Motorcycle Guide: Pick the right oil
Engine oils have been around for nearly a century, but only in recent years engine oil manufacturing and rigorous testing have made the oil itself a high tech product, being much more efficient then every before. Out on the market there are various brands of oil, from race certified engine oil to the cheap 2 parts water – 1 part oil products. Since we’re on a motorcycle section I was, forced by circumstance to write such an article to prevent further engine damage from misunderstanding of the productv A little while back, I was talking about a test drive on a Honda CBR 600 F4I, however some thoughts still remain in my head about the old motorcycle I used to own(my previous bike, the Suzuki SV 650). A little situation made me write this oil-related specific post.
Last night I received a phone call from the buyer, he seemed pretty agitated, so my first reaction was that he was some sort of trouble, like in an accident or something similar. But, thank God, it was nothing too serious…he did virtually kill my bike, but still, he was in one piece. How did he manage this performance? To completely destroy a bike in under 2 months from purchase? I’ll tell you how…
The discussion started pretty normal, he was pretty concerned why white smoke is coming out of the exhaust pipe and why does the engine get so hot (water temperature light, lighting up bright red). I normally asked, what did he do, if he had used any special modifications (yes, in Romania, bike tuning is a must if you want to be cool, I am not a big fan of mods) or used any oil additives. He mentioned that he recently changed the oil, which didn’t seem right at first, since I knew that I told him what to buy for the bike. So I thought: hell, there goes the gasket….and then the BIG punch in the face came: “Dude, I bought Castrol Offroad oil”…
I was stunned to hear that…I couldn’t speak…I should have hung up on him, but for some reason I felt like at least trying to solve his problem, it was my old bike after all… He told me that the guy he took the bike to recommended that oil, claiming it was: “better” and cheaper (yeah right, with the same money he spent on 3 bottles of 1 liter, you could buy a 4 litre motul bottle). So yes, Romania and its people do everything possible to rip you off… Before I started to write this I looked a little over the internet, trying to research, document, basically try to find the explanation why Castrol has a lower quality then Motul engine oil. After all, I use Castrol oil in my car and it runs just fine.
Starting from the local forums (motociclism.ingalati.net, motociclism.ro and pro-bike.ro) and it turns out that Motul oil really slides itself on 1st place, when it comes to both money and quality, Castrol takes the last place, ahead being Repsol and Valvolines oils.
The best oil vs Recommended oil
Here’s always a debate, what oil to use. Personally, the SV650 has been running on 7100, which is an oil designed to work well with V-type (V type piston arrangement) Engines, since this engines tend to “eat” up a small fraction of the oil. The high end of the Motul Family is the V series which is a Double Ester, synthetic oil.
Motul Characteristics:
We will be comparing some of the main oils of Motul Family, and finally, we’ll compare it with the current oil in discussion, Castrol Offroad oil. All oils are 10w40!
 Motul 300W
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 Motul 7100
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 Castrol Power 1 “Off-Road”
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Conclusion:
Whenever you plan to change your engine oil, make sure you check with the local dealer, or, if that is not possible, make sure you give the previous owner (second hand models) a call and ask him what he used inside that engine. Remember, there are a lot of people out there claiming these “miracle oils” that will “even make your engine run without oil for another 75 kilometers!”…yeah it will run for over 75 km, on the back of a flatbed. Now you may be asking what happened with the engine on the SV. Long story short: Partial synthetic oil DOES NOT handle heat, meaning that at some point, due to loads of heat, the viscosity index plunges down, causing the oil to “thin out” and making it lose almost all lubrication properties. Since it’s no longer so viscous, it tends to get in the combustion chamber and burn along with the fuel. Which can lead to a whole lot of problems, specially if you have catalic converters.
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