20W-50 too much?
- Thread starter redkat05
- Start date
ok the lower number is starting thinckness (lower the number the higher the thickness) and as oil heats up it becomes thinner and the second number is what it will thin down too..so a 10-40 starts thick and thins to 40 weight at temp... a 20-50 is thinner to start and thins down even more to 50 at temp. this is my understanding
rusheriv
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Recommended is 10W-40. If your oil is seeing temperatures in excess of 248degF / 120degC due to mods and track use etc then there is a strong argument to using an SAE 50, as it will have more viscosity at these excessive temperatures. If your oil temp does not exceed 120degC at any time then a good "shear stable" SAE 40 is perfectly capable of giving protection. Thicker oils cause more friction and therefore more heat and they waste power and affect fuel consumption so it's always best to use the thinnest oil that you can get away with and still maintain oil pressure.
O Holy P
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I wouldn't...it won't hurt to go over the mileage as long as you are performing regular changes. Thicker oil (if not needed or recommended) will put a little bit of additional stress on the oil pump. I'd be like the difference of drinking water vs. a milkshake through a straw. It will rob some power as well pumping thicker oil. If you can wait...wait. But if you absolutely need to it shouldn't hurt anything...I would want to put 10w40 back in as soon as practical...but then you get into the thought of wasting money on oil you're only going to use for a few hundred miles....
Rick Ekstrom
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The bottom line is: Follow the manufactures oil temp and weight table that is in your manual. I would think they would know best seeing they designed and built your engine. Just my opinion!
k9ill5a
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I heard this a at the local bike shop and assumed it was there way of getting you to buy the more expensive product and boosting sales by staying with synthetic, can someone shed some light on why you shouldnt go back to regular oil after using fully synthetic? and can you go from a full to a synthetic blend?.
IG.
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I remember a while back there was a post about an article written by one car guy who spent years researching oil. What I personally took away from this article that even 5W oil is too thick for the cold engine when you start the bike, let alone 10W or 15W. So, I am using Rotella 5W40, full synthetic of course (around $25/gallon). I did use Mobile 1 15W50 for some time in the past with no ill effects.
An interesting point about Rotella oil. It is primarily designed for heavy duty trucks and similar machinery, and because of that Shell is reluctant to advertise this oil as suitable for motorcycles. However, since it is designed to withstand tough loads and conditions, it should be very suitable for bikes. I know many riders use it.
An interesting point about Rotella oil. It is primarily designed for heavy duty trucks and similar machinery, and because of that Shell is reluctant to advertise this oil as suitable for motorcycles. However, since it is designed to withstand tough loads and conditions, it should be very suitable for bikes. I know many riders use it.
IG.
Registered
Your last quote in bold - that's the exact phrasing I remember from that article.
And for that exact reason, putting W50 makes the hot oil thicker, so it flows just a tad worse and as a result may not reach every remote place inside the engine as it supposed to. Regular oil may degrade over time and lose its viscosity. So by putting W50 regular oil, you figure it will degrade and after some time becomes W40, and maybe by the end of its life become W30 - all of these viscocities still working fine. However, synthetic oil holds its viscocity a lot better and does not degrade that much. So, using W40 (as recommended by Suzuki) is just fine.
So, to it makes sense to me to stick with 5W40 full synthetic from a respected brand. Rotella oill stands out as I mentioned above.
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It is a myth that you cannot change back and forth between Standard, Synthetics, and blends.
It is actually one of the more popular myths, but it is not correct.
k9ill5a
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shadetree57
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I went from dino oil to Mobil 1 15 50 and it seemed to do fine. It doesn't get really cold down here so I saw no problem using it. My last oil change I went to mobil 4t 10 40. Honestly, I think the transmission shifted slicker with the automotive oil and I didn't notice any type of clutch problems.
Use 20w50 Silkolene Full Synthetic No Problems
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