Which engine oil

I was chatting to somebody at work the other day and he suggested I use oil which is readily available for us.
The oil is semi synthetic and is 10w30.
As far as I recall it is from Castrol.
BUT......
It is primarily for cars, both diesel and petrol and we also use it for the trucks and busses.
I think that it will be too "heavy duty" but my mate reckons it will be fine.
Any experts on here can tell me who is right.........


Oh, and if anybody knows what OMD90 means then you will get my drift.

You'll probably find it'll be okay. Some peeps on here get a tad evangelical about the type of oil to use, and will wax lyrical about how car oil, because of its additives, will ruin your clutch, but having run my SV on semi-synth car oil for a good 6k miles (at one point) I can tell you it was fine. Specs wise, I think it won't be a problem, so try it and see. If your clutch starts slipping (possible but doubtful) then just change the oil for any bike specific brand.

The more important thing, IMO, is to change the oil very regularly, say 3k miles. So if you've got a free source then you really have no excuses.

Oh and if your engine gets totally snafued, then it's purely coincidental, right?


.

my mates buell xb12r recommends diesel oil 10/40 if you cant get HD own brand.

If you really want to be picky you can use a proper bike oil. theory says it's a balancing act between protecting the really hot parts (Pistons / upper cylinders), protecting the gears (as engine oils don't normally have to lubricate the gearbox) and clutch (engine oils usually have reasonable amounts of friction modifiers which act on the surfaces, but can interfere with wet clutch friction).

In practice a car oil will be fine for most bikes. As it's a 10W-30 it might get a bit thin in the middle of summer, but at this time of the year that's not an issue. I wouldn't worry if I were you.

OMD90 is actually very good oil. I've not used it in the bike as I've not had to change the oil in it yet but I also have access to plenty of it and hadn't thought of that yet. Free oil for me too. Happy Days

Looks like it is going to be OMD 90 then. I suppose with it being readily available I could change the oil as often as I wanted. The supply is such that I could change the oil weekly if I wanted to be silly.

[Biker Biggles]

You could supply the entire org.

I'm sure I could but think of the hassle......

Originally Posted by adburn

Original post deleted.

your back are you - great and such a nice helpful post to come back with NOT

[northwind]

Loads of the SV Rider guys use Rotella diesel oil... Personally I use Castrol GPS bike oil, because it's a pretty colour. At the end of the day, even the wrong oil's better than no oil, if people spent as much time checking their oil levels as they do talking on the internet about which oil to use, less people would seize their engines