synthetic oils

[B-rad D]

does anyone run synthetic oil? if what brand? and does it really help at all?

[cals400ex]

synthetic all the way.......i run maxima but you can get amsoil, klotz, motul, mobil, etc. the list goes on and on. watch out for moly and friction modifiers in a bike with a wet clutch.

[wheeltrax]

I run Amsoil in mine, it seems to run cooler. I also noticed the oil comes out looking cleaner too.

[Rico]

Originally posted by wheeltrax
I run Amsoil in mine, it seems to run cooler. I also noticed the oil comes out looking cleaner too.

Best thing you could ever do to your motor is run synthetic in it. IT is more expensive but offers so much more protection that it's worth it to me.

Amsoil 20w-50 is my choice of poison................:macho


Here's a little reading taken from the Oil Bible. IT will clearlyl state the difference between Synthetic vs. Petroleum oil and why synthetic is better. It's written about vehicle motors but it still applies to ATV motors that run on gasoline. It's good reading and worth the time to go over.

Synthetic vs. Petroleum
Oil is the lifeblood of your vehicle's engine. Without motor oil, there is little likelihood that any of your
vehicles would make it past the end of your street each morning. For decades conventional petroleum
oils have been providing adequate protection for all of our vehicles.
Notice the key word here: adequate. Petroleum oils, for the most part, have done an adequate job of
protecting our engines from break down. If you change it often enough, you can be relatively sure that
your car will last 100,000 to 150,000 miles without a serious engine problem - maybe even longer.
My question is this: Why are you settling for adequate when something better has been available for
about 30 years? Do you ask your mechanic to simply keep your vehicle from breaking down, or do you
want him/her to keep it running in tip-top shape? The fact that you are reading this book suggests the
latter.
It is perfectly reasonable to expect top performance from your vehicles. You are certainly paying for it.
It's tough to buy a vehicle for less than $15,000 to $20,000 anymore. That's a great deal of money to
shell out for adequate performance.
Today's engines are built for better performance, and, although petroleum oils are designed for better
protection and performance today than they were 10 or 20 years ago, there is only so much that can be
done. Today's engines need high performance lubricants, and synthetics are the only ones that fit
the bill.
Conventional petroleum oils are insufficient for use in today's vehicles primarily because they are
manufactured from a refined substance, as was discussed in Chapter 2. Petroleum oil basestocks
contain paraffins (wax), sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, water, salts and certain metals. All of these
contaminants must be refined out of the basestock in order for it to be useful for use within a lubricant.
Unfortunately, no refining process is perfect. Impurities will always remain when any refining process is
done. It simply isn't economical to continue to refine the oil again and again to remove more impurities.
If this was done, petroleum oils would cost as much as synthetic oils do.
Thus, there are many components of petroleum oil basestocks which are completely unnecessary for
protecting your engine. They do absolutely nothing to enhance the lubrication properties of the oil. In
fact, most of these contaminants are actually harmful to your oil AND your engine.
PRONE TO BREAK-DOWN
Some of the chemicals in conventional petroleum lubricants break down at temperatures well within the
normal operating temperature range of your engine. Others are prone to break down in these relatively
mild temperatures only if oxygen is present. But, this is invariably the case anyway, especially since
oxygen is one of the contaminants within petroleum basestocks.
These thermally and oxidatively unstable contaminants do absolutely nothing to aid in the lubrication
process. They are only present in conventional petroleum oils because removing them would be
impossible or excessively expensive.
When thermal or oxidative break down of petroleum oil occurs, it leaves engine components coated
with varnish, deposits and sludge. In addition, the lubricant which is left is thick, hard to pump and
WHY PETROLEUM OILS ARE INSUFFICIENT
maintains little heat transfer ability.
POOR COLD TEMPERATURE STARTS
In addition, as was previously mentioned, petroleum oils contain paraffins which cause dramatic oil
thickening in cold temperatures. Even with the addition of pour point depressant additives, most
petroleum oils will begin to thicken at temperatures 10 to 40 degrees warmer than synthetic oils.
As a result, petroleum lubricants will not readily circulate through your engine's oil system during cold
weather. This may leave engine parts unprotected for minutes after startup. Obviously, significant wear
can occur during this time frame.
MARGINAL HEAT CONTROL
Even when all conditions are perfect for conventional oils to do their job, they fall far short of synthetic
oils. Part of the problem is that (because of their refined nature) petroleum oils are composed of
molecules which vary greatly in size.
As the oil flows through your vehicle's lubrication system, the small, light molecules tend to flow in the
center of the oil stream while the large, heavy ones adhere to metal surfaces where they create a
barrier against heat movement from the component to the oil stream. In effect, the large, heavy
molecules work like a blanket around hot components.
There is also another effect of the non-uniformity of petroleum oil molecules which reduces their
effectiveness. Uniformly smooth molecules slip over one another with relative ease. This is not the case
with molecules of differing size.
Theoretically, it might be somewhat similar to putting one layer of marbles on top of another (if this
could easily be done). If the marbles were all of the same size, they would move over one another fairly
easily. However, if they were all of differing sizes, the result would be much less efficient.
In the case of petroleum oils this inefficiency leads, ironically, to added friction in the system (the very
thing that lubricants are supposed to reduce). Hence, petroleum oils are only marginally capable of
controlling heat in your engine. Considering that motor oil does nearly 50% of the cooling of your
engine, that's not a good thing. But, I'm sure you've already guessed that