Oil type

Discussion in 'The Workshop' started by bogey, May 20, 2014.

  1. bogey

    bogey Active Member

    Messages:
    202
    Can I change from semi to fully synthetic without any probs or is there any need too?
     
  2. Merlin

    Merlin Old School Biker

    Messages:
    2,305
    Rides:
    2007 TKR WRC 50
    Yeah, you'll be fine. Switching from ordinary mineral oil to fully synthetic can cause problems, as synthetics can cause oil seals to shrink; mineral oils cause them to swell slightly to keep the oil in and they wear over time, so any shrinkage causes a leak. Crankshaft oil seals were the favourite for this one. Semi-synthetics are just about neutral in terms of seal swell characteristics, so you should get away with it.

    If we are on about 2-stroke, don't worry about it at all.

    I worked in the lubricants industry when synthetic motor oils first came out and we used to take loads of calls from people that had spent £20+ on Mobil 1 or the like, only to find that it was leaking out of the engine.

    Our advice was to go down to the supermarket and buy the cheapest, nastiest £2.99 per gallon own brand motor oil that they could find and replace the synthetic oil with that, to swell the oil seals up again and the leak would slow down and eventually stop.

    Needless to say some people were taken aback by our answer but it did work!
     
  3. bogey

    bogey Active Member

    Messages:
    202
    Thanks for the info there.
     

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