Synthetic oil or standard oil? I'm confused.

AKmotorider

AKmotorider

Alright so I bought 5 of those 1 quart bottles of AMSOIL 100% Advanced Synthetic 10W-40 oil at 13 bucks a quart not too long ago; this is what I've always used in my bike for the year that I've had it. However, the guy I bought it from about 2 years ago, who is currently helping me rebuild my bike, is telling me that synthetic oil is bad, bad, bad, even quality AMSOIL. Keep in mind his son has been racing all his life, he's now 18, and he's been through many bikes and quads. So he's telling me that he has burned up clutch after clutch on his sons bikes until he switched to regular oil and has never had a problem. What kind of oil do you use? I cant find the receipt for these 5 bottles of AMSOIL so I really wanna use it up. The bottle tells me its safe for wet clutches and that its specifically made for these kinds of high performance bikes....it even says "no friction modifiers for outstanding wet clutch performance." Whats the truth here?

Also I wanted to know what these mean, or a website where I can find out what these mean. These are the oil technicalities off the back of the AMSOIL bottle:

API SG, SL/CF/CG-4
JASO MA/MA-2
ISO-L-EMA2
 
J

johnrunner

Everyone has their own opinion and uses what works best for them. If you are not sure what your bike requires, just use what your owners manual recommends.
 
timoyz

timoyz

I lost a bottom end on a Ranger using synthetic. Then I hear all the stories of the same thing happening to all I talk to. No more synthetic for me, I now use a standard fleet oil(Rotella).
 
jackson409

jackson409

I would only run Dino oil, unless the manufacture requires you to run synthetic you don't need to spend the squish on it IMO. Too much clearance in a normal engine to run that type of oil. Unless it is some 100k racing engine with zero tolerance you don't need it from my understanding.
 
snowflake

snowflake

I've used synthetic in just about everything over the years, I've also used all the low dollar stuff (including rotella t)
synthetic won't hurt your motor, nor does it cause issues to arise like your mechanic claimed. I use Kal-Gard full synthetic in all my bikes.
 
snowflake

snowflake

don't know why its not letting me edit
anyway

if this is a yz250f, the manual I have for my 01 wr250f (same engine) recommends using either a semi synthetic for 3 hours, or a full synthetic for 6 hours.
My crf manual recommends using a 10w30 with moly in the engine and a 10w30 with out moly in the transmission.
Although an oil like rotella t won't have a negotiable effect on the engine life, I have noticed smoother clutch action and shifting with the full synthetic, which I run for 6 hours in the engine of the crf and 12 hours in the transmission.
 
cleonard

cleonard

The JASO-MA motorcycle rating means that it is OK for wet clutches. It's when you use oil with a few particular bad additives that clutch issues occur.
 
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