Which engine oil? Make, type, grade?

burty · Post by **burty** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:01 pm

Rock oil guardian, I cant remember the grade but it's what's in the manual.

wicky · Post by **wicky** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:36 am

Max wrote:Frog oil 5100 or the newer one (7100?). I run 20/50 year round and have never needed to add between changes (of course I don't commute). I used 15/50 300V when on the track.

20w50 ok in a rex enjun Max ?? i asked a dealer about it yesterday and they told me it'd be too viscous and i'd ruin me enjun ? so is 15w/50 thinner than 20w50 ?

Post by **Max** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:16 pm

20w / 50w is probably why mine doesn't burn a drop. Think about it, the TRX makes its peak power where most sport bikes aren't even coming "on the pipe" yet. Sewing machine oil is unnecessary in a low RPM engine with lots of surface area.

Cuts down on mechanical noise as well.

Still the same rules apply, change it as often as you can afford.

Yes 15w / 50w is a bit "thinner" at high temp, but I would have used 20w / 50w if they had it in the 300V line.

Now for our Scandanavian cousins, 50w might be more like tar in the "cooler" months...

Post by **Max** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:21 pm

An old trick in the US of A was to put 90W gear oil in your junker when a prospective buyer came out to have a look.

Post by **phuk72** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:12 pm

Max wrote:Still the same rules apply, change it as often as you can afford.

wot he said ^^^^

I change mine every couple of track days or every 1500 miles or so.

Works out about 3 or 4 oil changes a year.

PhatVR6 · Post by **PhatVR6** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:28 pm

i just use any container of crap i find lying about in the garage (and that's why my engine is dead now!)

joke....

i was on the motul 5100 too, bleedin expensive.

so will car 10w/40 do, or does it have to be bike specific? i buy gallons of 10w/40 semi synth for my cars you see.

Post by **phuk72** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:42 pm

PhatVR6 wrote:i just use any container of crap i find lying about in the garage (and that's why my engine is dead now!)

joke....

i was on the motul 5100 too, bleedin expensive.

so will car 10w/40 do, or does it have to be bike specific? i buy gallons of 10w/40 semi synth for my cars you see.

at least you can joke about it now

no - needs to be bike specific oil for the TRX

PhatVR6 · Post by **PhatVR6** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:53 pm

why? because of the wet clutch?

Shifty · Post by **Shifty** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 3:25 pm

Exactly.

jpe · Post by **jpe** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:18 pm

Well, don't want to be a pain in the common you-know-what, but the oil doesn't actually have to be changed all that often. For road use... It doesn't care about your mileage, and the oil getting black in the window is no sign of it going bad. It's just doing it's job collecting carbon and debris from the engine and it can do that for quite some time as long as you don't leave the bike standing for months on end.

It's the filter you should actually worry about, a modern syntetic oil will last you say 30000 km's or so if you just give the engine a new filter now and then to keep it clean.

"But racers change it all the time" you say. Yes, but they mostly use expensive mineral oil or other stuff supposed to be changed. Or they don't change as often as you've been told. Probably they use the engine different from most too

But it feels better changing it often, I agree. Nothing wrong in that, better too often than too sparse and mind at ease is the best cure for bad engines

Phat's poor fighter not included

As for motorcycle- versus car oil, Shifty's right: Exactly

Do I get my butt kicked now? Yes, most likely since this got nothing with Grade or Brand to do...

ekoja · Post by **ekoja** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 2:47 am

I also use 20w/50 in my bike.
The brand is an Aussie brand called P.M., blended in Melbourne.
but the difference with this oil is that it is the same as I use in my bus,
a diesel engined 10 litre Volvo.
Ah I hear you cry you can see disaster looming?
but the owner of this oil company assured me that I could use it in the bike with no ill effects on wet plate clutches etc. and in fact they sponsor a drag bike using the same oil.
I have had the bike 3 years now and it does not use oil between changes ( every 4000ks approx) and still to my deaf ear, runs perfectly. Just as an aside the bus has done over a Million ks with no major engine rebuilds and oil changes every 60,000 ks.

wicky · Post by **wicky** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:22 am

got a pic of the bus ?

ekoja · Post by **ekoja** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 5:23 am

Ta Da

here

and here

Post by **Max** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 11:58 am

jpe wrote: Do I get my butt kicked now?

If you run your oil till it's black in a gasoline engine you can be pretty sure you have not only dilluted the oil with blow by (gasoline) and are now disolving accumulated sludge. Hopefully that is, usually the loosened sludge finds its way into a critical oil passage (think camshaft). And yes, you should be changing the filter with each change if you practice this.

You might get away with this in the family car (as long as it's not a Honda) as tolerances usually are much greater than a motorcycle. Not to mention much lower revs.

As for racing. Oil is insurrance. You can spend a bit more with rapid (daily if you are doing lots of laps) changes or spend a whole lot more (in money and points) with a ruined engine.

I don't remember what that 300V stuff cost (it was bloody expensive) but we ran fresh on Saturday (the 4hr race) practice, changed it with a new filter and a fresh charge for the race. The engine was noticibly louder after the race and while the color was still caramel, it came out like WD-40 (well, okay maybe I'm exagerating a bit...). After a fresh refill of the old 5100 the noise was gone and back to normal.

That tells me the oil did its job, fullfilled its tour and was ready for retirement. Of course road milage will go much longer but it also depends on "how" you ride.

wicky · Post by **wicky** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:13 pm

ekoja wrote:Ta Da

here

and here

cheers, i thought it was a large camper van you were referring to !