Replacing "new age oils"

[Twocams]

I grew up in the 60s & 70s & we were always told to replace the engine oil if setting for long time. Three to 4 months could be a long time? Something about eating up the crank journals or some rubbish like that? Couple of my bike I only rode 500 miles or so this summer. My Toro ridding lawn mower for 1 hr. since last oil change. I haven't been changing the oils with low miles, nothing broke yet.
Is there any reason I should, I dont know about? All good oils some synthetic.

[MikeL46]

First, Modern oils are much better than oils from the 60's and 70's.

That said I would still change the oil at least annually. Hopefully at the end of the season before laying it up for the winter.

Mike

[Discogodfather]

Old engines benefit most from the highest ZDDP content which is basically zinc. All modern oils have ZDDP diminished or removed because of their negative effect on catalytic converters. So that's why oil companies started calling high ZDDP oils "racing oils" even though that really has nothing to do with actual racing oil which is now referred to as "event oil". "Racing Oil" is code for high ZDDP content. They still have all the detergents in there (which is also what you want).

To give you an idea how it breaks down:

Redline Racing Oil = 2200 ppm ZDDP
Mobile One Racing Oil = 1800 ppm ZDDP
Regular Mobile One = 1200 ppm ZDDP

Getting the most ZDDP in there is the best case scenario for any older engine, and using the highest weight you can get away with (based on the temp you have where you are at) is also a good idea. In California I run 50 weight on every old bike and car I have. Might be hard to do that in colder climates.

Slingers are centrifugal oil filters and they either fill up with crud or they don't because there isn't much crud in there. How do you get less crud in the engine? The easiest way is to constantly and religiously change the oil, especially after a very long ride or road trip. When BMW said they lasted 25,000 miles, they were referring to awful 1950's and 1960's oil. Oil tech is like tire tech, almost everything from 20 years ago is already obsolete. With a fresh rebuild done right and new slingers running high ZDDP synthetics that are changed every 1000 miles, you can get way way more than 25,000 miles out of slingers. Like 45,000 miles easily.

Don't believe anyone urging old standard oils without detergents, it's nonsense. You need Zinc, the highest temp HC molecule you can get, heavy weights, and frequent changes = extremely long engine life. Goes for any classic vehicle without a cat.

[312Icarus]

MY 68 R50 went ~55k miles. The bike sat for many years in my barn before I got it back on the road again several years ago. ( have owned it since ~1975). It was torn down and the slingers were ~50% full.

I now use Valvoline High Zinc VR1 30 w. I ride a few thousand miles a year, and change the oil usually twice a year. I also have sent oil to Blackstone for analysis. I agree with everyone that more frequent changes is cheap insurance. I don’t expect to have to do slinger service again in my lifetime.

Another 50K miles, I’ll be...old or in a box!

[miller6997]

A couple of data points, repeating something I said here several years ago:

I bought my first R69S in '67 and sold it in '77 with 103,000 miles on the odometer. It had thousand-mile detergent oil changes. The slingers were never serviced. The bike was my daily commuter and occasional long-distance traveler; it required no significant repairs while I owned it. After the new owner paid me $700 for the bike, I never heard from him again, so I assume the bike continued to serve him well.

My brother also bought an R69S in '67, which I bought from him in '86. The slingers were cleaned at 57,000 miles; they were about half full. Again, religious thousand-mile detergent oil changes. It now has 90,000 miles on it. On Vech's advice I have been using Valvoline VR-1 oil for the past few years.