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[iski]

My Johnson bar is out of round so I had some out of round pulleys and sprockets custom made to match it so my bike would run smoothly. CAHDBIKER

Smart move.  You added extra Jaeger to your muffler bearings then?

Time to winterize here.  Since winter is coming have already switched to hotter plugs to make the engine run warmer.  Tonight am adding some Prestone to the blinker fluid, had a blinker almost burst last year due to a faulty freeze plug.

[evodistraction]

Smart move.  You added extra Jaeger to your muffler bearings then?

Time to winterize here.  Since winter is coming have already switched to hotter plugs to make the engine run warmer.  Tonight am adding some Prestone to the blinker fluid, had a blinker almost burst last year due to a faulty freeze plug.

It appears this thread has begun to outlive it's usefulness....no matter though I got some solid info which is why I bothered to sign up. I expect to get s lot more too. For now I can just sit back and wait to hear about self carbonizing battery terminals, de-ionized valve stem lubricant and one of my favorites: custom heated hemorrhoid pockets for touring seats!

Happy Turkey Day all!!

Evo 

[Para Bellum]

Why no Amsoil?   Unacceptable viscosity breakdown.

Let's dig into this a little more. First, the oil actually got thicker (higher viscosity), as shown by the UOAs in your later post, so there wasn't any viscosity breakdown.  In fact, the lab report, in Comments, notes the increased viscosity, as expected in this type of engine.  In addition, there is no increase in wear metals, as might be seen in viscosity breakdown.  The insolubles (sludge) are within normal limits.

What you have here is an oil that is doing its job well, and getting "sludgy" as expected--exactly why we change the oil at a certain mileage.  Of course, you won't go wrong with Mobil 1 V-Twin, which ranked right up there with Amsoil.   to both of them.

The link in post #12, by GRC, discusses the methods and reasons behind the tests, and really helps to understand the results.

One more thing:  When I change to a different oil, I always send in a sample of the unused new oil, along with the sample of the old used oil from the bike.  That way, I see the values of the new stuff before it gets worn-out by the bike, as well as the previous oil's performance.    

[iski]

It appears this thread has begun to outlive it's usefulness....no matter though I got some solid info which is why I bothered to sign up. I expect to get s lot more too. For now I can just sit back and wait to hear about self carbonizing battery terminals, de-ionized valve stem lubricant and one of my favorites: custom heated hemorrhoid pockets for touring seats!

Happy Turkey Day all!!

Evo 

There is so little info on the board about oil already, actually could just now be getting started here.  Also very little info on spark plugs, type, heat ranges, and life expectancies.  Precious few threads on waxes & polishes & why one is more effective, longer lasting, super duper than another.  Then we have the issue of nitrogen vs regular air in tires, where some would say the N science is settled & others are nitrogen deniers. 

Am heading out on Black Friday to find a good deal on that de-ionizing valve stem lubricant, suppose mine are severely ionized by now.

[05Train]

Let's dig into this a little more. First, the oil actually got thicker (higher viscosity), as shown by the UOAs in your later post, so there wasn't any viscosity breakdown.  In fact, the lab report, in Comments, notes the increased viscosity, as expected in this type of engine.  In addition, there is no increase in wear metals, as might be seen in viscosity breakdown.  The insolubles (sludge) are within normal limits.

What you have here is an oil that is doing its job well, and getting "sludgy" as expected--exactly why we change the oil at a certain mileage.  Of course, you won't go wrong with Mobil 1 V-Twin, which ranked right up there with Amsoil.   to both of them.

The link in post #12, by GRC, discusses the methods and reasons behind the tests, and really helps to understand the results.

One more thing:  When I change to a different oil, I always send in a sample of the unused new oil, along with the sample of the old used oil from the bike.  That way, I see the values of the new stuff before it gets worn-out by the bike, as well as the previous oil's performance.    

In similar engines, given similar usage, other oils don't gum up like Amsoil.  Having spoken with people at Blackstone, as well as other riders who document their oil, M1 or Castrol full synthetic perform better without the viscosity issues.

Amsoil is a well-marketed oil, but there are better products out there.

[grc]

There are MANY characteristics of a motor oil that are very important, and when making a decision I think it's wise to consider all of them and not just single out one.  That's why it's nice to see test results to industry standards.  If you look at the report I linked previously you will notice that no single product came in with the #1 result in every category.  While it may be possible to create an oil that would rank #1 in every measure (and maybe not since some characteristics tend to work in opposition to each other), it would most certainly be much more expensive.  Motor oil, like most products, is a compromise.  Thus my oft repeated stance that all the hype about one particular product being the "BEST" is just that, hype.

The last time I saw engine failures actually caused by the motor oil was back in the early 1970's, as the auto industry was cranking up operating temperatures to deal with the new emissions rules of the day.  The old oil standards didn't keep up and oil that actually did meet the standards would and did congeal if allowed to overheat repeatedly and wasn't changed often.  Oil that resembled jello didn't do a great job of flowing and lubricating engines, resulting in many failures. That wakeup call lead to improved standards for motor oils, and in my experience since then I've never seen or heard of an engine failure caused by any motor oil that met current standards.

If it makes folks happy and gives them something to talk and type about, then I suppose the never ending BS about which oil is "best" is no worse than all the threads and posts asking about the "best" tuning products or "best" shocks or "best" sparkplugs or "best" anything else.  All I care about is that the uninformed not be mislead by all the bogus claims floating around.

Jerry

[05Train]

Well put Jerry.  Oil-related failure simply doesn't happen anymore, and most people seriously overthink oil.  Doing the UOA on my Limited proved to me that the only important thing about oil was changing it at a regular interval.  I never had Blackstone run a TBN, but I probably could have extended the change interval to 7,500 miles without issue.

I did the Amsoil thing, now I'll do the Mobil (or Castrol) thing, next bike I'll probably try something different.

[Midnight Rider]

There is so little info on the board about oil already, actually could just now be getting started here.  Also very little info on spark plugs, type, heat ranges, and life expectancies.  Precious few threads on waxes & polishes & why one is more effective, longer lasting, super duper than another.  Then we have the issue of nitrogen vs regular air in tires, where some would say the N science is settled & others are nitrogen deniers. 

Am heading out on Black Friday to find a good deal on that de-ionizing valve stem lubricant, suppose mine are severely ionized by now.

Personally, I am a Nitrogen Agnostic...

[iski]

Personally, I am a Nitrogen Agnostic...

Am afraid to Google that one, it might actually be in Wikipedia already.   

[cbtruckin]

O5TRAIN,

This is my final UOA from my FLHTK.  You can see what consistently happened to the viscosity, and why I won't use Amsoil again.

Why does the viscosity go up?  I had my UOA from blackstone too and viscosity was high.  Shouldn't viscosity go down?  Here's my report with 10,000 miles on it.
Thanks,
Corey

[LC110]

Why does the viscosity go up?

 Changes to the Viscosity index improvers from usage breakdown and minor controlled polymerization, oxidation and evaporation.