I just checked out Mobil's site and they say that zinc IS still in all engine oils, just in lower levels...depending on which oil. The Zinc DialkylDithioPhosphate, or ZDDP for short, is in there for wear protection. The typical everyday driver car uses oils with a much lower level of ZDDP because of the cat converters. Diesel oils have a much higher concentration of it than car oils. I have come to the conclusion, after all my reading, that I am going to continue running conventional oil with the oil treatment additive. I live in Florida so cold starts are not a big issue. I am torn between the 15w40 and the 20w50.
OK, I think the manual just made up my mind. In the manual for a 2007 Softail it says that 20w50, 15w40 and 10w40 diesel oils are acceptable....the first is best. Of course, it also says to change to Genuine Harley Davidson oil as soon as possible. LOL

Check out page 21 in the manual.
http://allamericanexportsinc.com/pdfs/

P.S. The manual also says that they (2007 Softails) all came from the factory with 20w50 HD 360 oil. (page 28)
Page 27 has a chart and it does appear that the correct grade is 20W50 for me (and probably most riders). They reccomend 10W40 if your startup temps are below 40 degrees.

P.S. #2~~ The energy conserving oil is only a problem for the wet clutch. It is just fine for the engine, but the 20w50 does not (as far as I know) come in energy conserving so that is not really a problem either way.
Wal-mart's Super Tech brand carries a 15W40 gas and diesel engine oil (5 quart bottle is about 12 bucks!)and it is very good for vehicles that don't get used a lot. It has a fairly wide span of vehicles it cn be used in and it is specially formulated to handle the acid issue. this may be the oil you want in your bike during the winter months. It's the right viscosity, according to the chart, and is designed to deal with the intermittant use issues.
I am going to run conventional 20W50 in the engine and primary with the oil treatment added to the engine. The manual lists HD Formula+ as the recommended tranny oil. I use regular conventional gear oil, Super Tech 80W90 in the winter and 85W140 in the summer.

 

If you want a conventional 20w50 with heavy additives check out Brad Penn racing and vtwin 20w50.

 

KB, the whole point of all this research for me is to use products that work the way they should without breaking the bank. I have narrowed down the difference between the MC oils and car oils and I now understand them a bit more than I used to. That is why I have no problem using the SuperTech oil from Walmart. I use SuperTech synthetic 10W30 in both my everyday drivers. I am going to change out the Kendall 20W50 in my 69 Dodge 340 for SuperTech 15W40.
Even though all the 10W40 or higher weight oils still contain a higher content of ZDDP than the lower weight oils, I still like adding more. I have not found anything that says different so I would not be surprised if the ZDDP levels are lower in all oils than they used to be and I have noticed in my car engines that I lose a little bit of pressure over the first 500-1000 miles after the oil change and then it stays steady. Before I started using the oil treatment, the pressure would lose another 3-4 pounds after the initial oil breakin loss. It just seems like everything that actually does it's job gets banned or regulated out by the EPA.

P.S. That (Penn Vtwin) is the new name for Kendall GT-1 oil. It is very good stuff and, I believe, that is mainly because of the high level of ZDDP. That stuff has substantially more of it than even Mobil 1 oil. When i switched from Valvoline to the Kendall my oil pressure had less initial pressure loss and less loss over the life of the oil. I probably would just buy the high dollar stuff anyway if I was rich, but I'm not. I've talked to a bunch of my friends about this and only one of them is buying into it. The rest want to believe the (snake) oil salesman.

For those that wanna save some money on your oil filter, take a look at The Bosch 3330 and the Purolator PL10421 or PL25230. There a whole bunch that will "fit" and "function" but these three are considered better than factory filters. If you want chrome ya gotta get the HD filter or buy yourself a chrome cover (very cheap). For black or any other color, I guess you could just paint your filter or buy a cover and paint it.

 

It would be interesting to know who bottles the super tech oil for Walmart.,,,

 

According to some Walmart employees, the MSDS on the Super Tech oil says that it's made by pennzoil/quakerstate. I don't know for sure, but I have had no problems using it. I don't drive my Chrysler that much and when it sits for a week I don't get the "scary valvetrain noise" that occurs when the oil has drained back into the pan over time.....until the oil pumps up the lash adjusters/lifters. I use the synthetic 10W30 in it. Before I switched I was using Valvoline Semi-synthetic blend and it did do the rattle with that oil. That oil also cost substantially more than the Super Tech synthetic. The Super Tech is about 16 or 17 bucks now for a 5 quart bottle. It used to be 13 and change, but it's still a great deal....for me. I should probably just say that Super Tech sux and I don't reccomend it to anyone driving anything....all you bastids will drive up the price with a higher demand for it!
So, yeah, the Super Tech oil is just filtered oil that they drained out of cars getting their oil changed. Those drains you see the guys down in the sump changing oil? they're actually just pumping that used drained oil through a filter and directly into Super Tech bottles to stock the shelves with! So don't buy Super Tech...that stuff is already worn out! It will destroy your "insert vehicle of your choice here"!

 

I have seen a few UOA's of the ST oils on Bitog. Not bad but the additive packages are not as good as their branded counterparts. If I were going to use a HDEO I would go with Rotella, Delvac or Delo based on which ever is cheaper. I would be wary of using ST in a Harley engine for more than 2500 miles.

But me? I am defintely cheaper than you are. I only buy oil on closeouts and have a stash of redline (2 years left) that I got on the closeout table at AAP. I have all kinds of BOGO oils for my cars in the basement. My bottom line: If it is not on sale...I don't buy it. I have LAT (lubeatech) 20w50 synthetic in the engine of my Harley right now that I got on a free promotion from Lubeatech (they sent me 3 free quarts if I paid the $7 postage) So that is $2.33/qt for high performance syn racing oil. I always have my eyes open for the next oil deal out there and haven't paid full price yet.

 

I'm with ya KB, and I actually do change the engine oil more often than required by the manual. The manual says 5000 miles and thats with HD 360 20W50 dino oil. Since I'm using the Super Tech 20W50 dino oil with the oil treatment added, I figure I'm plenty safe at 3500 mile intervals and I'm still a big pyle of money ahead. The oil treatment (STP or Super Tech) adds a whole lot more ZDDP to the oil and, like I said earlier, I have seen the difference on my oil pressure guage in my cars.

 

I know some car geeks. Enginerds and such. They all drive highly modded foreign cars. They are big into tuning and making power. Some of them have more under the hood invested than they do in the original car. Lots of them use Walmart oil.

 

Good to hear!

 

I heard fish oil is waterproof. Jez sayin',,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,