Oil Weight Post- Is 10w-50 OK to use in my 07?

Title says it all. Is it OK to run 10w-50 in my 07 VFR? I live in sunny southern California.

Thanks,

Flash

 

Flash:

My best guess is that it's "probably OK" to run 10W-50 in your 07, but why would you want to?

Honda recommends 10W-30 with 10W-40 as an acceptable alternate (by my reading of the 07 owner's manual, pages 105 and 106). While on the one hand, running a heavier oil will yield a thicker dynamic film (slightly more protection for crankshaft bearings, cam bearings, etc,) it will also:

1. Result in higher operating temperatures (on a bike that already runs pretty hot) due to the energy of shearing the higher viscosity oil.
2. Result in a slight power loss associated with the same shearing of the oil.
3. Result in even lower gas mileage than the already not-terrific mileage the VFR gets, because of the shearing effect.

The folks at Honda really do know about engines; across the motorcycle, automobile, and racing world they some of the very best out there. I'd take their recommendations seriously. You're concern about running in high ambient temperatures is well founded, you're going to be running hot coolant and oil temperatures. My suggesting is maybe go to the 10W-40 and very seriously consider a synthetic which uses less viscosity improvers which can break down in service. As an aside, I put 215K miles on my 1990 Acura Integra using 5W-30 Mobil 1. When I traded it in it still ran great and used no oil between 5,000 mile oil changes.

The best way to know you're treating your engine to proper lubrication is to do oil sampling on it. This will show conclusively what (if any) viscosity breakdown and engine wear you're encountering.

Best of luck,
Bob S.