Alternatives to Mobil 1 15w50?

[fuel tanker man]

I've been happily running the old Mobil 1 "Redcap" 15W50 in my 1994 Harley Davidson's engine for quite a while now.

However, Mobil has changed the forumula. They've added some ZDDP and some cleaning agents (more calcium I'm assuming).

Now the price has gone to about 5 bucks a quart.

I change my oil every 2500 miles anyway. Should I suck it up and just use the new Mobil 1 Extended Performance stuff, or are there other good oils at about four bucks a quart in the 20W50 or 15W50 range that I should look at?

Dan

 

[JohnBrowning]

If you buy it in the 5qt. jug it is still $18 for old 15W50 and $23 for the new 15W50. Mobil 1 Truck and SUV 5W40 is $4.77 a qt. at walmart.

 

[dustyjoe1]

for a 2500 mile oci, don't know about a harley , but delo 400 15w40 sure works nice in my police 1000.

 

[DNS]

Bob (as in the "oil guy") claims to like how Shaefer's 15W40 works in his Harley.

If you've been happy with Mobil 1 15W50, I'd suggest you stick with it. You could compensate for the price increase by extending your drain intervals slightly. Unless you're racing, the bike is only used for very short trips, or sits unused for extended periods, there's no real reason to change the 15W50 so frequently especially with the increased additives.

 

[penzdude]

hi tanker man. i know how we love our harleys. i also used the red cap mobil 1 in my 1200 xlh. in the transmission also. presently, i'm using the amsoil 20-50 motorcycle in both holes. i think with the frequency of your changes though, you'd be happy with something along the lines of maybe a conventional 20-50? unless your scoot runs real hot or you do lots of parade type stop and goes? maybe cut back to 2000mi instead of 2500 with this oil. i'm sure it compares real well w/ the harley 360 conventional for half the price. lots o' harleys have gone well over 100,000 miles with the 360 or others like pennzoil or an old favorite ..castrol gtx 20-50. i beleive even though our mills aren't watercooled, the fact that the oil does'nt do transmission duties makes them somewhat easier on the oils than the common water cooled 12,000 rpm redline sportbikes that have wet clutches. imho, penzdude. "live to ride" be safe out there

 

[SKUNKY]

I have a buddy who put 150k on a stock '87 EG using Castrol 20-50 with OCI of 2500 miles and Blackflag oil filters(.87/filter)..he took it apart to stroke it and everything looked brand new..he use to jerk me about using expensive Valvoline 20-50 Durablend with Wix filters...

 

[msparks]

quote:

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I change my oil every 2500 miles anyway. Should I suck it up and just use the new Mobil 1 Extended Performance stuff, or are there other good oils at about four bucks a quart in the 20W50 or 15W50 range that I should look at?

Dan

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Maybe the question should be why are you changing at 2500 miles?

What if you stayed with the Mobil 1 and just went to 3000 or 3500. Then the extra few pennies wouldn't make a difference at all.

I would do that before I used a lesser qualitiy of oil for sure.

Is there an indicated problem with the engine? What if you stay

 

[fuel tanker man]

I've thought about stretching out the drain intervals a bit, and that's what I may end up doing.

I've got an old Ford pickup which "likes" oil, so to speak. What I'd been doing was putting the used oil (with 2500 miles on it) into a plastic jug and pouring it into my oil burning pick up.

I do want to stay with a good synthetic, or at least a synthetic blend--I've heard that the cylinder head seals can begin leaking if the engine overheats in traffic, and I don't currently have any such leak. The synthetics do allow the engine to run a little bit cooler.

At this point, I guess I'll just stay with the Mobil 1--unless I can find a decent synthetic or a really good syn blend in the 20W50 weight range for under 4 bucks per quart.

Dan

 

[msparks]

quote:

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Originally posted by fuel tanker man:


At this point, I guess I'll just stay with the Mobil 1--unless I can find a decent synthetic or a really good syn blend in the 20W50 weight range for under 4 bucks per quart.

Dan

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Hence the reason I say stick with Mobil 1 as you probably won't find anything better for that price. Even Amsoil at dealer cost is higher than the mobil 1 your using.

 

[Norm Olt]

The 5 quart jugs of redcap Mobil 1 15W-50 are $19.95 @ Walmart in this neck-o-the-woods. IMHO that's under $4 per... A very fine oil for HD's, too.

LOAD UP!

If you just went to 3k OCI's you are increasing the utilization by 20%, which gets you down to $3.20 or so per quart.

Re-Using it in your old truck is an excellent idea, just remember to change out the old oil filter every once and a while.

Seems like a great plan to me.

CHEERS!

 

[medic]

IIRC, Harley says to change out dino at the 5,000 mile mark for your bike. You should be able to get 5,000 miles out of Mobil 1 very easily.

FWIW, I use Redline 15w-50 (93 Big Twin) and change it once a year. Due to the poor motorcycle environment I live in, I usually get less than 5,000 mile per year on my bike.

 

[msparks]

quote:

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Originally posted by medic:
Due to the poor motorcycle environment I live in, I usually get less than 5,000 mile per year on my bike.

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Hey that sounds like personal problem. You should have no problem getting 10,000 miles between the months of May-October!!!!!


Check out the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America. Most of the high mileage champions are from the Cold north. I'm talking over 100,000 miles on BMW Motorcycles. Some are over 500,000 miles.

 

[medic]

quote:

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Originally posted by msparks:

quote:

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Originally posted by medic:
Due to the poor motorcycle environment I live in, I usually get less than 5,000 mile per year on my bike.

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Hey that sounds like personal problem. You should have no problem getting 10,000 miles between the months of May-October!!!!!


Check out the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America. Most of the high mileage champions are from the Cold north. I'm talking over 100,000 miles on BMW Motorcycles. Some are over 500,000 miles.

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While I really enjoy riding my bike, I prefer to ride in at least 70 degree weather. In 2004 we had about 3 days of 80 degree weather in May and then we didn't see 70 again until July. During the period, the weather rarely saw much above 60 degrees. I also work many weekends when everybody else is out riding (one of the few bad things about my job).

For the gardeners/farmers in this area of the country, times are also tough because we get less usable sunlight than any point in Alaska.