Oil questions?

[glice]

And I believe in riding your bike (or car) very very gently until it is properly warmed up....Only then you can trash it if you wish......

yea same here. I hate when people give a motor stick without giving it a good warm up.
I pay $40 on special for 5L.
It does get a bit of a work out sometimes, but its always warmed up properly. I've had it on the track where it did a bit of work, how many kms would you count that as? (how much would you shorten the service interval by, in terms of kms).

[homer]

its really hard to rely on manufacturers oil formulations. Some stuff is utter shit, while others will be perfectly fine. You should be fine as long as you match or exceed the API specs, and match (identically) your SAE spec. Don't put higher SAE spec oil in it if its a high revver because you will pinch bearings and rings. Change your oil on time.

I have had once incident where I changed brands and had a massive compatibility problem. The engine missed and farted and wheezed and fumed and smoked!! Fark what a scare, we thought we had blown it. Changed back to the other oil and it settled right down again.. go figure!

In general, just don't buy the cheapest possible.

DB

Thats so true and ive had this out before with the bike shop where i go ,
my bike had been on the same oil from new , they talked me in to changing it , then they go to another brand of oil , so i got them to get me the same as it had in from new , the change did no difference but at least its back on what it had always run .
any engine should be used on the same oil it had at new , not good to chop and change oil brands.

[flyingcrocodile46]

I understand that the age of the bike can make a difference with high grade mineral oil recommended for older bikes and Synthetic oils being better for new bikes.... something to do with the friction modifiers in synthetic oils that can/will cause clutch slippage. Some guys have used it in high HP bikes with no trouble, but they run heavy clutch springs too.

As a rule low grade (cheap) oils break down and loose viscosity a lot quicker than the higher grade (expensive) oils.

Car oils are not considered suitable. Use oil made specifically for Motorcycles.

HTH

[speedpro]

Car oils are not considered suitable. Use oil made specifically for Motorcycles.

HTH

Someone didn't read the article in the link.

I actually measured the oil temp in a bike years ago. I was very surprised how long it took to warm up. The engine felt totally warmed up before the oil temp stabilised. At least 3 miles of progressively faster riding. Interestingly it got way hotter than the manufacturer reccommended maximum sustained oil temp. Being the worrying sort I made lots of calls to various oil company technical/chemical types. The end result was that a Castrol engineer, in a hushed voice, suggested I went with Mobil 1.

[awayatc]

Someone didn't read the article in the link.

I actually measured the oil temp in a bike years ago. I was very surprised how long it took to warm up. The engine felt totally warmed up before the oil temp stabilised. At least 3 miles of progressively faster riding. Interestingly it got way hotter than the manufacturer reccommended maximum sustained oil temp. Being the worrying sort I made lots of calls to various oil company technical/chemical types. The end result was that a Castrol engineer, in a hushed voice, suggested I went with Mobil 1.

I work at sea, and have few options in how I spend my off work hours there. Consequently I read a lot, on and off the internet. That does not make me an expert , but if I hear from so many different sources so many good things about Mobil 1, there comes a point I am convinced and converted.....
The quote above reinforces my beliefs, and I can move on to lots of other interesting subjects to "investigate"....


In regards to the waste oil question:
In the good old South Island I can dump as much oil as I want for free in the "recycling" area of the local "refuse transfer stations".....
The local service station as well has a stand for old oil in containers....

[vagrant]

Fortunatley I have here and ecologically friendly earth filtration system set up here.

I pour the oil on the ground, gravity pulls it back to the centre of the earth for future generations it discover and use in their vehicles. Simple effective and everyone wins.
I particularly like that I am providing oil for future generations.

If you want to be proper Green in the disposal of your old oil, send me a PM, and I can arrange to get it dumped at work. It will eventually turn up at the warehouse or some such as re-refined "quality" oil.

[The Stranger:Me]

If you want to be proper Green in the disposal of your old oil, send me a PM, and I can arrange to get it dumped at work. It will eventually turn up at the warehouse or some such as re-refined "quality" oil.

Seriously if you guys do get it re-refined and can take it that would be excellent.
I don't actually recycle it by pouring into the ground. I have a 200 litre drum which am filling then will get it to Salters. But they only ship it to the cement works for burning in the kiln. After many enquiries that is the only disposal method I could find.

[homer]

thanks guys thats heaps of help.
-so theres no point in paying $100 for 5L (not that I can afford it anyway)
-only race motors need race oil

I've got pennzoil sae10w-40, mainly because it fits into my price bracket (only just) whats the best and what do you guys use for daily runners?
does it differ between sports and non sports bikes, and if i do a track day should I change it any sooner.

sory about all the questions, but I may aswell use this wealth of knowledge.

i used to use castrol gtx2 years ago
now its gtx protec
and today i use castrol gps
yeah its dear but dont chop and change oil
after all what $70 for about 3500 km

[CookMySock]

I've got pennzoil sae10w-40

ahh, both of us here reckon that is the oil we had problems with. When I told my mechanic, he screwed his nose up at the P word as well. Sorry about that.

You might just have a good run with it, however, watch for any fuming of missing after a few hours running.

DB

[homer]

end of the day i change the oil in the car at about 7000km
maybe up to 10000km
not often that high though
so i figure a bike does say 4000 rpm all day
the car does 2000 rpm all day
so the bike should get a change at about 3500km 4000 km

[The Stranger:Me]

ahh, both of us here reckon that is the oil we had problems with. When I told my mechanic, he screwed his nose up at the P word as well. Sorry about that.

You might just have a good run with it, however, watch for any fuming of missing after a few hours running.

DB

Before they even had winter (the W) rating on oils, many cars simply could not be used in winter, the oil was so thick.

It was discovered that one oil would allow cars to run year round as it would flow sufficiently at 0 degrees and still protect the engine at 100 degrees. The original W rating was based on the performance of this oil.

Any guesses?

[CookMySock]

Before they even had winter (the W) rating on oils, many cars simply could not be used in winter, the oil was so thick.

It was discovered that one oil would allow cars to run year round as it would flow sufficiently at 0 degrees and still protect the engine at 100 degrees. The original W rating was based on the performance of this oil.

Any guesses?

oh I think you were asking me directly ? Pennzoil was first oil to do this ?

DB

[speedpro]

ahh, both of us here reckon that is the oil we had problems with. DB

Yet when I was doing a lot of drag racing and just starting road racing I could get it cheap at the strip so used it exclusively. The Yamaha and suzuki were thrashed unmercifully 100% of the time and were always mint inside.

So often if i hear of a supposed oil problem, with ANY oil, after a little enquiring you find out that for example, the motor had the top end off just before the problem, and just maybe they reused the base gasket with just maybe a little bit of silicone on it. People are generally reluctant to put their hand up to own a mistake/problem and it's so easy to blame something that it is near impossible to verify, in this case oil.

[The Stranger:Me]

oh I think you were asking me directly ? Pennzoil was first oil to do this ?

DB

Bingo.

They lucked onto oil fields which produce some of the best base stocks for this purpose.

[glice]

ahh, both of us here reckon that is the oil we had problems with. When I told my mechanic, he screwed his nose up at the P word as well. Sorry about that.

You might just have a good run with it, however, watch for any fuming of missing after a few hours running.

DB

so far I've had no issues with it, I changed it then went up to cape reinga the next day with no problems, and Ive done a coro loop and a track day where I rode down and then did the track day the next day and rode home the same night, plus other standard use, and have no issues. It did back fire a little under really hard engine bracking on the track tho?

I only used pennzoil because I didnt know what had previously been used and it was up to the spec stated in the manul and wasnt too expensive.

would you change your oil sooner if you had done a track day?