Used oil for chain lube

Oddly, I have looked in the repair manual for what is recommended on the chain, but not for the engine (only had my bike for about 6 weeks now). Says use a heavy weight engine oil (30wt or higher) for the chain. Guess I should ask whats recommended for the engine before I post, eh?

I see on the interweb its 10w30 which again would be too thin for the chain. Oh well, I'm just reporting what I'm seeing.

Originally Posted by MattCo

Hi Black,

Check your manual to see what Suzuki recommends for the chain.

Cheers

Black, I wasn't being argumentative, just pointing out that engine oil is what is recommended for the chain. I forgot to throw in a smiley. 10W30? 10W40 is more common. You might also be getting too hung up on the low (sub-freezing) viscosity number of the multigrade. The chains operating temperature is much closer to the upper viscosity than the lower.

Cheers

PS. I must have been really bored to get into this thread. It has been done over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over....

Cool. I didn't take it that way so its all good.

There was a time last night where the forum wouldn't come up. Apparently I double posted accidentally. I did check back but only just realized my second attempt to send a response went to a third page. Oops!

Anyway I appreciate your responses.I guess I'm up to 4 posts now, so I almost a forum veteran by now.

Originally Posted by MattCo

Black, I wasn't being argumentative, just pointing out that engine oil is what is recommended for the chain. I forgot to throw in a smiley. 10W30? 10W40 is more common. You might also be getting too hung up on the low (sub-freezing) viscosity number of the multigrade. The chains operating temperature is much closer to the upper viscosity than the lower.

Cheers

PS. I must have been really bored to get into this thread. It has been done over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over....

[Sid Squid]

Originally Posted by MattCo

PS. I must have been really bored to get into this thread. It has been done over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over....

How true.

Anyway, assuming anyone actually cares that is, they might like to know that I've used nothing but old engine oil in my Scottoiler, the original chain and sprockets on my ZX6 lasted over 50,000 miles, so I doubt that whatever old oil contains it's capable of much harm to your chain.
Also it might be of interest to know that the Scottoiler in question wasn't new when it got itself bolted to said Kawasaki, and has done very approximately 200,000 miles, all but the first few thousand with old engine oil in it, (the Scottoil supplied with a new Scottoiler being the only time that I can recall the luxury of the genuine article passing through its tubes), so the suggestion that old engine oil contains nasties that will savage your Scottoiler is, to my mind anyway, comprehensively disproven.

Again.

We used to send samples of our used fully synthetic truck oil for analysis after 30,000miles and never had a bad report yet
A firm in Yorkshire ran a test in conjunction with one of the major oil companies
New engine strip measure everything
Fill with oil AND only top up
Change filters at recommended times
100,000 miles strip engine and remeasure all moving parts for wear

The results were that the fully synthetic oil being used for 100,000miles with only top ups and filter changes was just as efficient as an engine that had oil changes as per the engine maintenance schedule

This was carried out on six new Volvo F12's 3 on test and 3 as per the schedule

I would consider that oil that has been run at turbo temperatures has had as much abuse as any motorbike engine can generate and therefore used motorbike engine oil that has been changed as per maintenance schedule perfectly acceptable for use as a chain lubricant

Then again some people just like to throw money away

I have just re-installed my scottoiler and been using old engine oil. TBH any oil on the chain lubricating it while it's running is better than lubricating it while running.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by black_771

Oddly, I have looked in the repair manual for what is recommended on the chain, but not for the engine (only had my bike for about 6 weeks now). Says use a heavy weight engine oil (30wt or higher) for the chain. Guess I should ask whats recommended for the engine before I post, eh?

I see on the interweb its 10w30 which again would be too thin for the chain. Oh well, I'm just reporting what I'm seeing.

Too thin to stay on there if you apply it like spray can chain lube. But if it is constantly dripped on it is fine.