Honda Foreman Forums : Rubicon, Rincon, Rancher and Recon Forum - View Single Post

Sooner · 08-18-2010, 05:23 PM

Oh, and I missed the note in your manual talking about the "Suggested Oils" (Pro Honda GN4 or HP4 w/out moly, or an equivalent motorcycle oil). It says "Suggested oils are equal in performance to SJ oils that are not labeled energy conserving on the circular API service rating." There's the equivalency.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZZ71

So even if the owners manual does not list a 0W oil you can still use it with confidence. A 0W oil is just better overall and offers more temperature range protection...
...Also note the viscosity charts show 0W as the low viscosity and 40 as the high viscosity, so using a 0W-40 would not be unreasonable to use. Note - The 0W is usually only able to be met by a synthetic lubricant. Petroleum lubes cannot refine all the wax from the crude so its hard for them to meet that spec. I have never seen an 0W-X oil that was not synthetic.

Also just to clarify, I haven't found a "synthetic" oil on the Walmart, Autozone, O'reily's or Napa shelves that wasn't energy conserving, yet... I'd rather be running a reasonably priced synthetic (I have to keep up with 4 ATVs). I run Mobil 1 where I can in almost everything I own. But, 0W- anything is not a hot seller in Oklahoma.

Now a question. I really don't know the answer. Here where the summer temps hover in triple digits and the winters get down into the 20's (usually only on the coldest of days), is there any advantage/disadvantage to running 0W oils? In negative degree temps, 0W polymer oils are thinner allowing for cold start up. Amsoil says at start up, the 0W weights are so close you have to use special equipment to measure the differences. But in the warmer climates where 0W is unnecessary and thin, won't the thicker 5W or 10W oils provide better engine lubrication at start up?