The oil lab said they were willing to perform analyses on the three oils I asked about; Mobil 1 15w-50 car oil, Mobil 1 V-Twin 20w-50, and HD Syn 3 20w-50. Soon as I can scrape the cash together and get to town to buy the oils, I'll send 'em off.

I've got a few things from several analyses, and will post them once I get it organized. So far the data shows what most of us know: Synthetic oils are generally better than dino oils. The data also has some surprises in that some mc oils, synthetic and dino, fared poorly compared to an inexpensive common dino auto oil.

 

Skip,

Will these tests give us any insight as to the slipperyness of the oils...re: potential wet clutch problems with a car oil vs mc oil?

Mac

 

They'll show the level of Molybdenum in the oil. That is what causes the problems with wet clutches. I've been running the red cap Mobil 1 that has about 50ppm moly without a problem. I've been told the newest version, the M 1 extended service, has 100ppm. They said even that amount shouldn't be a problem for a Harley wet clutch. The V-Twin version has no moly; same for the Syn 3.

What I'm more curious about is the level of the anti-wear additives. The mc oils should have significantly higher amounts to even start to justify their cost. The older version of V-Twin has pretty much the same levels, a case of the mc oil being no better than a car oil but costing twice as much..

 

Thanks man, I for one, am very interested in this subject.

Cheers!
[sm=icon_rock.gif][sm=icon_rock.gif][sm=icon_rock.gif]

 

So...Molydebnum = Bad for wet clutches??? But you are maintaining that it is low enough that there isn't a problem in the Non MC stuff....right? At least, you are comfortable with it in your ride, I know thatyou are always careful not to push anything on anyone else.

I am interested in your findings...thanks for taking the time to answer dumb questions from a dummy.

Mac

 

you go, skip...

I too am quite interested. wish I had the knowledge to understand what I have read so far...
I grew up watching my Dad use Castrol GTX in all of his metric bikes, but never any problems. and I have done the same. Now with my Dyna I'm gonna stay with Synthetic, because I believe enough of what I have read/heard that it is worth the extra $$ at each oil change...


rich

 

All I'm maintaining is that haven't had a clutch slippage problem with the Mobil 1 red cap car oil. After seeing the results from the tests I'm going to have done on the new formulation, if the moly level isn't more than what others have said, 100ppm, I'll probably try it in my primary.

 

Skip have you visited the bobistheoilguy.com (boy I screwed that up) but I beleive you have talked about them before but if not they may have already run the voa's on the new oil's I'm not sure but I will check also.

 

Interesting stuff though Skip.

Thanks for the updates.

 

Yeah, BITOG is where I found the guy who is going to run the tests on the latest versions of the 15w-50 & 20w-50 Mobil 1. I found some stuff on other weights, and also on older formulations, but not on the muttersickle weights and new versions.