Hello all.

So what oil shall I put in my 1VJ? I've been meaning to change it since I bought it a year ago. I will doing a full oil and filter change. Synthetic or mineral? 20W40 is needed according to the workshop manual right? As this is rare, the common options seem to be 10W40 . I typically ride for an hour or 2, in temperatures from just above freezing through to high thirties Celsius. Or should I stick with the 20W40? How-about 20W50?

Dan wrote:Hello all.

So what oil shall I put in my 1VJ? I've been meaning to change it since I bought it a year ago. I will doing a full oil and filter change. Synthetic or mineral? 20W40 is needed according to the workshop manual right? As this is rare, the common options seem to be 10W40 . I typically ride for an hour or 2, in temperatures from just above freezing through to high thirties Celsius. Or should I stick with the 20W40? How-about 20W50?

I have a 3AJ and I run a high mileage 10W-40 semi-synthetic from Castrol GTX. Also run that in my 43F engine too and haven't noticed any clutch slippage or overheating issues on a bike that does not have an oil cooler, and I have ridden that bike for hours in the mid-40's C. I change my oil and filter every 3,000 miles.

There is no obvious choice really. I ran my Tenere with any of the above and with cheap hardware store 15W-40 with absolutely no issues. Just the normal rules apply regarding temperature.

That said some 1VJ tend to run rather hot, so for summer or offroad abuse I always opted for a quality 20W-50, and paying the price of warming up the engine a bit longer. Also, when the engine gets a bit worn out (especially the oil pump) you get a bit better circulation with somewhat thicker oil. So my standard option nowadays is 20W-50 mineral oil.

Andy

20w50 mineral oil is what is used in the BMW boxer airheads such as the R100GS so there's plenty of discussion on the advrider and ukgser sites about oil choices ? A SF class oil is also part of that equation for airheads as it's comparable with some different metals (MIGHT BE BRASS)but that may not be relevant for xt600 bikes. Millers Pistoneeze seems to be well regarded although I dont know if ylu will find that outside of europe so every area has to figure out by trial and error I guess as to which brand to get.

I have always gone for Castrol 10W40 for over 30 years and non synthetic - there is a lot of science out there and it should be considered with the country you are in. I worry about synthetic for the old bikes given it wasn't designed with it in mind! The key point is the frequency in which you change it ..I stick to 3K between changes.