Attention Darkside Shadow!!! ? on Oil and Filter

Calling Darkside SHadow!!!

Can you tell me what Oil filter you use? I know it's a car one, and I would love to copy you.

Also ... do you swear by synthetic oil? Have you noticed a great improvement?

I have been using Rotella 20W-50, and ever since I started using it, I have developed a leak. I found others who said that for some reason, Rotella oil seeps past the seals on our bikes. So ... I'm looking for new options.

Anyone else can chime in too!

Timmy

I use Rotella 15w40 synthetic diesel oil in my shadow. Many miles with no problems.

Hi Tim,

Just saw this tonight. ...

I use either:

Purolator Pure One PL14610
or

Walmart SuperTech ST7317


So far I've used two synthetics... one Mobil 1 and the other Mobil Twin.... So far both have been great. I will continue to use Synthetics. I was using rotella before but switched to synthetic. Glad I did before i developed a leak too.


Hope this helps.

David W.

THANKS!!!!

I think they say the leak might develop in older bikes like yours. Read that somewhere on the Shadow.net.

Yeah Steve-O ... that's where I read it.

I'm just hoping that it goes away with new oil. I'm going to look at it real close and probably get into is just to make sure that I don't have any blown seals or loose bolts or anything.

I'm thinking I'm going to try out my favorite oil to put in cars ... which is Royal Purple(10w-30). It was designed for nascar and is a pretty awesome synthetic oil. It instantly took away some of the clicks and pings in my old Toyota truck. I figure I might as well give it a go on the shadow as well.

Alright everyone ... time to point and laugh at ol' ttexastim.

So I got my oil, filter, and went to work. I located my oil leak pretty quick, and I'm going to need to order a starter assy gasket and some bolts. My leak wasn't the oil, but a missing bolt. I wish I could blame that on a previous owner, but it was all me. I used some southern engineering to fenegle it so it should've worked, and just needed to finish the oil change and try it.

So, I remove the oil filter, put the new one on, and add 3 1/2 quarts of oil to the bike. Now STOP RIGHT THERE. Did any of you notice a missing step???? Well, the step that is missing is the DRAIN THE OLD OIL STEP. SO I start the bike, and let it run for 2-3 minutes. I stop it, and check the oil. I realized what I did when my reading was 2 inches higher then it was supposed to be. GRRRRRRRRRRR.

So ... I gotta get more oil now, drain everything, and finish the job (along with the parts gasket and bolts I just ordered from HDL direct). I'm just planning on leaving the filter alone. Anyone see a problem with that?

I'm trying out a 10w-30 synthetic blend. mostly cuz it was cheaper then fully synthetic. I'll let y'all know how it works.