Valvoline ATV 10w40

Joined
Feb 11, 2010
Messages
170
Location
Atlantic Canada
I am looking for 10w40 and found a Auto Parts store has Valvoline 4-Stroke ATV 10w40 Motor Oil, can I use it for my Kawasaki Vulcan 800 wet clutch? Is it any good?
 
The holy trinity of science is 1)Reason 2)Observation 3)Experience...
employing those tools we observe that the primary cause clutch slip
are high mileage... mileage is the constant among all of the clutches
that begin to slip... oil choice whether JASO approved or not is not a
constant... High mileage is the constant where all clutches begin to
loose grip due to normal glazing and contaminates that build up over use..

gallery_3131_51_129667.jpg
 
MA2 is a bit grabbier than MA1 and normally found in dirt bikes. Just saying its MA normally means that some of the parameters fall in the MA1 and some in the MA2 range. MA2 didnt exist before about 2006 or so, after that they just broke the spec range in half and made the lower half 1 and the upper half 2.
 
I’m currently using this oil Valvoline 10w40 in my ATV with a wet clutch shared oil engine and not CVT transmission. Seems ok to me and no immediate issues. The shift feeling has always been notchy so this oil didn’t make anything better or worse. The formulation is slightly different with less zinc and phosphorus content vs. Valvoline street bike version but overall I would not hesitate to use this oil if nothing else was available. What I won’t use from my personal experience with a wet clutch shared sump are auto specific oils or synthetic oils even motorcycle labeled bottles. After less than a thousand miles the slippage was just so apparent. For separate systems or dry clutches like my HD or Ducati, the selection is more widely forgiving.

People on this forum seems to have positive feedback with the heavy duty Shell Rotella oils in their motorcycles too which I have not tried.
 
What I won’t use from my personal experience with a wet clutch shared sump are auto specific oils or synthetic oils even motorcycle labeled bottles. After less than a thousand miles the slippage was just so apparent.

Your clutch slip after a thousand miles??? but want was the total mileage on the clutch???
 
Your clutch slip after a thousand miles??? but want was the total mileage on the clutch???
This was back in the late 80s early 90s with a ‘86 Ninja 600r. Purchased used with a history of rider abuse. Replaced with a new Barnett clutch pack and changed oil with 20w50 Pennzoil conventional. Rode for weeks and the rpms started to mismatch relative to clutch lever disengagement so drained motor oil and replaced with motorcycle specific Spectro and got noticeably better. Never changed the clutch pack ever again.

More recently with a ‘95 900RR using synthetic Golden Spectro, after several thousand miles, the transmission didn’t have the same positive feel as previous with conventional motorcycle oil so I dumped that and again, I felt more of the mechanical engagement and feel that I felt more comfortable with using conventional motorcycle oil.

So for me with 7+ motorcycles/atv, this is my routine I personally follow.
 
I am looking for 10w40 and found a Auto Parts store has Valvoline 4-Stroke ATV 10w40 Motor Oil, can I use it for my Kawasaki Vulcan 800 wet clutch? Is it any good?
Valvoline ATV oil has slightly lower Z and P (1020/930 ppm) vs their Motorcycle oil (1120/1030 ppm). I got some Valvoline ATV oil on super sale at AutoZone a number of years ago.

Based on my experience I would choose other oils for a shared sump engine. My experience with it is as an oil I put in after the initial break in on new pistons/rings on a ZRX1200 and did a shorter OCI.

Ran it in my ZRX as shared above. After 1,400 miles, shift quality was falling off, it was out of grade for a 40wt despite a flashpoint of 420 Deg F.

The Valvoline ATV 10w40 UOA showed 880 zinc, 750 phos with 1832 ppm calcium as the main detergent and 129 ppm boron, 2 ppm moly.
 
unless you have availability issues in canada why not use MC specific oil MA rated? valvoline do them.
 
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