| I wouldnt put a 50W in if not in the handbook as a recommended wieght for the climate range. on the subject of Synth/Mineral, I would always buy the best I could get which if your engine is capable of running synth will always be an ester based synthetic, these are chemically built rather than cracked from mineral oil. A couple of makes are Motul and Silkolene (check the can as they do lesser versions too) .
Its bin a while sinc I owned a 916 so can't remeber what the book said though suspect it will be 10w40 as thats whats recommended for my 1000SS and aircooled bikes can be harder on oil than water cooled engines. Note as you dont have a wet clutch the only other bike related consideration is the chopping the gearbox does so best stick with bike badged oils probably.
Only really old engine designs are at risk of Synth damage ie A series Minis etc, as some phosfur bushes are alledgedly at risk of going dry with a synth, I do have engine blowup exposure to this when my mini trashed its transfer gears when a bush failed all the debris then lunched the gearbox and crank journals too after running it on synth . PS the amount of swarf and crap that seems to come out of ducati sumps its probably best to keep the oil fresh not skimp on quality. A further note on thick 50w oil. The cams are a long way from the sump, cold oil thick oil takes longer to pump round so your cams and followers may be stressed more than necessary if heavy oil used, whne the engine is cold. . Plus how long an hard do you ride? ie how often is the throttle nailed to the stop? beyond 40w is only needed for extreme running, to put it another way, my car a 300bhp 4pot 2liter turbo runs on 5w40 thats going to stress oil far more than a twin bike engine as the turbo bearings really cook oil.?  |