What oil should I put in my CB250RS?

[xwhatsit]

As the title says. And where is a good place to get some, in Auckland? Would AMPS have it? It's still got enough in it for a while but it leaks oil from the tappet covers, and on an engine of this vintage ('84), I'll want to do oil changes relatively often, no? (Anybody have any suggestions for distance? 3000km? 1000km perhaps?) Oh and btw... oil involves draining the oil out the bottom and putting some more in? That's what it sounds like at least lol... correct me if I'm on the wrong track. I'm a n00b w.r.t. motorcycle maintenence, but I would like to learn.

Also... would it be wise of me to strip down my carburettor, clean it, and reassemble it, given that I have neither a manual nor much maintenence experience? I'm starting to get annoyed that I'm spending more money on spark plugs than I am on fuel. Does AMPS sell sparkplugs too? It's on my commute, and sure would beat going to Mt Wellington instead.

Thanks all.

[What?]

The best oil is clean oil. Simple as that.
Don't waste your loot on expensive synthetic blends. considering the bikes age, it will probably just slip past the rings and burn away. Castrol wil see you right.
Leave the carby alone until you have someone around to show you what to do, otherwise your 250 might become a push bike...

[Motu]

The worst oil you can buy today is better than the best oil you could buy when the bike was new.Go down to the Warehouse and get some Delo 400,best oil for a motorcycle at the berst price.

[xwhatsit]

Thanks guys for that. Put some Shell 1 mineral oil (15W/40 or whatever place the W goes) in it, as I have no idea where to find a Warehouse and this seemed to be the best value from Repco.

I hope I haven't bought the wrong stuff and this has contributed to my rather major problem that I just posted about.

[Paul in NZ]

You better restate your problem. Is it the oil leak or are you fouling plugs?

[MSTRS:Me]

Just make sure too that oil does not have 'friction modifiers' in it. Not good for wet clutches.

[xwhatsit]

The Shell stuff I think has some things in it other than just straight oil but I haven't noticed any clutch problems.

Re:Paul: I have/had an oil leak. And I am/was fouling plugs -- not with oil -- but they got covered in white crap. Cleaning them in vinegar helped a lot. However all that stuff is now unknown again as I've just cracked the head and taken the engine apart and put it back together again. I think I put it back together better than it was before.

Brilliantly, even after having the engine in a million bits there's still shitloads of oil in it .

[SuperDave]

Yes draining the oil is done by removing the sump bolt at the bottom of your engine and then letting the oil drain out. Open the oil filler cap as well whilst you're draining the oil. Put bolt back and then refill via the oil filler.

It's a common and worthwhile practice to replace the oil filter each time you change the oil. All the bikes I have had owned have had a screw in cylindrical oil filter - I am not familiar with your bike so can't comment on what to do with yours.

I'd say changing oil every 4000 - 5000kms is a good compromise between being cheap and worrying too much.

[mops]

if you are in auckland,
I get 'torcoo' (or something brand like that) oil from segadins. It is 10w40 full synthetic (group IV and V) , for $12 per litre, and it is much better than few other I tried (in terms of clutch response, cant comment wear until I take it apart )

[Paul in NZ]

Sorry, I'm still confused.

Do you have a cracked head still? If you do there is little point in stressing about oil changes.

If the heads OK and you have a leak from a valve cover, you need to make sure the surfaces are clean and flat and that the engine is not got too much blow by (worn rings / bore) cos that will just force oil out in the weakest point. Try to avoid RTV unless as a last resort and then only sparingly.

The plug is a worry? White deposits? How long does a new plug last??

I'd definately go for a carb clean up and rebuild. If it's a CV type carb the rubber diagphram (sp) is probably rooted (splits) and a new one will cost more than the bikes worth but you can sometimes glue em up.

If you have never done it before I'm sure a local KB mech would supervise / advise.

Cheers

[xwhatsit]

Hahah sorry, I'm not the clearest English-speaker.

The head is still cracked. Hope to replace it this coming weekend, once I get one.

The plug I will worry about after I've replaced the head, as a crack in the head might be causing air leaks right next to the spark plug and god knows how that's throwing off my carb adjustments. FYI a plug lasts maybe 3 days (70-90km) before the thing has to be bump started (as I can't start it off kick anymore), but like I said I'll worry about that after the head is replaced.

When my dad was in the country recently we pulled the carb to pieces and it seemed pretty clean, apart from a sticky accelerator fuel pump which was due to a corroded rod (need to clean it up, might just use some sandpaper and CRC which I didn't have on hand at the time). When it was back on the engine and the mixture tuned in, the bike ran beautifully and seemed far more powerful, until the engine fscked up (exhaust valve stuck open due to cylinder head crack). Once I fit the new cylinder head I'll try to get the carb tuned back into such a state as it was before. I imagine that the mixture was pretty screwy before, if it was losing me power and probably was not doing any favours to the plug too.

In short, I won't worry about any of this stuff until I have an unrooted cylinder head.