Friends 1976 Harley FXE.... Oil Recommendations?

[BovineScapegoat]

A Friend of mine has the 1976 Harley FXE and isn't too keen on spending $9 per litre for Harley straight 50 motor oil for air cooled engines. The price recently went up.

He uses the straight 50 and not a multigrade because the manual calls for it. We are in southern Ontario and sometimes starts up with the ambient temperature at 5 degrees C or 41 degress F.

What oil do you use with good results in your similar bike folks?

 

[kballowe]

Times change. The recommendation in the original owner's manual is good if you live in Arizona or Florida. Otherwise he should be using a 20W-50 motor oil. The new oils are leaps and bounds ahead of the motor oil that was available at the time that manual was printed. In fact, some are even using 15W-40.

Check out the oil threads at www.v-twinforum.com

One conventional oil that has shown great results is the Valvoline VR1 20W-50. There are a couple threads on this board in regard to this.

Havoline 20W-50 also seems to be quite good.

 

[Inspector_12]

Originally Posted By: kballowe
Times change. The recommendation in the original owner's manual is good if you live in Arizona or Florida. Otherwise he should be using a 20W-50 motor oil. The new oils are leaps and bounds ahead of the motor oil that was available at the time that manual was printed. In fact, some are even using 15W-40.

Check out the oil threads at www.v-twinforum.com

One conventional oil that has shown great results is the Valvoline VR1 20W-50. There are a couple threads on this board in regard to this.

Havoline 20W-50 also seems to be quite good.


You are comparing apples and oranges here. Pre 1980 bikes were clearanced differently and used straight 50 weight oil in cold weather. I used to run 70 weight racing oil in my 1976 and 1977 shovel head motorcycles during the summer. 1980 was the first year the multi weight oils were recommended for Harleys.

 

[kballowe]

Originally Posted By: Inspector_12
Originally Posted By: kballowe
Times change. The recommendation in the original owner's manual is good if you live in Arizona or Florida. Otherwise he should be using a 20W-50 motor oil. The new oils are leaps and bounds ahead of the motor oil that was available at the time that manual was printed. In fact, some are even using 15W-40.

Check out the oil threads at www.v-twinforum.com

One conventional oil that has shown great results is the Valvoline VR1 20W-50. There are a couple threads on this board in regard to this.

Havoline 20W-50 also seems to be quite good.


You are comparing apples and oranges here. Pre 1980 bikes were clearanced differently and used straight 50 weight oil in cold weather. I used to run 70 weight racing oil in my 1976 and 1977 shovel head motorcycles during the summer. 1980 was the first year the multi weight oils were recommended for Harleys.


One of the reasons that they recommended a straight weight in those days is because multi-viscosity oils were not very shear stable.

A straight 50 weight and a 20W-50 are the same viscosity at operating temperature. The bonus is that the 20W-50 is thinner at startup and gets pumped throughout the engine much more quickly. This is a definite plus, as Harley oil pumps are low pressure, expecially on the older bikes.


I've been running my old 1983 FLHT Shovelhead on 20W-50 for the last 92,xxx miles and it appears to like it.

Here's my 1953 Panhead project.. also gets a steady diet of 20W-50.
.
.

 

[SWSportsman]

Mobil-1 V-Twin 20W50.