My 1994 Seca II has “used oil” ever since it was new. I guess I put about 6 ounces in every 500 miles. Every Yamaha mechanic I’ve talked to says this is normal. The red line is 9,500 rpm and I usually ride it at around 6,000. Compression is excellent. It’s an air-cooled engine.
But his isn’t about “why does my engine (IMO) use so much oil?”
I always carry oil with me in case I need to add some. But what if I forget and get low on the road? So the question is…
Is it okay to use 10-40 car oil in my motorcycle, instead of 10-40 Yamalube?
Johnny, as you may know, this is a fiercely debated issue.
The jist of the argument goes that auto oil is not designed to interact with a motor vehicle’s transmission and clutch innards; it therefore does not contain anti-foaming agents and may contain elements that could defeat the necessary friction of a bike’s wet clutch. And that, of course, is supposed to be a bad thing.
Countering this argument is the testimony of thousands of real life cheapskates, corner-cutters and stranded, desperate riders who have all used the auto oil without harm. (I have read several of their accounts in the Yamaha Radian user group I belong to, and I have yet to hear anyone with first-person experience decry the practice. Some, I believe, even endorse it.)
So, it may not be the best thing for your bike, but it does not appear to be the worst.
(An interesting side note, JLA: Yamalube, the Yamaha-specified oil for our bikes, comes in the unusual weights of 20W/40 (summer) and 10W/30 (winter). For what it’s worth, you will not find an exactly equivelent weight auto oil.)
I’ve been running Yamalube 10W/30; but the shop I went to yesterday didn’t have any, so I had to get Yamalube 10W-50. Sure would be cheaper if I could use the oil I have left over from an oil-burning car I used to have!
This Site debunks, via direct experiment, the notion that there is any significant difference between the viscocity-retention properties of Motorcycle and Auto engine oil.
Whether or not there is some kind of bonus due to the anti-foaming wet-transmission etc. etc. that stuyguy mentioned (for which I offer no opinion at all) the straight dope on the two “types” of oil - at least with regard to oil’s normal function of being slippery - is that they’re virtually identical, except for price.
For what it’s worth Johnny, the only thing I ever ran in my old Honda Shadow 500 was 10W-40 Quaker State, and never had problems. I’ve read countless articles that talk about clutch trouble, but generally it is B.S., at least on older bikes. I’m coming up for an oil change on my PC800, and am debating whether to just use auto oil or Hondaline, at 5 bucks a quart. I’m probably going to go with auto oil from my older bike experience though. You will probably be safe.
