I don't give a **** what it is, i change my oil EVERY 3k MILES no matter what oil i choose.

A few things on this subject:

Oils will not break down at any of the normal operating tempratures you will find in a street engine. Even racing engines see very little breakage caused by oil failure. The weak link in engine lubrication is actually the oil filter.

As the filter does it's job of taking blowby and naturally occuring minerals from your lubricant it's flow becomes more and more restricted. The reason a 3,000 mile/90 day replacement schedule is recommended isn't due to oil break down, it is to keep oil flowing freely through your filter.

I've done a lot of research and have come to the conclusion that on anything short of a top fuel dragster, dino oil is all you need. In all the research I have seen the best synthetic oil for a extreme condition engine is Redline synthetic products. They offer the best thermal break down protection and is the most common synthetic used by teams not sponsered by an oil company (talking top fueler here).

You want an Amsoil horror story? I've got one for ya.

While working as a Motorcycle mechanic at Tri-City Honda, our parts manager brought in his Honda CB400 hawk. He had developed a very loud clacking sound that he could not locate. With my stethascope diagnostic tool, I narrowed the sound down to the bottom end. There was more noise than normal occuring in the top end as well, however, the very loud "clatter" was coming from the crankcase.

After I completed the engine tear down I found a badly scored main bearing, a burnished main bearing, obvious wear on the connecting rod bearing, minor scoring on 2 cam bearings, the journals on the cam and almost every lifter and cam lobe. Johnny was really good at making his oil changes. He almost never got to 3000 miles but always changed his oil and filter prior to 90 days.

He broke his bike in on dino oil and as an Amsoil distributer he switched to Amsoil right after the break in period. The bike only had 8,000ish miles on it so the problem should never have happened.

Since Amsiol offers a warrenty on their products Johnny grabbed the warranty and went over the procedures for reimbursement. Here is what Amsoil requires on any claim:

In the event of a claim against AMSOIL INC., the procedure below must be completely followed.

a. Where the original warranty from the equipment manufacturer is still in effect, the customer shall file a warranty claim with the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in accordance with the OEM warranty procedure.

No OEM warranty will replace a complete engine caused by oil failure. I have no idea where they came up with this stipulation!

b. Customer shall retain failed parts for inspection by AMSOIL INC. unless given to the OEM.

I bagged up the main bearings and the con rod bearing for him to ship to them.

c. Customer shall also, within 30 days of failure, notify AMSOIL INC. and provide the following:

(a.) An eight (8) ounce representative oil sample taken from the failed equipment and put into a clean container.

We put more than 8 ounces of his oil into an Amsoil bottle for them to "analyze".

(b.) Documentation including make, model, and year of equipment, total accumulated miles and/or hours, and duty cycle or service environment.

(c.) Equipment or vehicle maintenance history documentation including miles or hours at the time of AMSOIL lubricant installation, general equipment repairs, and oil analysis results if available.

No problem there since he worked at the shop and we had all his service records to prove that he more than followed prescribed oil changes.

(d.) Proof of purchase for AMSOIL lubricant.

(e.) Batch number from oil container or Certificate of Analysis


We followed all the directions and sent in the massive amount of required documentation and/or parts and fluids.

His bike remained a basket case while he waited for a response. After numerous phone conversations and a three month wait he got a letter that basically stated that the failure was not caused by Amsoil and it had to be a manufacture defect in the machine itself!

Almost every bearing surface?! A failure or damage on almost every surface that requires lubrication would sure show a problem with the lubricant. If it were blocked oil paths (not the case) then the failures/damage would have been local and not occuring in both the top and bottom end of the engine. If there had been a bad bearing lot, then you would expect to find Main bearings only or con rod bearings only. Surely not both and certainly not both bottom end and top end! (The cam bearings on a CB400 are a intregal part of the head)

By the way, I have to wonder about a guy that lists A. J. Foyt as a "NASCAR legend". A. J.'s claim to fame was his Indy Car career. He only had 7 NASCAR wins. Better yet how about A. J. Foyt: The only man to win the Indy 500, Daytona 500 and 24 hours of Lemans -or- A. J. Foyt the only driver to win the Indy 500 four times?

If you really want to use a synthetic, go with Redline. But as I mentioned, it's really not needed unless you have an engine that builds up huge heat and pounds the bearing like there is no tomorrow.


Quote:
According to a McDonnell-Douglas study, roughly 90% of all engine wear comes at initial startup.


This is because at start up there is very little oil on some surfaces of the engine. No matter whether you use synthetic or dino oil, this still holds true. The biggest problem area for lack of lubrication at start up is the rings themselves. Lubrication for the rings and thus the cylinder walls come from small holes under the rings in the ring grooves. Oil is forced through those holes and provides a small film of oil between the rings and the cylinder. It takes quite a bit of time before enough oil can be pushed through these oil paths to properly lubricate the rings and cylinder.