two points to consider here and i will state now i am not an expert on oils. its just what i heard and im sure someone will correct me or elaborate more.
1) motorcycle oils are designed to have higher sheer factor than car oil. This is because they have to deal with a lot of gear box work for a small amount of oil. hence why you change oil every few 1000 miles not 10'000 miles. the mashing of the gears breaks up the molecular structure of the oil you see making it loose its oily properties.
2) car oils have addatives and things to enhance lubrication, polymers ect. put these in a bike and youll find your clutch may slip as its not designed to have this sort of oil in it.
check out previous threds re oils and there will be an explanation re the weights and temp ranges eg 10w40 20w50 ect.
all said and done car oil as an emergency is better than no oil.
my 85 xt 600 states it takes 2.7l including filter.
hope this is of help,
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