all standards because it has less anti wear additives ( zinc/phosphorus/calcium) so meets teh standard. For an old technology engine you are often better served buying diesel engine oil than the stuff marketed for petrol engines.

Old bmw i cannot argue with what you say cos I really dont know and I aint any kind of oil scientist - just going off the stuff they the manufacturers tell you. I will stick to me castrol 20/50 sg oil in any case, Anyway if your at the scottish weekend in september upto applecross - be good to have a chat after many beers cos I am sure it will all make sense then. Cheers Jake.

You are probably right to stick to castrol SG only 20/50. here in the eco friendly France, the best I can get these days is 20/50in SL :( Where do you buy it, i might try to get a can next time we vist the UK?

wont be coming to Scotland :( although I will be going to Germany in acouple of weeks for teh annual Diesel Bike meeting at Hamm
The one in westfallen.

Oil like petrol is getting worse and worse,,, while they figure out how to dilute it more and more with substitutes.

I can order the castrol through my local car shop but BMW service shops also stock and use it in place of the old BMW sg oil. So I would think any bm dealer should supply it as its now recommended by BMW for use in there bikes. Jake. I should be back in Germany in October some time but not set a plan yet.
Best wishes Jake.