Valvoline DuraBlend Synthetic Blend Oil

[palazzi]

Two weeks ago I bought my new and beautiful WR250. This is my first brand-new bike. :yeehaw:

After going through the break-in process for about 100 Km, I brought my new bike to the Yamaha dealer for its first check and oil change. While being there, I asked the dealer about the oil that they would put in my bike, and he said "SynPower" from Valvoline, which is a Full Synthetic Motor Oil.

It was weird to hear that he was going to use a Full Synthetic Motor Oil on a very new bike. :think: I said that it might not be a good idea to have a full synthetic oil during the break-in, and he told me that "these bikes were supposed to be ready for race after a single gas tank, using the oil that comes with the bike".

I didn't want to argue about this (because this was my first new bike, and my first Yamaha), and I just said that this time, I wanted to have a regular mineral oil. The dealer strongly suggested not to use mineral oil, and he convinced my to us Valvoline DuraBlend Synthetic Blend Motor Oil.

I asked for a oil can to check it, and I couldn't find any details on the kind of blend, but at least the label said "specially formulated for 4-stroke motorcycles".

Now, I am confused and worried.

My question are: Should I let the Yamaha dealer to put this Valvoline DuraBlend Synthetic Blend Motor Oil in my new bike? Have you used this brand? Any suggestion?

Thanks,
Luis.

 

[biglou]

I've seen this oil advertised and wondered about it, also. If it is specifically formulated for bikes, it shouldn't have any friction modifiers in it (potential clutch sippage, I think), so it sounds OK to me. My only concern is that this oil seems to be the new kid on the block. My personal feeling is that it should be just fine, as Valvoline is my oil of preference for my trucks for the past 12-15 years. I would feel better about it for the bikes if I heard some scientific feedback on it, however.

 

[Enduro_Nut]

I run it in my auto's(past 5 yrs.) but full synthetic in my bikes. Seems to work well.

 

[palazzi]

I found Valvoline's web page (european), with a picture of the bottle that the dealer showed me.

http://www.valvolineeurope.com/english/products/lubricants/motorcycleoils/4stroke.html

I don’t know whether this brand is popular in the US, but here in Chile is not so well known.

Besides the quality of the oil, I am worried about using a mineral-synthetic blend so early (this bike has only gone through one gas tank). Should I use mineral oil, or should I let the dealer put a semi-synthetic oil? :think:

 

[old#48]

Here is a question and answer about break-in oil from MotoTune, which is a sportbike oriented site, but IMHO he has some good info there. Just above the start of the questions, he has the statement "3 More Words on Break-In: NO SYNTHETIC OIL".

Q: If break- in happens so quickly, why do you recommend using break- in oil for 1500 miles ??

A: Because while about 80% of the ring sealing takes place in the first hour of running the engine, the last 20% of the process takes a longer time. Street riding isn't a controlled environment, so most of the mileage may not be in "ring loading mode". Synthetic oil is so slippery that it actually "arrests" the break in process. I've had a few customers who switched to synthetic oil too soon, and the rings never sealed properly no matter how hard they rode. Taking a new engine apart to re-ring it is the last thing anyone wants to do, so I recommend a lot of mileage before switching to synthetic. It's really a "better safe than sorry" situation.

MotoTune 4-Stroke Break-In page

IMHO, after break-in, use a cycle-specific full synthetic like Mobil1 "MX4T 10w40" or Mobil1 "V-Twin 20w50" and change it often, but there seems to be quite a few riders that use the Mobil 1 15w50 red cap automotive oil. As you know, the cycle specific synthetic oils cost a lot more than the automotive synthetic oils, but they do offer much higher levels of zinc and phosphorous which are great anti-wear/extreme pressure additives - these additives are limited in the automotive oils to levels compatible with catalytic converters.

Concerning automotive oils in general, the basic story seems to be it is OK to use these oils with a wet clutch if it is NOT marked "Energy Conserving SJ" - the "Energy Conserving" oils have additional friction modifiers in them that may not be OK to use with a wet clutch. For the Mobil1 automotive oils, I think the 0w30, 5w30, and 10w30 are marked "Energy Conserving SJ" while the 0w40 and the 15w50 are not.

Mobil 1 link

 

[palazzi]

Thanks old#48.

OK. I will not use a SYNTHETIC OIL for a while. But what about mineral-synthetic blends? Are they OK for break-in?

 

[old#48]

I am definitely not an expert on this, but if it was mine, during break-in I would use a good non-synthetic cycle-specific oil, something like "Maxima4 Premium" or "Motul 3000+ or 3000 4T". As you know, change it often, it's cheap insurance and changing it often should help make up for the lower protection of being non-synthetic.

As far as the synthetic blends go, I would have to say I don't know. Roughly speaking, you could maybe lead yourself to call a synthetic blend automotive oil about equal to a cycle-specific mineral based (also called petroleum based) oil with it's higher levels of zinc and phoshorous. Who knows if that's the case, but I have heard more than once that the words "synthetic" and "break-in" do not go together, so IMHO, I don't think I would use a synthetic blend during break-in.

Maxima site

Motul site

Edit: I guess you state above that the Valvoline Synthetic Blend you are looking at is a cycle specific oil, so my rough comparison above is not very applicable to that because it probably has the higher levels of zinc and phosphorous in it also.

 

[biglou]

OK, after re-reading the first post, I wanted to correct myself and say that the oil I have been seeing as the "new kid on the block" is a Valvoline line that is MC-specific. They have one for street bikes, one for ATV's and one for 4-strokes (and 2-strokes, I think). I see the ads in the latest issues of American Motorcyclist, from the AMA. Sorry to confuse the issue. Also, Palazzi, the links you gave were good, but when I tried to open the technical papers on the Valvoline site, I got an error and only got the header, so I couldn't peruse the papers (like I would be able to make any sense of them anyway!).

 

[palazzi]

Since I still was not sure about using a mineral-synthetic oil blend (i.e. Valvoline DuraBlend) during the “extended break-in period”, I called the regional dealer for Yamaha an asked the same question: Is it wise to use a synthetic-mineral blended oil after a single gas tank for a brand new WR250 (European model)?.

And he told me: There is no problem. You can use a blended oil like Valvoline DuraBlend for the “extended break-in period” as long as it is specially designed for 4-stroke motor cycles. To confirm that he said: In fact, the Yamalub 4 that we sell is a blend, and not pure mineral oil.

In conclusion, I will let the Yamaha dealer to put Valvoline Durablend in my bike. I hope it will work fine. If not, I will change it after a couple of rides.

Thanks again to all of you. :thumb: