Petro Canada Duron-E XL 15w40

[Quattro Pete]

Everyone in this thread already agreed that you should move away from Rotella T6 5w-40. What else do we need to say? Whether the Duron 15w-40 will work better or not is anyone's guess. You won't know until you try it. We don't have any first hand knowledge of this oil here, so you just have to be the first one to try and let us know how it goes. I'm guessing it'll be fine. If you'd rather not experiment and use something that we know works well, sunruh listed those options earlier in this thread for you.

 

[Degreaser]

Well, I was already to change from a 5w40 oil for my motoryclce and begin looking at switching to a higher winter grade, like a 15w40.. Until I read this below. http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-101/ I read from chapter 1 to 10, and the Author recommends a 0wXX or 5wXX engine oil.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Except he's not talking about motorcycle engines with shared sumps and wet clutches, but if you want to experiment with 0w-20 oil in your Vulcan, be sure to let us know how it goes.

 

[Clevy]

I use conventional rotella 15w-40 in all my shared sump bikes. Meets jaso,its cheap and the best reason of all,it's cheap. If your bike calls for a 40 grade conventional rotella can't be beat. Sunruh is the bike oil expert. Do whatever he tells you to do. We all have opinions,he has data from countless uoa in bikes that demolish oil in worse conditions than most of us dare riding in.

 

[Degreaser]

The Author says even a 5wXX winter grade oil is too thick at start-up. But I think a 5w40 at startup is better than a 15w40 at startup, and somewhere I read that 90% of wear occurs at startup, which to me implies choosing the correct winter grade. Now the difference between using a 5w40 versus a 15w40 in a shared sump is the shearing, whereby I've seen some say the 5w40 will shear quickly. So the problem is not so much the xW40 grade selection for my motorcycle as it is the selecting of the winter grade for startup. Maybe the best solution is to select a lower winter grade synthetic like a 5w40, or even a 10w40 synthetic. If it comes down to a choice between choosing the best startup winter grade and longer lasting shear protection grade, maybe decide on startup grade and just do shorter OCI.

 

[Degreaser]

It would be helpful to know the ideal viscosity cSt for my motorcycle motor.

 

[OldSparks]

Originally Posted By: Degreaser

It would be helpful to know the ideal viscosity cSt for my motorcycle motor.

Degreaser; Your owners manual will provide oil recommendations within a range of temperatures for your Vulcan. I have used 10W40 Duron XL in my Suzuki and I find it provided smoother shifting than Rotella 5W40. I plan on trying 15W40 Duron XL for summer riding. However, many people have gotten over 100k miles on their SV using Rotella, and I would use either brand with confidence.

 

[Degreaser]

Well, I sort of found what I was looking for. It's a table graph for oil grades giving Viscosity @ cSt at Temperature Celsius 0-100. Enter in the Product Name box your oil Grades and press the Calculate button. http://www.widman.biz/English/Calculators/Graph.html