Oil Additive Question : V-Twin Forum: Harley Davidson Forums

nightrob · 06-28-2009, 09:01 AM

I honestly cant tell you how many oil threads I have read and for the most part I find that everyone has an opinion, a very different opinion!! Anyway my question is about STP oil treatment. I have read on the bottle and some other sites that it contains large amounts of ZDDP as its main active ingredient. Why would this not be good to run in your engine (in moderate amounts)? It claims to mix with dinos or sythetics. Just curious to what you guys have to say because Im sure yall have done more oil research than I have.

kennyflhr · 06-28-2009, 09:51 AM

Used to run it in old Ford truck,got alot of miles out of it.Have you thought about Lucas?My friend owns an automotive & fleet service shop & rides a 05 fatboy on NOS,motor HEAVILY built.He swears by it.Took the rocker boxes off after setting for a week & the stuff was all over everything in there.Dry start ups kill motors &this stuff helps with that if nothing else.

nightrob · 06-28-2009, 10:08 AM

Ive heard about it but it isnt available over here, and USPS wont ship any kind of chems. On the other hand old air cooled alfas, porsche, and ferrari guys swear by the STP.

vindex1963 · 06-28-2009, 10:34 AM

Looks like if your "car" is over 20 it's good.

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:...&ct=clnk&gl=us

nightrob · 06-28-2009, 10:42 AM

Ok I see your point however, why all the hype about zddp levels in vtwin oils? also why do we as HD riders go against the recommendations such as ATF in the primary? Gear lube in the tranny? And straight weight in the crank case? If our bikes were 20 yrs old all these things would be good ideas using that train of thought. Yet we still do it!

kennyflhr · 06-28-2009, 03:12 PM

This whole thing of the zinc additive is why I have a hard time with the mobile 15/50 car oil in a bike,it has no zinc & the mobule 20/50 v-twin does.The bike oils have it & car oils don't.I believe that's why the 15/50 has the molly additive & the 20/50 does't.Which is better, I don't know. Would love to save money,but not at the risk of more wear.I think if the STP has zinc,it would be a good thing.

trooper113 · 06-28-2009, 03:22 PM

What I don't get about the oil additive thing is why would an oil company making oil for a specific application (say, air-cooled V-twins) not make that oil with all needed additives already in the package? Doesn't make sense to me.

Faast Ed · 06-28-2009, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trooper113

What I don't get about the oil additive thing is why would an oil company making oil for a specific application (say, air-cooled V-twins) not make that oil with all needed additives already in the package? Doesn't make sense to me.

They do. Not only that, sometimes you can upset the balance when you add an additive. There has been posts in the past that complained about foaming after adding stuff to your oil.

I can understand wanting to add zinc, but you are better off finding some oil that already has it.

nightrob · 06-28-2009, 05:47 PM

well Ed from what I have read just about every oil out there now has 100ppm of zddp there are a couple that go to 1200 but none that go to 1400 which is what used to be recommended. I think spectro oil might but who knows where to find that? Also I see your point about upsetting the balances, but all that would really do is shorten the recommended drain period. I change mine every 3k regardless mostly because I can, but also because of the heat factor and the type of riding I am forced to do. So I really dont see why I shouldnt do this. I may try it on the next oil change.

wildpig1ms · 06-28-2009, 06:35 PM

STP will be fine to use and it actually has zinc and phosphorus for antiwear and calcium for cleaning whereas the much hyped Lucas has nothing...it just thickens your oil while adding nothing useful, there's even a demonstration (on BITOG) where it caused a lot of foaming in the test they ran. I have added STP when coming into hotter temps with only 15w40 in the crankcase when top off was needed til the next change came around...and if you're in a real hot temps I'm sure it'd help the 20w50 out a little too...certainly ain't gonna hurt as long as it's used as recommended although I don't think I'd want it in for the cooler temps...

doc ock · 06-28-2009, 07:07 PM

http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/aro.aspx http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/mcv.aspx Has all the additive a motor could need. These two oils are pretty much the same.

nightrob · 06-28-2009, 09:44 PM

I have read Amsoil has all the goodies in it also, and if it were available I might try it. Unfortunately I am very limited as to what I can get my grubbly little fingers on. The Japanese are very eco concious so you can imagine what is on the shelf to buy. ow-30 5w-20 15w40 and so on. I was able at one time to get royal purple over here but those days are gone. So I am trying to get some options so that Im not just running four banger oil in my bike.

NHFree1 · 06-28-2009, 09:53 PM

Don't you have any good buddies in the states that could ship you Amsoil? UPS goes to Japan don't they?

nightrob · 06-29-2009, 01:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NHFree1

Don't you have any good buddies in the states that could ship you Amsoil? UPS goes to Japan don't they?

They do deliver here, kind of, they will drop it off at the japanese post office. However, international shipping is really expensive. So the best I can guess is 10$ quart of oil would probably run me 25$ to get it here. So you see my delima!

Gulfstream · 06-29-2009, 12:32 PM

If you're using a quality oil I wouldn't screw up their formula by adding some 50 year old additive. The oil companies do a lot a R&D to arrive at their oil compositions. The zinc levels have been lowered in the last few years as newer motor designs don't need it including the Harley TC engine. The zinc is needed in older flat tappet engines though, but not in a roller tappet design.