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CVO Social => Other Topics => Topic started by: muddypaws on March 25, 2018, 08:17:09 AM
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I was at Daytona and stopped in at the Amsoil booth. He told me you can go 10,000 miles between oil changes. Opinions? Whats better RedLine or Amsoil. I have been using Redline for several years.
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I was at Daytona and stopped in at the Amsoil booth. He told me you can go 10,000 miles between oil changes. Opinions? Whats better RedLine or Amsoil. I have been using Redline for several years.
Determination of the best oil change intervals is something that depends on many factors, not just the type of oil involved. If you do a lot of short rides around town, you will need to change oil more often than someone who just cruises the interstates for instance. If you ride fully loaded and hauling a trailer, you would need to change oil more often than someone who just rides one up with no additional load. And it goes on and on. Modern cars and trucks use algorithms in the ECM to determine when you should change your oil, using all kinds of data such as length of trips, temperatures, engine load, etc. to fine tune the change intervals for you. Unless they changed something very recently, Harley doesn't have such a system, thus the one size fits all 5000 mile change interval.
On a Harley that's covered by the factory warranty, you will probably want to stick with the Harley 5000 mile requirement until the warranty expires. If you want to fine tune the interval later on, I'd suggest having the oil tested at different intervals to come up with a scientifically valid interval based on your bike and your riding conditions, versus just winging it. If you just run the interstates lightly loaded, you might find that even 10,000 miles is too soon.
JMHO - Jerry
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Had good intentions of being very helpful. Began using the search tool to bring up all the worthwhile oil threads in the history of the site. Got zero responses :nixweiss: .
Then tried the search tool to bring up every oil thread in the history of the site. The Internet broke. I'm very sorry.
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Good try....
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jerry gave a good response with quantifiable data. i'm just gonna give you my opinion. if it's between redline and amsoil, i'd be using redline. not because it's a 'better' oil (really, there isn't a 'best' oil), but because i don't like amsoil's marketing approach.
but i wouldn't listen to me, i use mobil1 15w-50 (5 qt jug from walmart for $25) in my engine, shell rotella t 15w-40 ($15.00 for gal) in the primary, and supertech full synthetic 75w-90 ($5 qt) in my bike.... :bananarock:
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Speaking from personal experience I would stay faaaaar away from Scamsoil. I thought I would be smart and try something different in my old RGU once .... wrong! My engine made more racket than ever with their garbage. I took one ride with it and drained it right out, complete waste of cash. I put Red Line back in it (what I was using before Scamsoil) and all was good again.
This bike I've been running the Liqui-Moly 10W-60 which can be picked up at any Napa cheaper than Redline and also comes in a big jug. If it's good enough for some of the fancy yuppie high-end cars, it's good enough for my HD. A couple guys actually lab tested it on one of the other sites (Harley Tech Talk??) and turned out to be really good oil. I'm still using Red Line's Primary oil in the chaincase and Spectro Heavy Duty Platinum 6 spd. 75W-140 in the trans which is exactly what Baker recommends for their transmissions.
I like the Liqui-Moly ... still good oil pressure at idle when engine is hot and cold starts the pressure builds faster than the Red Line 20W-50 did for me.
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I decided this a long time ago: in 4 cycle motors, I use oil in the crankcase. For 2 cycle engines, the oil goes in the gas. So far this plan has worked well for me. I keep the gas cans marked so as not to get the 2 types mixed up.
Have found several alternatives to Amsoil (used it for a while years ago) and they have all worked well.
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I also tried Amsoil and to me the noises from the top seemed more pronounced. I went back to what was in the engine before and considered it a engine flush service.
If your going to go further than the 5k on your oil of choice I would recommend changing the filter and top it off.
Keeping the oil as clean as possible obviously prolongs internal part life.