Winter Oil, ' 01Honda Rancher 350 ES

[Big-Al]

I use synthetic in a lot of my other engines, but two different dealers told me DO NOT use synthetic oil in this rig. Do we have other opinions out there? Does the dealer just want to sell me the expensive Honda oil?

[jltimm]

Get the Amsoil 0-40 Synthetic specifically made for atv's. Others on here will vouch for this also.

[ChuckN]

I've been running Amsoil synthetic in my Honda Foreman for a couple years, and running it hard. I have a hard time ever going back to Honda oil, especially in the winter.

Did they give any reasons why not to use it?

[Big-Al]

The comment that they had made (best I can recall, which isn't always the greatest) was that it was not compatible with the belts in the transmission. I just got off the phone with a couple of Honda service technicians and they are now saying the special ATV Amsoil Synthetic is fine to use (change of tune from what I was told before) so I am going with the 0-40.

Thanks for your responses.

[Macgyver55]

Quote:

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The comment that they had made (best I can recall, which isn't always the greatest) was that it was not compatible with the belts in the transmission.

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No belts in the Rancher!! But, there used to be some question about the use of synthetic oils in wet clutch applications because of the use of friction modifiers. I believe they don't use these in Amsoil.

They now advertise that "these are motorcycle specific oils designed, engineered and manufactured for operation in motorcycles with wet clutches."

[Dave]

AS in another thread about buying oil, don't forget to check out Fishing Minnesota's sponsor, the Oil Man, using this link. Could save you some time and money.

The Amsoil Oil Man

[Big-Al]

As a follow up to my question about synthetic oil, it appears that this system retains as much as a half quart of engine oil in the oil cooling system after draining. Does this create issues when making the switch from regular to synthetic? Will it contaminate the new synthetic and need changing again soon?

[pulsar_nx]

I believe the "new" synthetics don't have the switch over problem.