what motor oil do u use? motorcycle or car oils??

[cr500pro]

hey guys i was wondering that type of motor oil do u use on ur atv?..do u use a specific motorcycle oil or do u use regular car motor oils??....i have always used car motor oils ranging from pennzoil 10w40,20w50 ,to castrol ,valveoline,autozone and wallmart brand  car motor oils.ive never had a motor break down on me because of using car oils..motorcycle oils are expensive and in my year of riding and rebuilding motors i really dont belive they extend the life of your motor or are worth the extra $$$...what do u use and what do u think?

[klutchbuster400]

You shouldn't use car oil since it's not designed for the motorcycle clutch.

I use suzuki atv oil for my bike since it's designed specifically for atv's/motorcycles, and it's cheaper than car oil.

[gmiller0737]

I always use the OEM Oils & Filters My 3 Polaris's get the Polaris Oil/Filter Kit,Honda Oil For My Son's Recon 250 ES, Yamalube & Yamaha Filter for My Grizzly,If I had to make a 2nd choice on oil it would likely be Amsoil,I would not have any 2nd choice on Oil Filters OE Only for all My stuff Truck's & Jeep included.

[jrpro130]

It depends wet or dry clutch.  On brute force, can am, polaris, etc you can run car oil.  The motorcycle oil just has different additives and designed for wet clutch use.  Sport atv's, yamaha grizzly, suzuki king quad etc all have wet clutch.  I havne't seen a failure, but definitely premature wear.  It's up to you guys, but I chose to run what it's supposed to have.  I'm an amsoil bandwagon guy so beat me now 

[trx#9]

15 40w Rotella diesel oil, hands down the best oil on the market. Works excellent in atv's and motorcycles, diesel oil doesn't break down like conventional oils and doesn't effect the clutch. If it can hold up in a diesel motor it can hold up in an atv! I use it in everything now my car, atv, lawn mower and boat.

[patches206]

15 40wRetella diesel oil, hands down the best oil on the market. Works excellent in atv's and motorcycles, diesel oil doesn't break down like conventional oils and doesn't effect the clutch. If it can hold up in a diesel motor it can hold up in an atv! I use it in everything now my car, atv, lawn mower and boat.

Interesting, learn something new every day.  I wonder if the Rotella has friction modifiers in it thats what messes up cycle clutches?


I use Yamalube in all my stuff comes in 10-40 and 20-50 never had a problems and winter I use the 10-40 and summer the 20-50.    Rocky Mountain ATV sells it by the gallon.

[SMP63]

I use Mobil 1 Full Syn. 0W40 oil & NAPA Gold/WIX oil filters.

[cr500pro]

ive used rotella oil too,it works great

[trx#9]

15 40wRetella diesel oil, hands down the best oil on the market. Works excellent in atv's and motorcycles, diesel oil doesn't break down like conventional oils and doesn't effect the clutch. If it can hold up in a diesel motor it can hold up in an atv! I use it in everything now my car, atv, lawn mower and boat.

Interesting, learn something new every day.  I wonder if the Rotella has friction modifiers in it thats what messes up cycle clutches?


I use Yamalube in all my stuff comes in 10-40 and 20-50 never had a problems and winter I use the 10-40 and summer the 20-50.    Rocky Mountain ATV sells it by the gallon.

I never had or heard of any clutch issues!

[patches206]

Reg motor oil has friction modifiers in it that cause wet clutches to slip, I was just wondering if the Rotella had these friction modifier properties in it.   The only problems I have ever heard of was with reg motor oil.

[duroc825]

Only time I've heard of not using Rotella is in KTM bikes and that's only the synthetic stuff.
I've used in in two different quads with no problems and saved a ton of money seeing as I probably change my oil twice a month.

[cr500pro]

i have a honda XR650l dualsport,ive put 9800miles on it,after breaking it in,ive only used autozone 20w50 motor oil in it, still have the (OEM clutches) in it without a slip!.,ive been riding n rebuilding all types of bikes all my life,ive never seen 1 specific type of oil make a motor last longer..ive taken apart  street bike 4cyl. motors with over 75,000 miles on it,all ran with cheap car oils all its life & the bottom end of the motor was still in very good shape.it dont matter what oil u got in it,,just make sure its got oil period!!!!!

[cr500pro]

this will shock u,it shocked me 4sure.i was talking to a buddy of mine in texas he is a top excutive in the exxon oil company & he told me that just about every type of motor oil sold in USA,has a certain percentage of recycled motor oil it.he said a quart of any oil has no less than 25% recycled oil in it & that some have as high as 50/60% in it. & that translate to huge profits for the oil companies & thats why the oil industry has been pushing so hard for americans to recycle there used motor oil,he said it has to do very little with keeping the planet clean of polution,as the government n the oil industry wants u to belive,its all about making the highest profits we can with the least overhead costs..he said as for oils having to meet certain ( requierments/specifications),guess who sets/makes those,the US GOV.& the more $$ we make ,the more $$ US GOV, makes from us..he said we can literly  take used cooking oil,recycle/refine it & make it meet government specifications..

[jrpro130]

The friction modifiers in regular car oil is what is making the wet clutches degreade.  I don't have pics, but have taken apart one too many clutch baskets of friends who ran car oil because "they had it laying around in the garage.".  Eventually you get slippage, heat, and all sorts of bad stuff happens.  It's really not hard to just run the right oil I'm not sure why everyone fights it! LOL, motorcycles get motorcycle oil and cars get car oil...diesels get diesel oil.  Thats all folks 

Here is a dodge (cummins) with 120k miles on it.  Ran amsoil since 40k miles and literally looks brand new...proof is in the pudding, group IV synthetics rock man. 





You should see motors with 75k that run reg oil they have a thick coating of black silt on them...nasty.  Last injector install I did I had that crap all over me

[trx#9]

I use to run Amsoil back in the day and grenaded more motors with it than any other oil. I think the main issue with amsoil is that it's to slippery to stick on the parts its suppose to be protecting. Even team Suzuki use to run diesel oil.

[jrpro130]

I use to run Amsoil back in the day and grenaded more motors with it than any other oil. I think the main issue with amsoil is that it's to slippery to stick on the parts its suppose to be protecting. Even team Suzuki use to run diesel oil.

Next time if/when that happens you need to forward that to amsoil and they will do an investigation and if it was because of oil they usually take care of your motor.  This is the first I've ever ever ever heard of amsoil grenading a motor.  Usually motors are run low on oil or have none at all (flow problem or hole in the block lmao) when they go...just sayin!

[BIGWORM3699 ( ECP RACING)]

I have been building 2 stroke and for strokes for stock and Mx racing for a long time. HaveTalked a bunch with the Yoshimura team They swear by rotella t . Rotella has no friction modifiers thats why so many racers use it. Rule of thumb if it has energy saving on bottle its not good for a wet clutch system. The honda 450r is diffrent due to its sump style oil system.  I know what has work for me for years and what is used at the track and wanted to pass that info off .   

[Backwoods Racin]

We started using rotella in my son's race bike on the advice of an engine builder and it seemed to work great so I started using it in our other atv's (660 rhino,660 grizzly and a 700 grizzly) and after a short time they all started burning oil and blue smoking when they were cold. Has anyone who uses rotella experienced that ?

[yfz122]

i used to use rotella 15w40 in my powerstroke. had to stop due to excessive oil consumption

[cr500pro]

(BACKWOODS)..... thats really odd n strange 2 say the least..ive never heard of a specific  oil,especialy not ( ROTELLA),making a bunch of bike smoke/burn oil.,,, ???what oil weight was u using?..honestly ive always used advanced auto,autozone & wallmart oils and ive never had a problem,my motors/clutches last yearsssssssssss.

[Anoriginal]

Rotella T-6

Tastes great on salads too.

[Backwoods Racin]

(BACKWOODS)..... thats really odd n strange 2 say the least..ive never heard of a specific  oil,especialy not ( ROTELLA),making a bunch of bike smoke/burn oil.,,, ???what oil weight was u using?..honestly ive always used advanced auto,autozone & wallmart oils and ive never had a problem,my motors/clutches last yearsssssssssss.

I use 15-40, and in the race bike which had a 510 ice cube motor in a YFZ it was great, but the top end was rebuilt after every 10 hours or so,(that was because of the JE piston specs) the bottom end was as clean as when new. In the other atv's I haven't had any clutch or bottom end issues but they all started burning oil at about the same time after I put rotella in them. I also use k and n air filter's and we live and ride in the Ocala national forest which get's very dusty (but I clean and oil them often) and I am not sure if that is the problem.

[cr500pro]

(yfz122)..so ur motor started buring alot of oil when u started using (Rotella)??.. did ur motor burn oil b4 using Rotella??..did the oil buring stop when u switched back to another brand of oil?....stuff like this scares me about using Rotella now!..as ive said b4,ive used cheap oils for over 20yrs and never had a motor burn oil cause of it..

[Chevy1500z71]

Its not just for the clutches. all atvs have flat tappet cams which require the same additive package that keeps your wet clutch alive, zink. I use atv oil in my mud truck because it has the zink for the flat tappet cam in that truck. modern vehicles have roller cams so the zinc is not required, plus the small amount of oil that any engine consumes will ruin a catalytic converter over time if its chalk full of zink so car oil has been going in the direction of less and less of these additives as emissions gets tighter. Friction modifiers are not what ruin the clutch. the lack of zink does.

diesel oil has zink in it too but its also dwindling as emissions tighten up on diesels. on top of that, diesel oil has a ton of detergent which kind of hinders the effects of the zink from what ive read. rotella t changed there formula and they are down to i think 400ppm of zink. i buy mobil delvac for my diesel truck, supposedly it has 1300ppm of zink in it thus the label saying "delvac super 1300" but i bet they changed the formula by now.

point is, just buy any motorcycle or atv oil. anything for off road use will have the additives you want.

and for just plain clutch systems like on a dirt bike for example, i just use automatic trans fluid. type f has no friction modifiers in it, so thats the one to use.

[trx#9]

We started using rotella in my son's race bike on the advice of an engine builder and it seemed to work great so I started using it in our other atv's (660 rhino,660 grizzly and a 700 grizzly) and after a short time they all started burning oil and blue smoking when they were cold. Has anyone who uses rotella experienced that ?

Sounds like valve seals to me or maybe rings, possibly the cleaning detergents in the diesel oil cleaned the crap off your seals or rings and now it's leaking pass them. Sometimes it's tough on high mileage engines to change to a completely different oil.