Oil requirements

[pete roper]

The 5/40 for the hydros was supposed to help the lifters pump up quicker. We stick 10/60 in them too. Haven’t blown one up yet……

[docc]

7 hours ago, pete roper said:

We all have our preferences. I for instance despise Castrol, especially their engine oils but that is a prejudice that dates back to the 1970’s and is probably completely irrelevant now!

Castrol GTX was popular with the street racers back in the '70s here and I became a devoted Castrol fan. Decades later, a respected auto mechanic told me he did not care for their products as they discolored the engine internals to a brown/bronze coloration. I had just thought that's what color engines were inside!

So, I moved on to Mobil1, then Lucas in mySport. After learning about base oils (thanks, Richard Widman) and what "synthetic" means (or doesn't) in this country I selected RedLine and never looked back. s said, we all have our preferences and mySport has always had some oil in it, typically with 5,000 mile changes.

[Pressureangle]

I'm going to paraphrase and take licence with Pete's notion-

"It's all Bulls**t".

The only thing I'll add here is that the larger the "w" spread, the more quickly the oil breaks down. Temperature causes polymerization and cooling reverses. Not that this is any consideration in our case, 'light usage.' Straight weight oil is often recommended for stationary equipment where service intervals are long. 

[activpop]

Spoke to tech support at Mobil 1 this morning. He couldn't tell me the type, said it is proprietary info. But he said the V twin 20w50 they make is specifically for air cooled four strokes. It has a much higher percentage of zinc in it than their 15w50, which has much less zinc and is considered an auto oil. Their 5w40 racing motorcycle oil is formulated for Japanese water cooled engines, which maintain a more constant temp. 

So for now, I'll stick with the V-twin Mobil 1 and do some more digging into Redline, Liqui Moly and some of the others.

In the end, I agree with Pete's point. Put some oil in it. Simple, but true.

[Lucky Phil]

21 hours ago, docc said:

I gave up on Mobile1 for the motorcycles when I could not discern their base oil. Same with Lucas. Frankly, that suggests (to me) they are only Group 2 base oils.

RedLine is a reliable Group 5 (full ester) base oil, if I understand correctly. Also, Schaeffer's Specialized Lubricants and Brad Penn/ PennGrade are worth looking at.

I just let AI do some work for me docc. First search "is Mobil1 a group 4 oil" Yes it is. Then I looked at the dates of the info. Did the same search with 2025 at the front and "no it's now a group 3 base oil" Looks like you were right AND Mobil have turned into the usual modern day corporate scoundrels. Bit like 50% of the packaged food these days in the supermarket. The shelf price is the same as usual but they gradually reduce the qty of the product. Cadbury chocolate bars used to be 200gms and now quietly they have been reduced to 180gms. Pringles moved their factory to New Zealand and the size of their chips shrunk. Corporate bastards.

Phil

[docc]

5 minutes ago, Lucky Phil said:

I just let AI do some work for me docc. First search "is Mobil1 a group 4 oil" Yes it is. Then I looked at the dates of the info. Did the same search with 2025 at the front and "no it's now a group 3 base oil" Looks like you were right AND Mobil have turned into the usual modern day corporate scoundrels. Bit like 50% of the packaged food these days in the supermarket. The shelf price is the same as usual but they gradually reduce the qty of the product. Cadbury chocolate bars used to be 200gms and now quietly they have been reduced to 180gms. Pringles moved their factory to New Zealand and the size of their chips shrunk. Corporate bastards.

Phil

Let's all pony up to fact that what we are being sold as "AI" is neither artificial nor intelligent. It is a function of search engines being populated by algorithms designed by software engineers that are working for various entities that designate the outcome parameters. 

[audiomick]

On 7/11/2025 at 11:45 AM, audiomick said:

I'm pulling things together here out of stuff I've read here and there, and haven't got time now to go and research it properly, nevertheless...

There was a California 1100 model with hydraulic tappets. It needed, if I recall correctly, 5W40 for the tappets to work properly.

I believe I have read elsewhere that this oil specification made its way (copy and paste error....) into the manuals of some other models which didn't have the hydraulic tappets, and should have had 20W50 or 10W50 specified.

Like I said, I don't have time to research that properly right now, but I'm pretty sure that could explain the specification in the Coppa manual.

I've got a few minutes spare right now, so I dug up one of the sources that I read on the subject. It is a tech bulletin from Moto Guzzi that someone made available for a post in the German Forum. Here is what DeepL made of the post.

NB: the V11 motor is not specifically referred to. Since that motor is, however, as far as I understand it effectively the same as the Breva 1100 motor, I take the specs for the Breva motor to apply equally well to the V11. Since @pete roper referred to 10W60 further up, I gather I am not too far wrong with that.

Anyway..

 

To clear up any misunderstandings about the oils recommended by the manufacturer, here is a technical note from Moto Guzzi:

Source:WWW.SERVICEMOTOGUZZI.COM ( Dealer Portal)

TECHNICAL BULLETIN NO. 010-2006 28-07-2006

Model: Breva 750/850/1100, Nevada 750, Griso 850/1100, Norge 1200

Subject: Recommended oil types

Dear authorised dealer,
Due to the increasingly stringent approval regulations, our motorbikes use oil types with highly developed technical properties.
We are sure that you already comply with the relevant information in our operating and maintenance instructions for the respective motorbikes, so please allow us to list below once again the oil grades that lead to the best performance in our motorbikes. We would also like to remind you that the use of other types of oil can lead to malfunctions in the engine/drive unit

SERIES 750 (Breva and Nevada):

Engine oil: RACING 4T 10W-60 as alternative 15W-50
Drive oil: ROTRA TRUCK GEAR 85 W -140
Transmission oil: ROTRA MP/S 80 W -90

SERIES 850-1100-1200 (Breva Griso and Norge):Engine oil: RACING 4T 10W-60

The use of this type of oil is highly recommended for this engine, as it guarantees optimum pressure values even at high engine temperatures.

Drive oil: ROTRA MP 80 W -90
Transmission oil: ROTRA MP/S 85 W -90

SERIES 1100 California - mechanical valve lifters

Engine oil: RACING 4T 10W-60 as alternative 20W-50
Drive oil: ROTRA MP 80 W -90
Transmission oil: ROTRA MP 80 W -90

SERIES 1100 California - hydraulic valve lifters

Engine oil: RACING 4T 5W-40 Mandatory for correct operation of the hydraulic valve lifters

Drive oil: ROTRA MP 80 W -90
Transmission oil: ROTRA MP 80 W -90

At this point we would like to remind you that the above
information refers to Agip brand products.
Yours sincerely,
Moto Guzzi
Quality and Customer Satisfaction

[docc]

On 7/12/2025 at 5:45 AM, audiomick said:

Subject: Recommended oil types

Dear authorised dealer,
Due to the increasingly stringent approval regulations, our motorbikes use oil types with highly developed technical properties.
We are sure that you already comply with the relevant information in our operating and maintenance instructions for the respective motorbikes, so please allow us to list below once again the oil grades that lead to the best performance in our motorbikes. We would also like to remind you that the use of other types of oil can lead to malfunctions in the engine/drive unit

SERIES 750 (Breva and Nevada):

Engine oil: RACING 4T 10W-60 as alternative 15W-50
Drive oil: ROTRA TRUCK GEAR 85 W -140
Transmission oil: ROTRA MP/S 80 W -90

SERIES 850-1100-1200 (Breva Griso and Norge):Engine oil: RACING 4T 10W-60

The use of this type of oil is highly recommended for this engine, as it guarantees optimum pressure values even at high engine temperatures.

Drive oil: ROTRA MP 80 W -90
Transmission oil: ROTRA MP/S 85 W -90

SERIES 1100 California - mechanical valve lifters

Engine oil: RACING 4T 10W-60 as alternative 20W-50
Drive oil: ROTRA MP 80 W -90
Transmission oil: ROTRA MP 80 W -90

SERIES 1100 California - hydraulic valve lifters

Engine oil: RACING 4T 5W-40 Mandatory for correct operation of the hydraulic valve lifters

Drive oil: ROTRA MP 80 W -90
Transmission oil: ROTRA MP 80 W -90

At this point we would like to remind you that the above
information refers to Agip brand products.
Yours sincerely,
Moto Guzzi
Quality and Customer Satisfaction

The recurring take-away regarding "manufacturers' recommendations" :

Due to the increasingly stringent approval regulations . . .

This is certainly the case with reduced zinc and phosphorous (ZDDP) considered desirable for our flat tappet engines.

The matter of PAO and ester base oils being obscured has much to do with what oil manufacturers can get by with (cheaper, easier to source base oils) while still marketing, and charging for, a "synthetic" product.

A couple things I learned from well informed other sources about the desirability of pure (group 4 group 5) is vastly improved shear resistance (stable viscosity over the service life) and near-zero evaporative losses from heat (something to consider with air cooled motors with funky crankcase ventilation systems).