Oil changes

[Fahniy]

Hi, i'm new here. Need good advice.
I bought another Wing - 82 Espencade - previous owner was running synthetic - can I change back to a regular oil https://mechanicguides.com/best-oil-additive/ or will this cause problems.
Thanks!

[RhynoCZ]

Yes. The question is why would you.

Synthetic oil is far superior to any mineral oil. Even a semi-synthetic oil is better than pure mineral oil. Why is that? Well, synthetic oil does not leave any residues/deposits inside the engine and doesn't degrade as quickly as mineral oil would.

Now (not your case), if you've been using mineral oil for years and now thinking it's time to switch to synthetic, you must flush the engine first, several times to be sure. That is because mineral oils leave deposits inside the engine and the moment you start using synthetic oil, it will dissolve these deposits and small bits of it will then flow through the engine. In automotive engines, these small bits typically clog up the hydraulic valve tappets = knocking from the head, tappet damage.

TL; DR: You may switch back to mineral oil, however I wouldn't.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Northern Monkey]

[RhynoCZ]

[Ste]

You do not need to flush the engine when switching between mineral oil and synthetic oil

[RhynoCZ]

Engine flush costs next to nothing and is advisable for the reasons above. However, this is the internet and people say all kinds of things that they don't mean.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Robby]

Ignore Rhyno. He means well, but he's talking shite and marketing.

It's a 1982 Wing. All it needs is whatever sort of oil existed in 1982. So a basic mineral multigrade oil.

Use whatever motorcycle-specific oil you're happy with. Anything you can buy today will be equal or superior to anything you could buy in 1982.

The only thing to watch out for is clutch slip that can happen in some circumstances with some modern car oils. That sentence was carefully written to avoid the usual argument. Using a bike-specific oil gets around that problem, and argument.

[Islander]

[Pjay]

I have no idea what I am talking about, but I have gone from mineral to fully synthetic by just using semi synthetic in between the change.
It made sense to me and the bike was fine for a long time afterwards until it was sold on to the unsuspecting buyer.
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struan80 - I'll go first - satisfied tick 1

[Ste]

[temeluchus]

Any cheap walmart etc brand 10/40 car oil will be just fine.
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Some shite cruiser. Now with guns and FREEDOM!

[A100man]

Uh oh - oil thread alert!

..damn too late
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Now: A100, GT250A, XJ598, FZ750

Then: Fizz, RS200, KL250, XJ550, Laverda Alpina, XJ600, FZS600

[bikenut]

see pm, i would use synthetic suitable for a "wet" clutch in this engine, as cost would not be a problem if I had one of these.
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nuts about bikes

[weasley]

Sorry, I can't resist posting to an oil thread.

There is a grain of truth in the "new oil flushes out deposits" story, but it isn't as clear cut as RhynoCZ makes out. Mineral oils are not guaranteed to create deposits and synthetic oils are not guaranteed not to make them. There's a good chance the engine is already largely 'clean'. Furthermore it is generally a strong detergency that lifts old deposits rather than a different type of base oil - if anything synthetic base oil has a lower tendency to solubilise things.

Short answer to the OP - you can mix oils of mineral, part- or fully- synthetic at will, so long as you realise that mixing them will lead to an end point that isn't exactly one thing or the other. There shouldn't be any problems though*, if used within the required specification requirement and oil change interval.

*caveat: with a bike of that age and unknown history, there are no guarantees.
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Yamaha XJ600 | Yamaha YZF600R Thundercat | KTM 990 SMT | BMW F900XR TE

[bikenut]

Some bikers are very fond of using Shell Rotela, which is a high detergent oil mainly intended for diesel engine?
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nuts about bikes

[weasley]

[Pigeon]