Torco vs amsoil?

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daz

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Jul 15, 2009
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so cal
heres the deal....i bought a brand new triumph thunderbird 1600 cruiser. It's a parallel twin that just came out. I love it and want to keep it for many years, so oil is a big concern. My dealer gave me a service package that includes free oil and filter every 6k for 90k miles. Thats about grand worth of oil. But the oil is Torco semi 20/50, and i cannot find a lot of info about it online at all.

The shop owner has been racing and building triumphs since the 60's and is in his 60's. So he does have a lot of mechanical experience, tho i'm not sure that's enough to be assured that his choice of Torco is the best.

anyways, my dilemma is that i don't know whether to use the free torco of buy amsoil. I want the best for this engine and if amsoil is better by any notable degree i would consider that even tho it would cost me about $60 every 6000 miles instead of free torco. the only data i could find on torco was in that oil test you've all certainly seen where amsoil wins in every category, but it's an amsoil commissioned test so how can i trust that? tho it DOES show torco equals amsoil in all categories except one, but it's a very important one.

So i was hoping there might be people here who can enlighten me to some degree and hopefully allow me to come to a decision. thanks
 
What would make you think Amsoil would give you longer engine life? I am not knocking Amsoil just wondering the thought process???
 
Well Im no expert on oil. I have a 1800 V-Twin. I won't put anything in my crankcase except Mobil 1 or Amsoil. I know the Torco is probably fine but, my bike is my baby and I want it to last 30 years.

I would say go with the Amsoil and thank your dealer for his kindness.
 
Originally Posted By: Steve S
What would make you think Amsoil would give you longer engine life? I am not knocking Amsoil just wondering the thought process???


The same things that make you feel that a particular oil, whatever that might be will do the same for your engines.

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Well Im no expert on oil. I have a 1800 V-Twin. I won't put anything in my crankcase except Mobil 1 or Amsoil. I know the Torco is probably fine but, my bike is my baby and I want it to last 30 years.


I must admit i'm leaning that way, but a $60 oil change isn't quite as fun as a free one. :) However, till i figure this out i am probably siding with amsoil.
 
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By the time you spend money on 90k worth of Amsoil, you could have easily rebuilt the bike after the free Torco runs out. Just thought i'd throw that out there.
 
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BTW if you now the type Torco motorcyle oil the dealer uses (they make several), let us know.


I assume it's the T4R because he said it's semi, and thats seems to be the semi they make as far as bike oils.

by the way, i don't think he's trying to screw me. But at my age i've seen plenty of cases where very experienced people have certain biases towards things that they developed out of familiarity or gut feelings that turn out to be wrong. Oil is something experience alone can't evaluate. He can tear down and engine and look at the wear. But unless he tears down the same engine after the same time running and the same degree of riding hardness and does that with every major oil, how can he really know? and even then just looking at wear is a crude test compared to the testing in that amsoil test for example. If that test is for real i'm probably much better off with amsoil because it equaled amsoil in all ways except one crucial test where it failed fairly miserably. Whether i should base my decision on that possibly very biased test or not i dunno.
 
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I've used Torco T4MXR in a racing 4wheeler in very harsh conditions and have had excellent results. In fact I like the clutch feel of the Torco semi-syn better than any other moto oil. I would take the free Torco oil changes without reservation. Ride and enjoy your new Triumph and worry about other things, the Torco will serve you well.
 
1.58 gallons dry. So i suspect about 5 quarts and a bit more. So i may need 6 quarts, surely 5 if i drain it very well which i do. But it's brand new so not having done a change yet i can't be sure. Even 5 is $54 tho. Amisol is $10.79 or about there and then theres shipping....
 
Well, i read some of the articles here and one that caught my eye and then opened them is the one on moly. I haven't heard much about it other than someone writing it off as nothing in a forum thread somewhere. But the article here make it sound extremely positive. Now the reason this interests me is because torco has the largest amount of moly in it by a huge margin than any other oil in one of the tests i saw. On a bar graph moly was literally about 90% to 100% more moly enriched than any of the other oils, which were all the ones we see mentioned most....M1, silkolene, amsoil, etc. So is this really something that should make me consider the torco an oil that may well be as good as the shop owner said it was? (if i didn't mention it, he said it's THE best)
 
Originally Posted By: daz
Just under 600 ppm

Isn't that allot for a MC?? usally Mc oil's only have 60 to 90..
 
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