My dealer stocks Amsoil 20W50 at $9.00/qt. I just bought some during their 20% off sale ($7.20/qt).

Jim

 

That's a good deal if you like Amsoil- my dealer sells it for $14.99 a qt. [sm=insomnia.gif]

 

I suppose I might as well put my two cents in on the Amsoil. We sold it when I worked for Kawasaki in Vallejo, CA. in 1978. Where it really worked good was the 100 to 1 mix in Jet Skis. Clean burning. My 78 ski still has the original pistons, crank and rings in it. I run the hydraulic fluid in my 180 AC tractor, and use the 15w-40w diesel in it, too. I run three chainsaws, two weed eaters, my 1970 Oldss 442 show car, the 2001 Tacoma, the 2005 Subaru, the 89 Sentra (415,000 miles), the air compressor, the 90 ZX-11 Ninja, and as of late the 2007 H-D Heritage Softail, due to the reported heat build up and my participation in funerals with the Patriot Guard Riders. I don't have the time to change oil all the time on all this stuff, so I like the extended drain intervals and my engines keep running, cutting, etc. They have other good products so I just use it and I'm done with it. Period,

 

Never thought I would say this, but i just bought Amsoil and did a drain with it. The Napa down the road is selling it for 9 bucks a quart and it's actually more convenient to stop there than Walmart for the Mobil1.

I still think the salesmen are as slippery as the oil though and see their whoring here continues yet none has a site contribution that I can tell.

 

Back in the mid-90's when I was making a oil-brand change for all my vehicles, I elected not to take the Amsoil route because of false or questionable claims made by Amsoil salesmen. The oil is a very good product, a claim few will argue against, but I don't like products hyping their products with innuendo or lies. Lately, one that stands out as the worst yet is the claim that moly (the additive) will "destroy your valvetrain." Further, they claim Cummings, the diesel engine manufacturer, has "banned" oil with moly because of this. Highly incredulous of the claim, I called Cummins and was told they had not heard the claim and that it was false. Further, the claim made that a Cummins TSB exists on this subject is also false. Royal Purple (150-250ppm), Mobil1 (100ppm), and especially Redline (>900ppm) contain ample amounts of moly in their formulae--and I've heard no one claim a valvetrain failure attributable to using these products.

In a discussion on this subject with an Amsoil user/saleman (all users are salesmen too, right?) here about three months ago came the claim the TSB could be purchased from Cummins for $5, but this saleman refused to send it to me. I gathered he didn't actually have it and didn't pursue the issue since Cummins already told me it didn't exist. If anyone has this mysterious TSB, how about making it available here. TIA.

I emailed one of the offending Amsoil sites and didn't get a response, but two months later the false claim remains on the site. I guess selling oil is more important than accurate representation. Amsoil, of course, has no moly--which IMO is an important albeit expensive anti-friction additive used by most high-performance and fuel-saving oils. I used an oil with a fairly high moly content in my '96 RK, and after 106k miles (now 110k) neither the compression nor oil consumption had changed in nine years. The heads were never off that bike. I would like ask the Amsoil experts how long it takes moly to destroy a valvetrain, as if there was appreciable wear in the valvetrain of that RK the compression readings would start showing it.

I also challenge Amsoil to have these claims removed from their sponsored sites and the sites maintained by their sales reps. I won't hold my breath, but I won't specifically recommend Amsoil to anyone, aside from references to it being in the top-tier of synthetic oils, which I do believe. However, it's not the eighth wonder of the world as suggested by the now-famous "White Paper." For me, I won't use an engine oil that does not contain moly, but that's a personal preference. References to moly as an effective additive have been in all of the three oil tests seen in three separate motorcycle magazines, and American Iron made a point to say that it was perhaps the most important of all additives. In their words, to paraphrase, "If your oil manufacturer uses moly in their formula, you know they care about your engine."

 

I occasionally work on Caterpillar diesels, and awhile back I called Cat's tech support folks and asked if they knew anything about moly destroying engines. I got the same answer you did, i.e. it's marketing BS meant to downplay an obvious shortcoming in one company's product.

Never once have I heard of any company charging money for a copy of a TSB. If such a document exists one need only ask and the company will generally provide it for nothing.
As for someone making that particular TSB available here, don't hold your breath...

I'm sure everyone would be interested in that answer, especially those of us with a mechanical background, but again- don't hold your breath...

Agreed.
My dealer, per our purchase agreements, put Amsoil products in all 3 holes in our three HD's at their 1k mile checkups. Two of the bikes have since been serviced by me at 3000 miles, with the third fast approaching that point. Since I didn't have any oil analyses done on any of the old oil, I'll withhold my opinion for the sake of argument. However, based on what I saw come out of the bikes after 2000 miles of service, along with what I (and others) perceive as business/advertising/marketing tactics that range from being merely questionable and misleading to outright lies and falsehoods, Amsoil will never see another dime of my money.
Nothing personal against anyone within the Amsoil community, but business is business...