Best oil for needle roller converted crank ?

[Stephen Foster]

Hello ,
Im just ready to do My first oil change since I bought the A10 with needle roller conversion by S.R.M but uncertain which grade to use please ?
Thank You for any information ,
Steve..

[Sav]

Silkolene Chatsworth SAE 40 Classic & Vintage Monograde Mineral Engine Oil

Been using that for ten years since my bike was SRM'd

Not cheap, but why use cheap oil after spending a fortune at SRM?

[BSA_54A10]

The best oil is the oil that just came out and the more often it comes out the better .
Virtually anything other than supermarket oil will be fine
Use what ever you use in your car / truck so there will always be some on hand .
And remember "long change intervals" only apply to vehicles with replacable oil filters .

[Rex]

Virtually anything other than supermarket oil will be fine

I don't suppose I'd use it in an F1 car but for any old clunker we ride it's probably 10X as good as it needs to be.
Gotta love a good oil thread. Next up....points vs Boyer.

[Beezabaker]

I've used 20W/50 for eleven years on my RGS no problems. SRM end feed done in 2011

[muskrat]

G'day Steve.
I use 20/50 in my Cafe A10 with a spin on filter and a little Nulon E10 for 20 years, and 10 years on the race track.
SRM will advise a mono and no spin on filter.
As BSA_54A10 any oil will do but if a multi it's advisable to use a spin on filter.
I steer away from synthetics.
Cheers

[Beezabaker]

Great thanks for replies. I should have said Alloy head. V-Coil set looks good I’ve used them before for spark plug threads

[RDfella]

SRM will advise a mono and no spin on filter.

Reason for that maybe because there used to be concern that the polymers used to thicken multigrade oil were broken up by the churning effect of  ball / roller / needle races. Clearly no such worries with plain bearings.

[Triton Thrasher]

There will be no good reason for SRM’s advice.

More likely some cantankerous guy working there “just doesn’t believe in” filters or multigrade oil.

[BSA_54A10]

SRM will advise a mono and no spin on filter.

Reason for that maybe because there used to be concern that the polymers used to thicken multigrade oil were broken up by the churning effect of  ball / roller / needle races. Clearly no such worries with plain bearings.

Way too many oil experts whu have never read a text book
The space between the teeth on a gear is 100 ties bigger than the space between the slippers & the journal
The molecules that twist up when they get hot to reduce the amount the oil thins as it is heated are microscopic and again orders of magnitude smaller than the running clearance of a ball or roller bearing
The only down side of multigrades is they are thinner when cold so tend to wet sump & leak from every orriface while the bike is sitting in the shed .

[RDfella]

Trevor,

maybe you weren't around in the 60's, but we had several failures with multigrade oil. The oil pressure would collapse - and stay that way until it was replaced with fresh. The ballrace theory was from the experts at the time. Don't understand the 'space between teeth on a gear' - that's dependent on pitch, but if space between gears in mesh was meant - well, that depends on loading and oil film (if any).

Just to add: I have 4 bikes on monograde (3 on Castrol R) and 2 on multigrade - the Firestorm my GF Vee twin. My boat engines and all road-going vehicles are multigrade. I reckoned by the turn of the last century the bugs had been removed from the early iterations of multigrade. Nontheless, I remain of the opinion that the best oil for an engine is what it was designed around. 

[Triton Thrasher]

Don’t use any kind of 1960s oil in your end-fed A10!

[chaterlea25]

Hi All
Attached photo of an oil tank filter blocked by "gunge" resulting in a main bush seizure. The engine had covered less than 5k miles after I rebuilt it for a now deceased friend/ customer..
I have no proof as to what oil he used after I did the initial change after 300 odd miles
I strongly suspect as I have seen another bikes sump filter blocked with the same looking shit.. the oil involved came from Halfords Sae 40
The sticky gunge has the consistency of the stp and similar additives from back in the day

John.
Ps.  it's Castrol classic 40 for my bikes

[Klaus]

Hi John, This is black sludge that forms when poor quality oil is used, only short distances are driven and the engine oil does not get warm. In addition, petrol in the oil, blow-by and water promote sludge formation.

cheers Klaus

[RichardL]

Klaus,

I believe the applicable British expression is, "teaching Grandma to suck eggs." (though, I doubt John is actually a grandma.)

Richard L.