Originally Posted By: SJohnson
When Autozone was clearing out Valvoline, I picked up a few gals of Regular MaxLife 20W-50. I currently have it in the bike in my signature. I've looked at both the data sheets from the MaxLife and the motorcycle oil. Some of the things look better with the MaxLife and some with the motorcycle oil and then some of the stuff I have not idea what they mean. Would someone please help me out as to the strengths and weaknesses of each 20W-50's. I'm kinda new at this, so please gentle
http://www.valvoline.com/pdf/maxlife.pdf
http://www.valvoline.com/pdf/4_stroke_motorcycle.pdf
Motorcycle specific oils won't have any friction modifiers in case its a shared sump. If your Harley has 3 holes to fill,or just 2 one is engine oil then either the primary and tranny are shared if 2 holes or you've got 3 fluids because the primary and tranny are separate.
I like automotive 20w-50 engine oils in my Harley because friction modifiers are beneficial to an oil,and your Harley can benefit from them.
V-twin oils will load up on zddp and eliminate or drastically reduce friction modifiers. Your Harley can use an automotive 20w-50 in the engine.
I'm using conventional rotella 15w-40 in my engine and primary and shockproof heavy in my tranny. My bikes an 08 street bob however I went big bore with an S&S 106 kit,had the heads planed for more compression and to flatten them perfectly. Tw6-6 cams,manual compression releases so I don't kill my starter. Its dyno tuned too.
I'm only using rotella to prove that even with 106 cubes a conventional hdeo is fine for 3000 mile intervals.
Anyways back to the point you can use either of the oils you've posted links to because your engine oil isn't shared however a shared sump bike requires an oil meeting JASO.