Blacklightning wrote: General one to start, I am thinking of 20/50 mineral oil to run in on, and then switch to fully synthetic after 2000 miles - what are people's comments on oil selection and this idea please?
Hi Stuart,
Ah … “Oil choice”, probably the most controversial Bevel topic of all time
. Which in itself tells you something
. (And let’s not even go to the eternal argument about the best running-in procedures …)
But hey, who cares? Let’s enter the water:
1. Multigrade?
Yep, multigrade is good. And I feel justified in saying this on the grounds that by 1979, Ducati had themselves change their oil recommendation, at least for the Dramah. No longer a straight SAE 50; but instead a synthetic 10-50.*
And, to me at least, that makes sense. What we want is an oil that is quick to pump on start-up, not a load of old molasses, left lurking in the sump …
* Have you got a handbook for yours - or, more likely, for a 1979 900SS? What's it say about oil spec? I know the 1980 900SS manual says 10-50.
2. Mineral oil for running-in?
Again - yep. In my defence, I quote George Morrison**:
“(For running-in), use mineral or synthetic. The Old Wives' tale of, "Synthetics are so slippery you don't get seating proper seating", is just simply not true. All Corvettes, Porsches and Mercedes are shipped from the factory with Mobil 1 synthetic oil.
However, running-in generates large amounts of wear as components seat in. The system needs to be flushed early on and it is expensive to use synthetics for this. So several short oil change intervals early on with high quality mineral based oils would be ideal, then switch to a full synthetic.”
3. Synthetic once run-in?
Again - yep. The performance-in-use of synthetics (e.g. film strength, viscosity consistency, clingeability, heat transfer, yada-yada-yada) is so much better than minerals that I can’t see the advantage of dino-juice (except price - and just how many miles are you thinking of doing? Plus, as the old adage says: "Oil is cheaper than bearings"
)
Right, let's see what heat that generates ...
Ciao
Craig
** "The late George Morrison, was a Certified Lubrication Specialist by the Society of Trobologists and Lubrication Engineers as well as the founder and CEO of AV Lubricants, one of the largest Exxon/Mobil distributors in the United States. During his 35 years in the lubricant industry, he worked with such industries as aviation and coal mining, assisting with their specific lubricant needs in which hundreds of Used Oil Analysis reports went through his hands a week. As a result, Mr. Morrison was an expert in lubricant and lubricant filtration."
