10W60 SJ BMW M-series Car Oil

[mojohand]

So I bought a liter of 10W60 SJ from the BMW car dealer here. Is this equal to Agip 4t 10W60, better, or worse? Can I add it to the 3L of Agip 10W60 I was going to use to change my oil?

I don't wanna mess up my investment in the bike. I'm really just interested in what the difference is, whether I can mix the oils, and what oil to buy here in the United States.

I'm not a chemical engineer, so a lot of the stuff I've read, quite frankly, goes over my head (or under my interests, one).

 

[Brian UK]

As long as it has the right specifiaction, no problem, and since it is SJ, that's fine.

 

[guzzibob]

Wrong, you want SG, not SJ. SJ has insufficient zinc additive for our purposes. Search the forum, this has been discussed ad nauseum, I'll not repeat it all yet again.

 

[mojohand]

guzzibob wrote:

Wrong, you want SG, not SJ. SJ has insufficient zinc additive for our purposes. Search the forum, this has been discussed ad nauseum, I'll not repeat it all yet again.

So don't mix the two?

sorry, it'd be great to have just a straight answer. I've read the SG/SJ stuff on this & Wildguzzi. Just want to know thoughts on adding 1/2 liter SJ to SG 10W60 for an oil change.

 

[guzzibob]

Sorry, didn't read all that carefully, very tired at the time. It's all relative. SG better than SJ. The more SG & the less SJ, the better. If you use SJ to top off SG, well, SJ would be better, but if you have mostly SG, just a little top off SJ, well then, rather unlikely bad things are going to happen. If I had someplace else to use the BMW oil, I would use it there, get another quart of SG to complete the fill up. If not, I'd probably use it to top off as you suggested. If you are on the road, oil level down, can't find SG-better anything than not enough. Agip should be available at most Guzzi shops. Though there is some controversy about whether Agip is really SG or SJ. Some containers say SJ, some SG. There was a thread somewhere here or elsewhere quoting a source at AGIP saying the 10-60 was really SG, but temporarily mismarked in error. What I know is that Motorex is definitely SG, & available lots of places mail order that you can find on line, so that is what I use, exclusiely. If I were on the road & needed oil, I'd do what I had to do to maintain level more or less.

 

[londonrob]

If your in any doubt, just add some STP oil treatment, plenty of zinc in it, and i use an SJ 10/60 oil with no bad effects.

 

[Mike.C]

Hey London, not that I want to prolong the agony of an oil thread, but the manuals all say in big bold letters in several places to "never add any additives to the oils" they must have said this for a reason, and I therefore don't.

 

[londonrob]

Indeed they do mike, but they also tell you to take your bike to your dealer to have all sorts of things done, like topping up and changing your CARC and geabox oils, changing your plugs, air filter, brake pads etc etc.
Things that most of us have been doing on bikes for years.
God knows what they would say about some of our airbox, exhaust mods! :laugh:

P.S. my manual says to use 5w-40 oil :dry:

 

[Holt]

londonrob wrote:

Indeed they do mike, but they also tell you to take your bike to your dealer to have all sorts of things done, like topping up and changing your CARC and geabox oils, changing your plugs, air filter, brake pads etc etc.
Things that most of us have been doing on bikes for years.
God knows what they would say about some of our airbox, exhaust mods! :laugh:

Do you really know what the STP additives will do to the oil it's added, or to the present additives in the oil?


londonrob wrote:

P.S. my manual says to use 5w-40 oil :dry:

Errh.... They can hardly update a manual before it's updated... :dry:

 

[Brian UK]

mojohand wrote:

So don't mix the two?

sorry, it'd be great to have just a straight answer. I've read the SG/SJ stuff on this & Wildguzzi. Just want to know thoughts on adding 1/2 liter SJ to SG 10W60 for an oil change.

Putting half a litre of SJ in will make absolutely no difference, unless you happen to be particularly anal about these things.
The Guzzi spec is SG OR ABOVE, which suggests to me that SJ is also quite good enough.
And until someone comes up with hard evidence that SJ has actually caused damage, (and no-one will) I will use either.

 

[mojohand]

My druthers would be to stay with the SG over the SJ (zinc over no-zinc), but I think adding 1/2 liter or less to my engine shouldn't be a whit of a problem.

 

[londonrob]

Holt wrote:

londonrob wrote:

Indeed they do mike, but they also tell you to take your bike to your dealer to have all sorts of things done, like topping up and changing your CARC and geabox oils, changing your plugs, air filter, brake pads etc etc.
Things that most of us have been doing on bikes for years.
God knows what they would say about some of our airbox, exhaust mods! :laugh:

Do you really know what the STP additives will do to the oil it's added, or to the present additives in the oil?


No, and i don't give a flying fig either.
I've used STP in engines built for drag racing, and none of them went bang (well ok, maybe one did, but that was a duff conrod)
I also don't know what goes into beer, but i'll quite happily chuck it down my throat.
Manufacturers put things in the manual so they don't get sued, plain and simple.
I'd rather use my own judgement than trust Luigi and his lawyers...

 

[guzzibob]

Brian UK wrote:

mojohand wrote:

So don't mix the two?

sorry, it'd be great to have just a straight answer. I've read the SG/SJ stuff on this & Wildguzzi. Just want to know thoughts on adding 1/2 liter SJ to SG 10W60 for an oil change.

Putting half a litre of SJ in will make absolutely no difference, unless you happen to be particularly anal about these things.
The Guzzi spec is SG OR ABOVE, which suggests to me that SJ is also quite good enough.
And until someone comes up with hard evidence that SJ has actually caused damage, (and no-one will) I will use either.

Agreed, small amount of SJ added to SG probably would make little difference. However, SJ replaced SG only to make the government agencies responsible for the longevity of catalytic converters happy, & they couldn't care less about the engine longevity consequences of that, esp for the minority of engines with the specific cam/valve train characteristics similar to Guzzis. So, SJ is "above" SG only for emissions purposes. Someone (namely Greg Field of Moto International whose shop has seen the insides of way more Guzzi engines than you or I) HAS seen the evidence & the damage, & done the research to explain it-at least to my satisfaction. Plenty of threads going over that both here & at wildguzzi. Look 'em up-or don't.

 

[Matteo]

I still use SG per Greg Field but here's what Mobil Oil has to say on its website and yes I read the part about automotive experts:


Ask Mobil Ask Mobil
Using an SM-Rated Oil When an SG-Rating is Recommended

Ask Your Stickiest Question. . . Or ask us something you’ve always wanted to know about using our products. We’ll sort through all the submissions and present the best questions to our automotive experts. The questions, and their answers, will post right here on the site.

Question:
Using an SM-Rated Oil When an SG-Rating is Recommended
I just purchased a '92 Corvette and after changing the oil to Mobil 1 Extended Performance I noticed on the hood that it recommends an oil with the API rating of SG. After looking at the empty container it does not have this rating. Is this safe for my vehicle?
-- Larry Morgan, Auburndale, FL
Answer:
API ratings are backward compatible to previous generation ratings. This means that an API SM quality oil, which is the latest API rating, is recommended where API SL, SJ, SH, SG were originally required.