Thread Starter
#1
From my 12 years of owning, riding, and maintaining motorcycles, I have spent countless hours or perhaps even days researching and wandering forums all over the internet to find the best engine oil out there.
Short answer, there is no 'best engine oil' out there. Each engine oil behaves differently in different engines. And each engine oils are built differently.
Something that I found out was that 'you get what you pay for' for most known oil brands.
My research on better oils started after I bought a KTM Duke 390 5 years ago and it needed oil top-ups quite often without any signs of oil burn.
The recommended oil for the bike was Motorex SS oil internationally, but Motul 7100 was used in India.
In my ownership thread in this forum, I mentioned how others have also faced a similar oil disappearing phenomenon with the Motul 7100 oil in India.
I switched to another oil, Shell Advance Ultra to see if it makes a change. Contrary to the popular opinion that we won't be able to find any noticeable differences between oils, I felt a difference in how the bike performed, the gearshifts were not as smooth as with the 7100 when the engine got hot. This was confirmed by someone else who used the same oil in their KTM.
Each engine oil out there has a datasheet with the test numbers. I went through the datasheets of popular engine oils sold in India and compared them.
I found out something interesting from this, the test numbers were proportional to the cost of these oils. That is, a highly-priced oil had better lab test results.
Most of the oils sold in India are API SN and JASO MA2.
To meet this specification, the oil has to meet a basic standard. It does not matter how much better it goes beyond this standard.
I compared the datasheets of popular engine oils sold in India. 15W50 viscosity was used as the reference. In those oils where 15W50 is not available, 10W50 was used.
Properties compared.
Viscosity Index (VI) - The viscosity index (VI) is an arbitrary, unitless measure of a fluid's change in viscosity relative to temperature change.
TBN - Generally, oils with a higher TBN better neutralize acids and combustion by-products, resulting in longer oil life and improved protection against corrosion
Flash Point - The flash point is the lowest temperature at which the vapor above the oil sample will momentarily ignite or flash when an ignition source is passed over it.
cST - Centistoke (cSt) which is used to report the kinematic viscosity of motor oil at high temperatures. The number reflects the time required for a fixed amount of fluid to flow through a certain-sized orifice on the testing device.
The above chart of popular 15W50/10W50 4T engine oils sold in India is sorted by Viscosity Index. You can see how the VI increases with the cost of the oil.
Although it is not as evident as the VI, both the flash point and TBN are also proportional to the cost of the oil,
Short answer, there is no 'best engine oil' out there. Each engine oil behaves differently in different engines. And each engine oils are built differently.
Something that I found out was that 'you get what you pay for' for most known oil brands.
My research on better oils started after I bought a KTM Duke 390 5 years ago and it needed oil top-ups quite often without any signs of oil burn.
The recommended oil for the bike was Motorex SS oil internationally, but Motul 7100 was used in India.
In my ownership thread in this forum, I mentioned how others have also faced a similar oil disappearing phenomenon with the Motul 7100 oil in India.
I switched to another oil, Shell Advance Ultra to see if it makes a change. Contrary to the popular opinion that we won't be able to find any noticeable differences between oils, I felt a difference in how the bike performed, the gearshifts were not as smooth as with the 7100 when the engine got hot. This was confirmed by someone else who used the same oil in their KTM.
Each engine oil out there has a datasheet with the test numbers. I went through the datasheets of popular engine oils sold in India and compared them.
I found out something interesting from this, the test numbers were proportional to the cost of these oils. That is, a highly-priced oil had better lab test results.
Most of the oils sold in India are API SN and JASO MA2.
To meet this specification, the oil has to meet a basic standard. It does not matter how much better it goes beyond this standard.
I compared the datasheets of popular engine oils sold in India. 15W50 viscosity was used as the reference. In those oils where 15W50 is not available, 10W50 was used.
Properties compared.
Viscosity Index (VI) - The viscosity index (VI) is an arbitrary, unitless measure of a fluid's change in viscosity relative to temperature change.
TBN - Generally, oils with a higher TBN better neutralize acids and combustion by-products, resulting in longer oil life and improved protection against corrosion
Flash Point - The flash point is the lowest temperature at which the vapor above the oil sample will momentarily ignite or flash when an ignition source is passed over it.
cST - Centistoke (cSt) which is used to report the kinematic viscosity of motor oil at high temperatures. The number reflects the time required for a fixed amount of fluid to flow through a certain-sized orifice on the testing device.
The above chart of popular 15W50/10W50 4T engine oils sold in India is sorted by Viscosity Index. You can see how the VI increases with the cost of the oil.
Although it is not as evident as the VI, both the flash point and TBN are also proportional to the cost of the oil,