Oil recommendations in a limited list of products?

[bosterman]

Hi. Two month ago I buy my first motorcycle (Yamaha FZ16, air cooled, single 150cc). Here the law says that we need three years of experience to buy motorcycles bigger than 200cc (a long waiting/learning time).
I'm starting to search the oil to use, but the market of brands is very limited here.
By the manual, the oil to use is Yamalube 20w50, and the official service put the mineral oil of the Yamalube made by Chevron Brazil.
I just done the break in the last week (1000kms) and I don't know is a good moment to use syn oil, or I will wait a few kilometers more (maybe in 2000Kms more).
The big brands I found are, Motul, Mobil, Shell, Castrol, Yamalube and Liqui Moly, and the product list for these brands is very limited, except Motul, they offers the full product line.
Amsoil, RedLine, and others... are not present in Uruguay
We do not have oil analysis labs, so, I'm guided only by what I see in this forum.
Motul, I realy like the 300V 15w50, but my concern is that is a racing oil, and I read in another thread that is more appropriate for the track (less deposits manage, and no JASO MA compliant) and is not for everyday driving on the street. For this style of use, is the 7100 20w50 is more appropiate?
Shell only sells the "Advance" line (no Rotella) but I have no references, and the german Liqui Moly has a few oils, but I have no references neither.
Castrol, some products in the market, but no one is synthetic .
The only oil from Mobil I found is Mobil 1 RACING 4T 15W50 (no V twin).
And the Yamalube synthetic? information on the Internet about this product is scarce...

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Sebastian.

 

[Torkenstein]

Based on your information I would choose Motul 100% synthetic ester base
7100. 20W50 seems rather high viscosity as most small-displacement air-cooled singles are fine with a 10W40, but if the manual specifies 20W50, I'd stick with it.

7100 meets all requirements for street use with good old fashioned API SL/SJ/SH/SG specs for excellent anti-wear properties, too. You also have JASO MA for your wet clutch. Motul is rather expensive but your sump capacity is only 1.2 liter so cost should not be a concern.

Cheers, RR

 

[Analyzer]

If it was me personally I'd look heavily into the Shell Advance motorcycle oil. As I'm sure you've seen throughout the threads the Rotella T & T6 are fantastic oils that's very durable, high concentrations of additives, and very shear stable; especially for it's ability to be used in diesels, motorcycles, passenger cars, etc. Although I don't know very much concerning their Advance oil besides what's on their website, I wouldn't be surprised that it's just robust as the Rotella if not more so because their synthetics are also rated JASO MA2 instead of the lower MA rating.
If the Shell Advance doesn't appeal to you, either Mobil or Motul would also be great oil to go with; especially since you won't have to purchase much with the small oil sump.

 

[vo_marz]

the 20W50 denotes a HTHS of 3.7 or above.

I'd say go for the mobil 15W50 if the price is attractive.

 

[quarterliter]

I would vote shell advance. I wish we could get this stuff in the US

 

[bosterman]

Thanks for all your suggestions, and yes, the price is not a problem.
In the list, I keep with 3 oils:
Shell Advance Ultra 15w50 or...
Motul 7100 20w50 (I will try to find the 15w50, appears in the JASO list ) or...
Mobil1 RACING 4T 15W50

And what about to change to synthetic right now? I read many versions about this.
In the service manual says to the engine is realy break-in with 4000 Kms (textual traduction: "The engine delivers its maximum speed when the odometer reaches 4000 kms..."), and the official service guys says the same words (maybe they have a chip on their necks programmed to always tell the same speech and put always the same oil.)

Thanks again.
Sebastian.

 

[Analyzer]

No problem Sebastian, glad we can help out! That's odd that Yamaha states that the engine break in period is 1000 KM (600 miles), but that the engine won't produce maximum power until four times that amount at 4000 KM (2500 miles). The only thing that I can think of (feel free to help me out guys) is that after the initial 1000 KM the engine is technically broken in (as are the vast majority of break in periods for various manufacturers), but apparently it takes the additional 1500 KM to further seat the piston rings to the cylinder wall to generate maximum engine power? That's the only indication that I can think of, and if that is indeed the case and Yamaha specifies a non synthetic 20W50 for that entire period, I'd be slightly skeptical about jumping the gun to early. If you are really wanting to introduce the synthetic early (which is understandable), perhaps something in the middle of the range like 1500 KM would be a proper solution.

 

[sunruh]

if you break the motor in correctly the rings are seated at 20kms.

find a hill...accelerate up the hill...at the top u-turn and coast down in gear. do that 4 or 5 times.

if no hill, do the same on flat.

but dont go and just ride along at 2-3k rpm for 1000km

 

[bosterman]

Originally Posted By: sunruh
if you break the motor in correctly the rings are seated at 20kms.

find a hill...accelerate up the hill...at the top u-turn and coast down in gear. do that 4 or 5 times.

if no hill, do the same on flat.

but dont go and just ride along at 2-3k rpm for 1000km

I don't worry about the breakin, I always do a proper breakin, the engine of my VW has 350000 Kms (aproximate 217480 miles) after I rebuild the engine, and the compression is good.
In those days I spent several hours in this forum (as a viewer) searching the proper oil to the breakin and for the daily use. But I had the same problem that I have now, find the same brands here. Ok if it is true that there are other brands, but it is a blind purchase (no labs here to analize the oil), so I can not tell if what I buy is truly right. So I decided to make decisions based on the success of other members, and do the elections for my engine. Why? it's simple, the cost of the cars, motorcycles, parts down here, make each investment must be amortized over several years.
I'm doing the same investigation for my motorcycle, but this time I decided to ask directly, helped by the google traductor

Originally Posted By: Analyzer
No problem Sebastian, glad we can help out! That's odd that Yamaha states that the engine break in period is 1000 KM (600 miles), but that the engine won't produce maximum power until four times that amount at 4000 KM (2500 miles). The only thing that I can think of (feel free to help me out guys) is that after the initial 1000 KM the engine is technically broken in (as are the vast majority of break in periods for various manufacturers), but apparently it takes the additional 1500 KM to further seat the piston rings to the cylinder wall to generate maximum engine power? That's the only indication that I can think of, and if that is indeed the case and Yamaha specifies a non synthetic 20W50 for that entire period, I'd be slightly skeptical about jumping the gun to early. If you are really wanting to introduce the synthetic early (which is understandable), perhaps something in the middle of the range like 1500 KM would be a proper solution.


Yes I agree with you. The next service will be with 3000 kms on the odometer, I think it is the best time to switch to synthetic.
Maybe the oil recomended by Yamaha is made for the Indian weather (these bikes are made in India), and the long breakin period is for cover his backs... I do not think the rings are concern in this case, must be the bearings, and other parts, the service manual also suggests: "For the first 500kms not drive for more than an hour, turn off the engine and let the oil cool for 10 minutes, then you can continue another hour..." Too careful for my taste.

Sebastian.

 

[Mackelroy]

I guess it depends on if talking about real synthetics. Any of the group3 fake synthetics, can be used as breakin oil, they are just more refined dino oil. Real synthetics, you wont find under $10 per quart.

As far as breakin, many of the manufactuers are beginning to update breakin. But the old typical half throttle to 600 mile, 3/4 throttle to 1000 miles, you'll end up with poorly seated rings and an oil burner.

 

[Cardenio327]

Motorcycles have been around longer than JASO MA, I`ve found that namebrand ACEA B4 oils without a C rating work better than well in shared sump motorcycles.