Oil Thread...Do I dare start one?

I have followed Snowbum's recommendations on his website and used Spectro Golden-4 20W50 oil in my /5 bike, but I am now having difficulty finding it. Or, when I do, the price has gone sky high. There are no dealers locally, and Amazon is the only place that has it (sometimes). I know that the boxer2valve website advises using Liqui Moly 4T mineral oil, for older air heads and it is readily available. I fully trust the research and facts in Snowbum's articles so I would prefer to stick with Spectro oil, but may have no choice but to switch. Just wondering if anyone had thoughts on this. I do realize that thoughts on oil threads can be as varied as the number of people reading the thread, so I hesitate to post this.....but it is a cold rainy day so.... what the heck, may as well stir things up.

I, too, use Spectro in the required weights for my motorcycles. To me, the price isn't a deciding factor...I want what I consider the best for my bikes.

I did an oil comparison for the March 2013 ON. BMW's oil at the time along with Spectro and a range of other 20w50 (mostly) oils were evaluated. One of the products that seemed to test well and gets recommendations is Valvoline VR1 Racing Oil. Should be easier to find.

I’ve given up trying to determine what is the “best” oil for any given engine and have settled on “good enough”, which for me is Mobil 1 15-50 “car oil” for the airhead, available at any Walmart and not terribly expensive.

If the engine blows up or fails to make it another 100,000 miles i will stand corrected. Until then, however, i’m simply not going to worry about it. YMMV ...

20774 said:

I, too, use Spectro in the required weights for my motorcycles. To me, the price isn't a deciding factor...I want what I consider the best for my bikes.

I did an oil comparison for the March 2013 ON. BMW's oil at the time along with Spectro and a range of other 20w50 (mostly) oils were evaluated. One of the products that seemed to test well and gets recommendations is Valvoline VR1 Racing Oil. Should be easier to find.

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I had pretty well decided to stick with Spectro, but not 100% sure yet. Is the Valvoline you are referring to the VR 1 mineral, or the synthetic? I thought it would be the mineral as it has high zinc content, 1440 ppm, but I see the synthetic has the same content of zinc. There is also a Valvoline 4 stroke motorcycle oil that Snowbum gives a rating as not as good as Spectrum, but "probably good enough". The spec sheet on it gives 1120 ppm for zinc. The Valvoline oils are a bit cheaper (except the synthetic) and more readily available, but like you, I want what is best for my bike. Cost of repairs on a 50 year old bike would be a whole lot more than the difference in price in a few jugs of oil. I will keep looking for some Spectro while doing some more research on the Valvoline.

Thanks for the help.

Sadly

I use the Spectro oil in my bikes. I buy it by the case from a nearby distributor.

The biggest thing to look for in the oil is the additive needed in airheads for the cam lifters and such. Is it Zddp or Zinc?

Any vehicle with a catalytic converter now runs additive free oil so a lot of the oil on auto shops is probably not good for airheads.

LOL, Old camper may be right in what he is doing and as he says time and miles will tell if he is right. I am at the age now where I doubt very much I will see another rebuild of my bikes. The biggest thing to do is to use good oil, and change it regularly.

That is the problem with a lot of the oil threads, a lot of guys do have strong opinions on what oil they use and I give them credit, many have a lot of facts behind them.

In my case, I guess for now, I run the best airhead oil I can find, alway have always will. Would my engine last longer using the oil I do versus John Doe, using the cheapest oil he can buy? It is his gamble not mine and I like the odds in my favor.

Sadly, the cost of proper oil for our airheads has gone up in price over the years. LOL, we are lucky we aren't buying oil for a new BMW bike. St.

Both Valvoline products are mineral. The 4-stroke has lower amounts of ZDDP and is probably good enough all things considered. Again, the March 2013 ON has the info and diagrams. It's available on the MOA website if you don't have a copy. As you have been doing, I buy my Spectro from various Amazon sellers. Somewhat easy...just pull up my last purchase and buy it again!! I change my oil based upon time not miles as I don't ride that much. I suppose I could extend the oil use by just changing filters and replacing oil every other filter change. But there are other combustion products that aren't necessarily pulled out by the filter. So I just do it all. The cost amount over time is really nothing IMO.

+1 on Valvoline VR-1. It does have a high zinc content which I understand is good for our Airhead engines (I am no expert...just heard zinc is good for our older engines).

20774 said:

Both Valvoline products are mineral. The 4-stroke has lower amounts of ZDDP and is probably good enough all things considered. Again, the March 2013 ON has the info and diagrams. It's available on the MOA website if you don't have a copy. As you have been doing, I buy my Spectro from various Amazon sellers. Somewhat easy...just pull up my last purchase and buy it again!! I change my oil based upon time not miles as I don't ride that much. I suppose I could extend the oil use by just changing filters and replacing oil every other filter change. But there are other combustion products that aren't necessarily pulled out by the filter. So I just do it all. The cost amount over time is really nothing IMO.

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Valvoline do have a fully synthetic VR 1 Racing Oil, and a fully synthetic 4 stroke motorcycle oil, along with the mineral versions of the VR 1 racing oil, and the 4 stroke motorcycle oil, so I was a bit confused on what was what. I didn't realize (or possibly forgot) that I can look back at past issues of the magazine, so I checked out that article, very interesting, thanks for the info. I only joined MOA in the fall as I had never heard of it before, despite having had BMW's since 1972. I think it is a great organization and wish I had the time and money to take my '72 /5 to the 50th year anniversary event at Springfield, but just too far I don't get many miles on the bike either and will change the oil every fall before winter shut down, so I may opt for the Valvoline as it is more readily available here.

For those interested, zinc and phosphorus levels in Mobil 1 oils:

https://www.mobil.com/lubricants/-/...hash=E90BBCD720E33CC2D008B961B7EC97C2C1C5491F

OldCamper said:

For those interested, zinc and phosphorus levels in Mobil 1 oils:

https://www.mobil.com/lubricants/-/...hash=E90BBCD720E33CC2D008B961B7EC97C2C1C5491F

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Thanks, that's very helpful. Walmart Canada doesn't carry Mobile 1- 15W50 for some reason. But Canadian Tire have it at $14.49 a liter, which is a bit bigger than the US quart. This is more expensive than the Valvoline.. $11.33 per US quart at Canadian Tire, or at Amazon it is only $8.15, This is in Canadian $'s which is about 3/4 value of US $, so I expect it is cheaper in your part of the world. In comparison, Spectro Golden 20-50 is $19.35 per quart ($77.25) for a 4 quart jug...even more if buying individual quarts.

I think Mobile 1 is a great oil, as is the Valvoline, probably the only difference is that Mobile 1 is fully synthetic. That might be better if I was putting lots of miles on the bike...but, I'm not..... and with the price of gas at $2.20 a liter, I don't expect to be putting a lot on this year. I am glad to know that there are definite oil options if the Spectro Golden is difficult to find in my part of the world. I can always drive across the border and get some, as I am only 60 miles from Houlton, Maine.

This testing was done a couple of years ago, so current oil formulation may have changed.
https://www.accessnorton.com/Oil-Tests/NortonOil.php

franko said:

This testing was done a couple of years ago, so current oil formulation may have changed.
https://www.accessnorton.com/Oil-Tests/NortonOil.php

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How does one interpret "load capacity" to engine protection? Never seen that metric before.

I started using Brad Penn oil in my VWs years ago and it's been the only stuff I've used in my Airheads. ACVWs are flat tappet air-cooled just like our Airheads. I order it in from Speedway Motors these days. If you have a decent speed shop near you, you can probably buy it over the counter.

Hi Kurt: In post number ten he discusses the reason for the pressure being applied.
In other post in this thread he also describes how some oils did better and others failed even with more zinc added.
https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/follower-scar-oil-tests-2018.25898/

Your BMW dealer can provide you with oil BMW specifies as suitable for Airheads.

https://www.bobsbmw.com/store/product/bmw-advantec-classic-20w-50-engine-oil-1-liter

BMW oil

BMW buys oil from various refiner/blenders and puts their name on it. For a long time Spectro was making it. Not sure who has the task now. You can be sure BMW goes with the lowest cost that maintains specification. A better deal from another refiner/blender will see them switch as they have in the past.

Over the years, I have used Kendall, Pennzoil, (family worked at the Kendal and Penzoil PA refineries so I got a deal) Castrol, Brad Penn, and now Spectro. Why Spectro? I get if from my friend's shop by the case at a good price. The others are harder to find in the appropriate motorcycle form. St.

Back when I did the oil tests for the ON, one of the members heard about a "classic" 20w50 oil being marketed for Porche in a metal can, similar to the previous picture. He had the oil tested and interestingly, the oil showed small amounts of ferrous metal in the chemistry. I wonder why!!

Long ago

Many years ago I toured the Kendal refinery in Bradford PA. (Now Brad Penn oil). Then, the differences in crude oil from the Middle East, Texas, and PA/Ohio/NY was discussed. The PA/Ohio/NY oil was paraffin based versus asphalt based as found in the other areas of the world. This in itself lent the PA/Ohio/NY oil to be refined into a better grade lubrication oil and the other crude to be made into distillates such as gasoline and diesel.

I am almost certain Penzoil and Kendal oils have little or no PA crude used to make them anymore, the names exist only as a pair of bottled but not refined brands.

Quaker State's refinery near Smethport PA is now called Petrowax, Penzoil's plant in PA I believe makes wax products. kendal is refined in Texas.

So, it doesn't surprise me that like many different products, one plant makes the product, blends it as required, puts a brand name on and that company distributes it.

I do know the supply of PA/Ohio/NY crude is getting scarce, much of the oil patch I grew up around is now timber. The oil extraction started falling off 50 years ago and went to almost noting 20 years ago.

Having had three generations of family in either the drilling/exploration, pumping, or refining of crude in the PA area, things are certainly not the high rolling times of days past. St.

I use the Valvoline 4 Stroke MC oil, in I think 20-50w
So far so good
Nick

In the '70s my Norton 850 used Castrol GTX 20w50 and that's what my airheads have used. Only recently it was brought to my attention the zinc content had been reduced in "normal" GTX, and now they make a "Classic" version with high zinc, so that's what I buy at my local Walmart.

https://www.castrol.com/en_us/unite...oil-brands/castrol-gtx-brand/gtx-classic.html