Anyone using Royal Purple engine oil?
- Thread starter bigbutterbean
- Start date
My conclusion for Royal Purple is that its much better than SuperTech. I just got home from work a few minutes ago. Its a 3 mile drive, so its plenty of time for the engine to get hot and the oil to get mixed around so any dirt that had settled at the bottom would be mixed throughout the oil. I checked the oil as soon as I parked the bike, and the Royal Purple is still clean. Been over 2 weeks since I changed it, and its fine so far. Hawaii man, I got to be honest, the only other member who had an engine seizure while using the purple stuff admitted to constantly over-revving by trying to go as fast as they could. I seem to recall in another thread where you posted that you are always trying to keep up with traffic. Perhaps you have been over-revving and didn't realize it. Royal Purple exceeds most car manufacturer's warranty standards, so I really don't think its a bad oil, and I don't think it caused your engine failure. Even if you didn't over-rev your engine (which I'm not accusing you of, its quite possible that you didn't), its entirely possible that something else caused your engine to seize. I am going to see if I can go a month without changing my oil. I am going to check it a couple times a week until then and if it gets dirty or dark, I think I will change it. I may also switch to mobil 1 or rotella. I saw some rotella at kmart the other day, but they only had 15w40, and I use 5w30. They had mobil 1, but I decided to pick up a few other things anyway.
Any modern motor oil is probably decent enough. I always take horror stories about seizures with a BIG grain of salt because it's almost NEVER due to oil being cheap. 99.99999% of the time it is operator error or whatever, not the oil.
Personally, unless I'm riding a big dollar motor that can benefit from the tiny differences in oil quality, I just use a decent name brand and don't waste money on high-end products. You seem to know how to treat a good motor so I doubt you will ever need to get every last rev from your stuff. Why spend more than you need to?
It's real hard to ever tell any substantial difference so I see no reason to sweat it.
(Your results may vary)
You're probably right, maniac. I think I may just stick with the purple stuff, since its staying pretty clean.
Changing it regular is much more important than brand IMHO.
(You can use the savings for a E-bay turbo and some tubing.....heh heh.)
I know how it is though, sometimes you just want to splurge. Nothing wrong with that.
(You can use the savings for a E-bay turbo and some tubing.....heh heh.)
I know how it is though, sometimes you just want to splurge. Nothing wrong with that.
Butter, you might as well taste the oil too as it is just about as worthless as your visiual inspection of the oil as your main determinant of how well an engine oil performs.
The true determinant of oil performance requires oil analysis by a lab such as blackstone laboratories which I use for all my vehicles to determine appropriate oil change interval.
My vehicles engine oil turn jet black in a couple of miles of use. If they didn't, I'd be worried.
Your best bet for an oil is a good quality HDEO that has high detergent and high capacity dirt/soot loading capability. If your engine oil is so clean, I'd argue it isn't picking up combustion byproducts such as soot and allowing those byproducts to cause engine wear.
Its not fair comparing Royal Purple to Supertech...one is a Group IV basestock oil and the other is a Group II at best.
Rotella 15w-40 is a great oil and one that I used in everything from my snowblower, rotary powered convertible, my diesels, and my two Yamaha ATVs that destroy an oil oil (shear the oil to thinner weight) in as little as 20 hours of use.
The true determinant of oil performance requires oil analysis by a lab such as blackstone laboratories which I use for all my vehicles to determine appropriate oil change interval.
My vehicles engine oil turn jet black in a couple of miles of use. If they didn't, I'd be worried.
Your best bet for an oil is a good quality HDEO that has high detergent and high capacity dirt/soot loading capability. If your engine oil is so clean, I'd argue it isn't picking up combustion byproducts such as soot and allowing those byproducts to cause engine wear.
Its not fair comparing Royal Purple to Supertech...one is a Group IV basestock oil and the other is a Group II at best.
Rotella 15w-40 is a great oil and one that I used in everything from my snowblower, rotary powered convertible, my diesels, and my two Yamaha ATVs that destroy an oil oil (shear the oil to thinner weight) in as little as 20 hours of use.
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Not Changing/Checking my oil almost did my HS49 in for good. I went 30 hours without ever taking my oil cap off my engine. When I finally did go to change my oil, only a few ounces poured out of my engine. LOL
Well excuse me, I didn't know. I thought that oil that got dirty too quick was bad oil. My manual recommends 10w30, so not sure I should use a heavier oil. I was a two stroke guy before, and don't know all that much about oils. I just assumed that when your oil is coming out black after two weeks when you only put maybe an hour a week on your engine, that that's not really a good thing. I thought oil that stayed clean was better, because then its not circulating dirt and crap all around your crankcase. If what you say is accurate (this is the internet, take everything with a grain of salt) then perhaps the purple stuff isnt all that great. But whether you are right or talking out of your rear end, there is no need to be rude about it.
I may switch to rotella for the zinc, but here is my question. My manual recommends 10w30. I actually run 5w30 on account of cold Pennsylvania winters (I know its summer, but from what I know the lower number doesnt matter in hot weather, only in cold). So would 15w30 be ok in the winter time? I will look around for 5w30 but in case I can't find it? Gonna put the Royal Purple in my forks.
So today I put the purple stuff in my forks. I have some left over, but not enough for another oil change and I'm switching to Rotella anyway. I took a little spill last week and one of my forks started leaking oil. So today I took the forks apart and cleaned up the seals and put it back together. I had to drain the forks to repair them obviously, and the only oil I had to fill them back up with was the purple stuff. I tried 5oz in each fork at first, but could tell just from sitting on the bike, squeezing the front brake and pushing on the handlebars, that 5oz wasn't enough. It was too soft and the bottom triple tree could hit the tire. I had hoped to make my suspension a little softer, but I guess I would need stiffer springs for that. I'm far too lazy and cheap to order the stiffer springs, then tear the forks apart AGAIN just to install them. So, I put 6oz in like I did before. I get paid this weekend, and will be picking up some Rotella at some point and doing the oil change that day. I will check the auto parts stores for the recommended weight, since kmart only has 15w40. I'm going to consult my engine manual for the proper oil change intervals, then attempt to keep track of it. Rotella is $9/qt, so I don't want to be changing oil more often than necessary.
One things for sure......you can never change your oil too often. Maxima is the good stuff.....4-stroke or 2-stroke, they make it all. It ain't cheap, but neither are my engines. 
Rotella's well worth it, IMHO. A quart lasts me a year with my HS49 - I change every 3-4 months or so. I habitually use 15W-40 for the 30F-110 temps I encounter.
I don't know how many hours are on my Huasheng, but as I don't typically rev it over 7500 and I keep it tuned tip-top, I wouldn't be suprised to see it do 10K miles.
My bike has nearly 7K since I converted to 4-stroke in 2010 and it starts like it did when new. Only mods are SBP a/f, free-flowing exhaust, and 2 sizes larger mainjet.
I've just done my 6th oil change since switching to Rotella T, and I've noticed the oil being cleaner every time. It's noticeably cleaner under the valve cover, too.
My cage seems to like Rotella T as well! I have a '98 Isuzu Rodeo 3.2L with 175K miles, the last 3 changes have been much cleaner than usual.
I have to drive that dang thing 70-80 miles a day for work!
I don't know how many hours are on my Huasheng, but as I don't typically rev it over 7500 and I keep it tuned tip-top, I wouldn't be suprised to see it do 10K miles.
My bike has nearly 7K since I converted to 4-stroke in 2010 and it starts like it did when new. Only mods are SBP a/f, free-flowing exhaust, and 2 sizes larger mainjet.
I've just done my 6th oil change since switching to Rotella T, and I've noticed the oil being cleaner every time. It's noticeably cleaner under the valve cover, too.
My cage seems to like Rotella T as well! I have a '98 Isuzu Rodeo 3.2L with 175K miles, the last 3 changes have been much cleaner than usual.
I have to drive that dang thing 70-80 miles a day for work!
I am a little unsure of how often I really should NEED to change my oil. I consulted my Doodlebug manual (the minibike that my engine came from), and it says to change the oil every 20 hours of operation. However, the engine came with a governor installed and its been removed, does that affect the length of time between oil changes? I have been changing it way more often than that, normally every 3 weeks at the most, which equates to between 6 and 8 hours of operation. I do expect to be able to go a lot longer once I switch to Rotella, but I'm still not sure if I can go by the manual or if there is some other easy way to determine it. 20 hours would be roughly 2 months for me.
I went to Advance auto today to get a quart of Rotella. Looked along the wall where the quarts are, no Rotella. Turned around and glanced at the end of the last aisle, and there were gallons of Rotella. At first I thought, I don't need a whole gallon. But then I looked at the price. They were on sale for $14. So I grabbed one. Now I've got probably more than a year's worth of oil for not much more than what a quart costs. I don't know when I will change it, because its going to rain tomorrow. I have off Monday, so probably then if it's not raining.