Harley fluids..What's yours?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Valvoline 20/50 wt motor oil in the motor. It has a better additive package then Harley's "lowest bidder" oil, and is cheaper. I use Coastal regular 75/90 wt gear oil in the trans. Because there's gears in there, and motor oil has been shown to shear out of grade. The transmission doesn't need the same additives motor oil does.I use Rotella T 15/40 wt in the primary. There's not alot of need for special or synthetic oil in there. I feel Rotella also has a better clutch feel to it, which eliminates the 1st gear bang Harley's are known for.I don't over think motor oil. You could probably use any oil made today, and have long service life. I refuse to overpay for oil and not see a difference. I haven't seen a situation where synthetic oil would be of any benefit over conventional oil in my vehicles.,,
 
I use 75/90 synthetic gear oil in transmission, 15-40 Rotella in the primary and Mobil V Twin synthetic in the engine on my 2011 Heritage.

Why? Gear oil in the tranny because it has gears in it. The Rotella works great in the primary and I use the Mobil because it works well in the engine.

I suppose I could use the same thing in all three holes but......I will say I will not buy Harley oil or any of their other fluids. No sense in paying for a name.
 
Originally Posted By: ddrumman2004
I use 75/90 synthetic gear oil in transmission, 15-40 Rotella in the primary and Mobil V Twin synthetic in the engine on my 2011 Heritage.

Why? Gear oil in the tranny because it has gears in it. The Rotella works great in the primary and I use the Mobil because it works well in the engine.

I suppose I could use the same thing in all three holes but......I will say I will not buy Harley oil or any of their other fluids. No sense in paying for a name.



No sense paying for a name,yet you bought a Harley. Interesting.

I've got a 106 big bore kits,cams,milled heads with port work done,dyno tune ,cams. And an oil cooler.
I'm using shockproof heavy in my tranny,and conventional rotella in the engine and primary.
 
Quote:
I'm using shockproof heavy in my tranny,and conventional rotella in the engine and primary.


You're running strait 15w-40 Rotella in the engine or you adding other fluids to increase the ad pack?


Currently, have Schaffers Supreme 7000 20w-50 in engine, 75w-90 gear oil in tranny, and Amsoil 20-w50 in Primary ( just cause had left over). I've even run Redline MTL in the primary with no issues..
 
MaxLife 20W-50 in the engine. I've always wanted to try it and it was on clearance at AZ for $5 for the 5+ qt jugs. I bought 4 jugs. Mobil 1 75W-90 gear lube in the tranny & Rotella T 15W-40 in the primary because others have recommended them.

 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Clevy

I'm using shockproof heavy in my tranny,and conventional rotella in the engine and primary.


I like your choices.
thumbsup2.gif
 
I have a 2014 Road King, it has only 1600 miles, and at the 1st service at the dealer, 1,000 miles, I asked them to put in:

1. HD Syn 3 for the engine.
2. HD Formula + for transmission and primary.

I am planning to go with:

1. Redline 20-50 for the engine.
2. Redline Shockproof for VTwin Transmission
3. Redline VTwin Primary

The why?

I have noticed that since the change to Syn 3 in the engine, from the regular HD conventional, that my back jug has only went into the "pump air mode" 2 times, so the syn oil is making the engine cooler.

Redline I believe has almost a 500 degree flashpoint rating, so my thoughts are in a oil/air cooled engine, that can't hurt.

Just my humble opinion.

RevRider
 
Rethinking using the Red Line Shock Proof in the the transmission, wondering if it might be too thick for the application?

Not certain what to do there.
 
Originally Posted By: RevRider
Rethinking using the Red Line Shock Proof in the the transmission, wondering if it might be too thick for the application?

Not certain what to do there.



There are different grades. Shockproof heavy and shockproof light. The light is a 70w-140 iirc.
Shockproof heavy works wonderfully in my bike,and considering my ambient temps at start up can be 5C unless your riding in the snow you'll be fine with the heavy.
And considering how quickly it heats up I'm not concerned.
No more bang going into first gear.

I've still got 10 quarts of 60 grade Amsoil v-twin I'm going to use once the summer heat hits.
Sticking with rotella for spring and fall,and once my bike oils are used up its rotella for eva
 
Originally Posted By: RevRider
I have a 2014 Road King, it has only 1600 miles, and at the 1st service at the dealer, 1,000 miles, I asked them to put in:

1. HD Syn 3 for the engine.
2. HD Formula + for transmission and primary.

I am planning to go with:

1. Redline 20-50 for the engine.
2. Redline Shockproof for VTwin Transmission
3. Redline VTwin Primary

The why?

I have noticed that since the change to Syn 3 in the engine, from the regular HD conventional, that my back jug has only went into the "pump air mode" 2 times, so the syn oil is making the engine cooler.

Redline I believe has almost a 500 degree flashpoint rating, so my thoughts are in a oil/air cooled engine, that can't hurt.

Just my humble opinion.

RevRider


My 08 street bob is seriously modified and it's never gone into limp mode. Ever.
 
Originally Posted By: rossn2
Quote:
I'm using shockproof heavy in my tranny,and conventional rotella in the engine and primary.


You're running strait 15w-40 Rotella in the engine or you adding other fluids to increase the ad pack?


Currently, have Schaffers Supreme 7000 20w-50 in engine, 75w-90 gear oil in tranny, and Amsoil 20-w50 in Primary ( just cause had left over). I've even run Redline MTL in the primary with no issues..


Just rotella 15w-40. It doesn't need any zddp. I'm so sick and tired of this zddp absurdity.

I've been using mos2 until last year. This year ceratec.
Rotella is already plenty stiff enough. I have researched at length prior to making the switch,with a bike oil expert with countless used oil analysis worth of data.
 
Hi Clevy,

Mine is completely stock, even the exhaust, the 103 high output, I guess it runs hotter stock??

I was set to run the Red Line when I read on an HD Forum that the shockproof was too heavy to lubricate some bearings in the transmission? I am no mechanic, so I am not certain exactly what was not being lubricated. The HD mechanic told the customer it caused the issue, it was too thick to get to the bearing.

RevRider
 
Well there's lots of guys running that oil, and if it was really "too heavy" there would be transmission parts all over the highway. The trans doesn't pump oil onto the gears or bearings, it's a splash lube method. So any oil will be splashed around once the gears start turning. I don't get why people think they need the heaviest gear oil on the planet, for that light duty transmission. 75/90 wt or 90/110wt would be the heaviest I would ever think of using. Harley recommends using their 20/50 weight Syn III oil in the trans, so anything heavier is really overkill.,,
 
You can see in this chart a 75/90 gear oil has close to the same viscosity of 20w50 engine oil. Since gear oil is meant for lubricating gears.
I would recommend a name brand gear oil for your HD transmission.
oilviscosityconversion.jpg
 
i run in my 1987 flhs;
valvoline 4-stroke 20w-50 in motor
valvoline 4-stroke 10w-40 in primary
valvoline durablend synthetic blend 85w-140 in the trans

i started this when valvoline came out with these motorcycle oils. before then i ran harley dino oil. when harley went away from their primary oil and tran oil and went to running the same oil in all three holes i just did not feel right. i run either the harley or wix oil filter.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top