WHAT OIL?

Okay, cut to the chase, what is the best oil for my thumper?

In testing, we found one oil that performed exceptionally well.  Schaeffer's Micron Moly 40w.  It is a petroleum micron-moly oil.  Although it's not available at retail stores, many trucking companies use it.  You can also purchase directly through Powroll here.

Other than Schaeffer's, we found overall that motorcycle-specific petroleum oils out-performed automotive and/or synthetic oils.  Brands like Torco, Maxima and Golden Spectro. 

Overall, for air-cooled four strokes, Petroleum is a better option than Synthetic.

TESTING

How does Powroll test oil?

Powroll has done destructive testing on oils - essentially, put the engine on the dyno, hit it with a load, turn off the cooling fans and wait. 

Data including the amount of time it took the engine to fail, along with internal inspection of what failed were compiled.

We do not test every oil, and we have not tested oil recently, so there are oils out there that work very well that we just don't have data on.

This testing, along with 40+ years of experience with customer engine failures, and inspection of thousands of failed parts is what we use to make our recommendations.

WHY NOT SYNTHETIC?

Every test I've seen shows synthetic holds up longer than petroleum.  Why don't you recommend it?

If you run your engine for extended periods without changing the oil, synthetic is probably the best choice.

However, the one thing that seems to keep engines healthy is frequent oil changes.

If you are changing the oil after a weekend of riding or racing, you aren't using this benefit of synthetic.

Petroleum oil seems to have an advantage over synthetic in how it sticks to the metal, and protects metal to metal contact areas better. 

This is especially helpful in older style four strokes where you have many of high pressure metal-to-metal contact areas - cam and rockers, cam and head, etc.

No matter what oil you run, changing it frequently will keep your engine running longer.

MINIBIKES

It's just a 110 we go out and thrash every weekend, I change the oil maybe once every 3 months. 

Why did the crank/cam/tranny fail?

Small air-cooled four strokes are harder on oil than probably any other engine, and they're the ones that seem to always get the junk oil that's never changed.

Especially with today's high-horsepower minis and adult-sized riders, these little engines need new high quality oil after every ride.  Yes, every ride.

We see more heat and oil failure damage to minibike parts than standard sized models.  It's not unusual to see a crank with less than 20 hours on it, and the rod is already beyond acceptable wear limits.

With the big bucks spent on trick parts, $7 for a quart of oil every week is cheap insurance.

ENGINE BREAK-IN

What oil do you recommend for new or newly rebuilt engines?

We did recommend Valvoline Racing oil for engine break-in, but the formulation of all oils sold for automotive use has changed recently, and we now recommend motorcycle-specific oils exclusively.

Use your regular Petroleum motorcycle oil for engine break-in. 

Even if you plan on using synthetic eventually, use petroleum oil for break-in.

You can see Powroll's recommended break-in procedures here.

After years of research and testing, Powroll found an oil that worked so well in four stroke single engines that we put our name on it!

Powroll 40w & 20w50 Oils