Why is it Ok to wait 5k miles between oil changes on a air cooled Harley when we dont do the same to a car engine that has all the oil cooling gadgets available?

 

In general most auto manufactuers recommend changing your oil every 3000 miles unless you are using a syn oil, Harley used to recommend changing oil @ 2500 mile intervals but they chaged that sometime around 2003. As far as Changing your oil I would say you can never change it too much, mostly depends on your riding style, I use Amsoil & change mine every 5 k I have over 100 k on my bike , 70 on the old engine & 35 on the new My old engine showed little signs of wear when it was taken apart & would probable still be in the bike had i not over reved it

 

Most major auto manufactures recommend oil changes around 7500 miles. So changing your oil in your Harley every 5000 miles is not a problem.

 

The first oil change on any Harley is done at 1k, the next one is at 5k taking in consideration you are running Syn. Now I have read that using Amsoil you can go twice the disance running with it. so I figured if the syn oil use by Harley can go 5k in between and Amsoil claims you can go twice that would make it 10K. On my Porshe using Mobile 1 it's every 10K then again it holds 10 qts of oil.

 

Bluesssman is right... for the past few years, you'll rarely see an oil change recomended more often than every 5000 miles for cars or bikes (or even 7500) in any owner manual. I've heard different reasons for this (better recent engine technology and oil technology seem be the two leading excuses I hear), but regardless, I've never had any trouble waiting 5000 miles between changes.

 

Now the Recommend 5000 miles between oil changes due to the oil shortage, when it was plentiful they recommended oil changes at 3000 miles.

 

GM is now recommending that you change it when the oil light comes on. Could be 6 months or so. The computer checks it all. I cant bring myself to do it. Every 3 months or 3000 miles for me. Same with the bike. Some habits are tough to break. Certainly no harm in changing it more often. Peace of mind is worth more to me than a couple of bucks in oil.
MikeM

 

About every 3 grand no matter what oil Im running, just been doing it that way too many years to change. I do go 6 grand on my car with mobil one however.