Best 4 Stroke oils

Clint1991

Clint1991

PR Addict
Whats everyone openions on 4 stroke oils? Best, worse, stuff good enough for your farm quad but not good enough for your race bike? Lets here em.
 
I hear Amsoil is the best. Too expensive for me. The worst? I don't know. But I can tell you that I used ATV Valvoline conventional oil in my LTZ 400 and after 4 years found sludge in the bottom case and I changed the oil regularly not once a year... I now use Mobil 1 synthetic 4T in my bike. I did a search years ago about the best oils and I remember Amsoil was #1 and Mobil 1 was 2nd. It was an article on how oils broke down. Cant remember how the testing went but it was a damn good article. I'm sure the oil game has changed and there are better oils out there.
 
I always ran amsoil in all my street bikes and harleys but at the cost of it I dont run it in my ktm when it's only staying in for 5 hours. lol
 
Yep my street bikes I would spend the money on Amsoil but like you said changing oil every 5 hrs. on my motocross bike. No way, Cant afford it. lol
 
That was a great reference, may go back to amsoil and just go a few more hours on a change to make up for the cost. Witch after reading that I could probally go 10hrs no problem with amsoil. Not like I ride that hard. lol
 
I've never ran it in anything other then diesels, never heard anything bad about it. I have been running lucas full synthetic in my ktm's but after reading that study I think I'm done with it, I did notice it foams up a bit sometimes.
 
Raptor519 said:
Silkolene Comp 4 sx , pricey but worth it .
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How is it worth it? With changing my oil every 5-6 hours on average I can't justify spending $10/qt on it. Plus Rekluse actually recommends using Rotella T w/ their clutches. I just pulled and replaced my piston @ 80 hrs on my 450 and it had no visible or feeel-able wear to the piston or cylinder.
 
Bill480 said:
How is it worth it? With changing my oil every 5-6 hours on average I can't justify spending $10/qt on it. Plus Rekluse actually recommends using Rotella T w/ their clutches. I just pulled and replaced my piston @ 80 hrs on my 450 and it had no visible or feeel-able wear to the piston or cylinder.
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I didn't know recluse recomended Rotella, I have one in my 350.
 
Bill480 said:
How is it worth it? With changing my oil every 5-6 hours on average I can't justify spending $10/qt on it. Plus Rekluse actually recommends using Rotella T w/ their clutches. I just pulled and replaced my piston @ 80 hrs on my 450 and it had no visible or feeel-able wear to the piston or cylinder.
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I got back into riding 3 years ago , my brother and several other friends use it in gncc machines and absolutely swear by it. I know , not a whole lot of why , but they beat the s**t outta stuff an still looks great when they are opened up .
Am I overpaying....probably . It hasn't let me down and I'm a creature of habit . Some people spend on bling and neck brace graphics , I chose to spend on general upkeep . Personal preference :)
 
For as little as I ride anymore because of work I may spend a little more on a more expensive oil. At the begining of this year I was changing my oil once a week, filter every other week. I was probally spending 50 bucks a month running lucas full synthetic at 10 a qt, with a 1.5qt oil change. Now putting 5 hrs on a month roughly I was considering going back to Amsoil or even trying motorex since it is what KTM recomends, but damn that stuff is still crazy high.
 
Clint1991 said:
I didn't know recluse recomended Rotella, I have one in my 350.
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http://www.rekluse.com/support_faq.shtml

What oil do you recommend?
Let's start with oils we do not recommend. Any oil formulated for automotive use is not recommended and in general, should not be used in motorcycle applications. This includes conventional and synthetic oils formulated for automotive use. Modern automotive oils do not contain the anti-wear additives necessary for proper lubrication in a motorcycle engine and may contain high quantities of friction modifiers that can cause excessive clutch slip. That said, in most cases the oil you use should work fine in all Rekluse clutches However, some riders may find they experience clutch squeal, clutch chatter or have problems with clutch slip. If you experience these problems, we recommend trying Shell Rotella T, a heavy-duty, conventional diesel engine oil.

At Rekluse, we have found Shell Rotella T (15W-40) provides excellent clutch performance and often eliminates customer complaints of clutch problems. Why do we recommend conventional diesel engine oil over synthetic? In general, we have found conventional oils perform slightly better at reducing clutch noise vs synthetic oils. However, many Rekluse customers get excellent performance with synthetic oils.
 
Hmm, I've never considerd running conventional oil just for the fact that all manufacturers now days recomend synthetic due to the high running temps of these high rpm 4stroke engines and previosly being an auto tech prefer sytnthetics from personal experience for automotive use. I wonder if theres any studys showing comparison between breakdown in synthetics compared to a conventional diesel oil in small engine aplications.
 
Clint1991 said:
Hmm, I've never considerd running conventional oil just for the fact that all manufacturers now days recomend synthetic due to the high running temps of these high rpm 4stroke engines and previosly being an auto tech prefer sytnthetics from personal experience for automotive use. I wonder if theres any studys showing comparison between breakdown in synthetics compared to a conventional diesel oil in small engine aplications.
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High running temps? My dirtbike actually runs cooler than I'd like.. in the 180 to 190 range.

I'm sure there are, or you can do them yourself. Send oil off to be examined after a couple oil changes with conventional vs synthetic.

I've been running Rotella T 15w40 conventional in both sides of my last few bikes from new till sold and have no reason to switch to anything else. 1 gallon being $13 keeps me on the bandwagon. I cringe when I hear of people paying $10+ a qt for some "superior" lube when they have no reason why other than someone told them to. But then again I'm just some guy telling them to go the other way ;P
 
Bill480 said:
High running temps? My dirtbike actually runs cooler than I'd like.. in the 180 to 190 range.

I'm sure there are, or you can do them yourself. Send oil off to be examined after a couple oil changes with conventional vs synthetic.

I've been running Rotella T 15w40 conventional in both sides of my last few bikes from new till sold and have no reason to switch to anything else. 1 gallon being $13 keeps me on the bandwagon. I cringe when I hear of people paying $10+ a qt for some "superior" lube when they have no reason why other than someone told them to. But then again I'm just some guy telling them to go the other way ;P
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Both sides? Crf? I went from having two strokes to ktm 4strokes so I don't have two sides to change, don't the handas and some yami's have a set up where you have the trans oil and engine oil seperate or something like that? And my ktm 4strokes ran hot, at least doing any kind of riding other then mx. Running engine ice and a 2.0 cap on my 450 and 350 on both, they still get hot and boil over if I get stuck trying to climb a hill or just stop without shutting it off on a hot day.
 
Crazy. Never had a boil over event even @ the dunes.

And yeah Honda CRF450, engine oil and trans oil are separated.
 
Mine get hot and boil over trail riding and hill climbing, as does my buddys RMZ witch I guess they are known to run hot to. Never have a problem at the track though or open trail riding. Just the tight stuff.
 
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