What is a good oil to run in a Harley Twin Cam 88

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la9

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I have a Harley Twin Cam 88 and it needs an oil change and wondered if there was some recommendations.

I'm leaning toward synthetic but want to stay away from SM rated oil.

I'd use diesel oil but it isn't 20w50 and I'd like to stick to that weight.

I see a guy on this board likes Havoline Dino so I'm thinking about that.
 
If I had that engine, I'd run AmSoil 20-50 motorcycle oil. Just because of how well the AmSoil holds up on UOA's that I've seen, plus how well it does in my bike. I have no association with AmSoil, and think some of people don't like the products due to some of the knuckleheads that promote it and call themselves "dealers". There are only a couple of AmSoil Dealers that I trust, and they are on BITOG. All that said, I still wouldn't use it if I didn't like the way it performed in my bikes. AND, if I didn't have some poor performers in other Motorcycle oils compared to the AmSoil, I wouldn't recommend AmSoil. It really is good stuff.
 
The Castrol Syntec 20w50 looks pretty good from the label

Contains increased zinc levels for extra engine wear prevention.Provides superior oil film strength and extreme high temperature protection. API SL, SJ, SH, CF or CD is recommended. Porsche approved
 
The 2 Castrol 20W50 tested in my above link tested last and second last overall out of 16 SAE 50 motorcycle oils. If they use similar base stocks and additives in Castrol Syntec, I would have a hard time believing it would test any better and work better in a motorcycle engine than Castrol's motorcycle specific oil. I place more weight on comparative testing than words on a label, but to each their own.
 
I like either Amsoil or the Mobil 1 v-twin 20w-50 formulations. I have used them both in my HD and Victory v-twins (both motor and transmission) with great results over the oem oils. That is my opinion.
 
I looked at oil last night and everything has the SM rating on it and I'd like to stay away from SM oil. Even the Castrol I quoted above from their website has changed and didn't have the same ratings. Mobil 1 had the same thing.
 
Was not planning on using a MC oil because everything I read says it is just overpriced auto oil.
 
Also having problem finding anyone that has motorcycle oil in my area.
 
I went ahead and bought the Harley oil.

Despite everyone claiming it is cheap and not worth the money, everything I read points out that it is more than adequate for the job.

Everything I can find seems to be SM rated and I'm not putting that in my engine.

In the future I might try Amsoil, Redline, Valvoline VR1 or Rotella. I wish the Rotella was thicker than 15w40 or I probably would have went with that this time.
 
I used Amsoil Racing 20W-50 last year and had an extremely good UOA (Cu was slightly high but due to break-in of engine). Was impressed except a little noisy. I used Amsoil M/C oil before the new blend came out and that was good and less noisy than the racing oil. I'm using Redline now and even less noise and my idle speed actually went up slightly (vs. the Amsoil TRO). I used the Harley stuff (several times) in my Sporty in the past and the engine did not blow up, but, for the price and the frequency that I change oil (once per year) I just can't see spending $4 for a product when I can get something that is so far advanced for $3 more. The difference per OCI is about $10. I noticed smoother running and cooler engine oil temps with the synthetics. That, to me, alone is worth $10 per year. When I am stuck in traffic for several minutes in the summer, I am glad I have a little extra protection because I know those cylinder heads are HOT.

I guess I am lucky because there is an Amsoil warehouse 5 minutes from my work and there is a Redline dealer 10 minutes away that sells Redline for very good prices. I do have an Amsoil "dealership" but I rarely sell to anyone, I just use it to buy oil for a discount. As you can see though, I think Redline is definitely a good oil and I just want the best for my vehicles, not to sell oil. I use Redline MTL in my primary and I'm using Amsoil in the gear box currently but will be switching to Redline Heavy Shockproof this fall. Mobil products are also good and I've used their MC oil and gear lubes. I've used Royal Purple and was not impressed and I haven't used SYN3 because I just don't think its worth the price.
 
How quickly we forget...
bop.gif


But lucky for you guys you've got me here to remind you.
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May I call your attention to the four best UOA's on Harleys in the BITOG archives, linked below...

http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/s...true#Post714572

http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/s...true#Post715108

http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/s...true#Post733603

Note that these are all dino oils. If someone can produce a synthetic oil UOA on a Harley with better wear metal counts, I'll congratulate you. (And yes, crunch the numbers so that the wear metal per mile counts are equivalent)... Go to the "search" feature, select Motorcycle UOA's, and type in "Harley" and see what you come up with...

Pay particular attention to the bearing wear accelerated by many of the synthetic oils (look for higher than average copper numbers)... also, watch for evidence of corrosion, allowed by the syns, which will show up as higher than average iron counts.

The Harley dino 20W50 is a decent oil, so you have erred only on the side of caution. Not a bad choice at all, other than it's a 2 dollar oil at 5 to 6 bucks a quart.

The HD oil is made by Citgo. Havoline 20W50 is much better, and should still be SL rated if that's a concern.

Dan
 
Quote:



Pay particular attention to the bearing wear accelerated by many of the synthetic oils.....also, watch for evidence of corrosion, allowed by the syns,




Sorry - not buying into this. Can you please clearly and concisely present the data? I did a quick search of UOA's and didn't see evidence backing your claim. I agree that you post some good UOA's in your applications using dino. SF's UOA is truly great.
 
Ahh i still like my Ansoil and M1 MC oil's in my high
revving ATV's, rebuilt my 350cc Warrior ATV last year with
a new top end and had the crank spec'd at my local Yamaha
dealer and every thing was within spec(low wear) and
very clean,really didn't need a fresh'en up but i had
it apart so.

i'm sticking with a full synthetic . $.02
 
What oil did HD do their durability testing with? anything else is just an experiment, but we all love to experiment, LOL

This was the response from Rotax when discussing oils other than their own and how it related to mag-moss laws.
 
I've heard that people have had good results with Schaeffer's 20W-50 blend and 5W-50 full synthetic racing oils in Harley V-twins. Anyone have any experience with either of these 2 oils in motorcycles? I understand that both have moly in their formulation, as does Redline. They have repective HTHS of about 4.55 and 5.08, so these would seems to offer a lot of viscosity protection when things get really hot. Additionally, the technical description on their website specifically recommends these oils for use in air or water-cooled motorcycle engines, including shared sump designs. Has anyone tried these?
 
Here are some that I found that show higher than average copper and-or iron numbers...

http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/s...true#Post808369

http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/s...true#Post772196

http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/s...true#Post715054

http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/s...true#Post714931

There are a couple of syn UOA's which show average wear, but I couldn't find any which showed extraordinarily low wear numbers, as the dino UOA's I linked in my first post show. Too, even if the syn UOA's were on par with the dino UOA's, you'd have to run the syns 10,000 miles to justify the cost and break even.

I think that synthetic oils perform well in many applications, but from the wear metal numbers I think it's fair to say that they cannot outperform dinos in a Harley V-Twin engine.

Dan
 
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