Which engine oil? Make, type, grade?

slow codger · Post by **slow codger** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 6:09 pm

Like the bus, full of old wrinkly types, opened the second window and thought you had taken them to 'CLUB HOT', then I opened it to full screen, most disappointed.

Dave E

PhatVR6 · Post by **PhatVR6** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 10:57 pm

i dropped the oil out of the new motor today (after fitting the engine into the bike).

suffice to say it wasn't pleasant. black as hell, with the odd grey streaky bit, hasn't been changed for a while. but not metal bits in the filter so fingers crossed the bottom end hasn't gone.

filled up with fuchs silkolene 10w/40 semi synth and a genuine yam filter.

fire up tomorrow!

steve speed · Post by **steve speed** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 11:24 pm

good luck phat i hope it all goes ok , if your concerned about that black stuff that came out give your motor a flush comma do a very good flushing oil be careful with the small cans of flushing oil as they are mostly kerosene which is what wd40 is, that and a bit of light oil any way good luck and let us know how you go on

Post by **Max** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 11:41 pm

If you haven't put it in the frame yet, I'd suggest pulling the dry sump cover off (on top) and cleaning out as much sludge as you can. You can't do this once it's in the frame.

PhatVR6 · Post by **PhatVR6** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 10:22 am

i'll see how it goes, the motor might be a pile of scrap, it was silly cheap....but maybe i was due a bit of good luck so who knows.

got enough oil and another filter to drop it out and change it again once it's been round if i need to.

fifty bloody quid on oil (8litres), why is it so sodding expensive?

kebab19 · Post by **kebab19** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 10:33 am

Oil companies.
They're responsible for most of the war-zones around the world.
Someone has to foot the bill

PhatVR6 · Post by **PhatVR6** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 7:43 pm

so, 4 litres of Fuchs 10w40 for the bike, Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£26.99

5 litres of Fuchs semi synth 10w40 for the car, Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£8.

how does that work then?

youngy · Post by **youngy** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:56 pm

it's for a bike. therefore it's expensive. look at the cost of anything - tyres, exhausts, brake pads. anything for a bike is expensive, because they're luxury items rather than a car which is now considered a necessity.

dfh · Post by **dfh** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:52 am

jpe wrote: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.

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

What limits engine oil life, especially in a low revving, water cooled bike like the TRX.. (as you can imagine 14,000rpm 600's have different requirements) is not the stress the engine puts on the oil but the fact that the oil also circulates through the clutch and gearbox.

All those complex longchain molecules we rely on to provide variable viscosity in our multigrade oils get chopped to bits in the gearbox, and filled full of friction disk particles by the wet clutch. The actions of the gearbox and clutch turns turns my favourite HPR15 oil to waste in 5000km in my TRX, but in my two old school SAAB 900's the same oil lasts 3 to 4 times longer. Sorry JPE but recommending 30,000km between oil changes in a TRX is not a long term plan.

Maybe this is why the TRX is designed to ( according to Yamaha) us up to a litre per 1000km... so people slack with oil changes will have done a complete change by 5000km anyway..

DFH

burty · Post by **burty** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:04 pm

PhatVR6 wrote:so, 4 litres of Fuchs 10w40 for the bike, Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£26.99

5 litres of Fuchs semi synth 10w40 for the car, Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£8.

how does that work then?

I recall the fully synthetic I bought for my car recently being in the Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£30 balpark. The full synth stuff for my Tuono was something like Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£40

I changed to Rockoil for the bike primarily for cost reasons. Plus it's a British product.

dfh · Post by **dfh** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:14 pm

burty wrote:
I recall the fully synthetic I bought for my car recently being in the Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£30 balpark. The full synth stuff for my Tuono was something like Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£40

I changed to Rockoil for the bike primarily for cost reasons. Plus it's a British product.

A company called Rockoil makes synthetic oils... and to think I always belived the Americans were irony challenged...

DFH

Post by **Max** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:36 pm

dfh wrote:I always belived the Americans were irony challenged...
DFH

We're just "challenged"... Sorta like the Special Olympics.

Greg · Post by **Greg** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 6:56 pm

Haha DFH very funny! I didn't think irony was something most antipodeans were susceptible to!

Oil threads are great aren;t they? Be grateful that there's no Oil Anorak on board who can quote chapter and verse on the comparitive merits of synth v. dyno and whether Rotella diesel oil is better than Amsoil Wonder Lube.. I came to a TRX from an ST1100 Pan European, and trust me, oil and farkling are the two things guaranteed to bring a sparkle of glee to their anally retentive eyes.

I made the mistake once (and it was only once) of using a Castrol car type oil in my ST - it was a Magnatec 5/40 I think, but it had a fekkin friction modifier in it and I didn't realise how well it worked until I was partway through my first critical overtake and the clutch slipped at anything over half throttle... That was a truly arse puckering moment

. It eventually took another 10k miles and 3 changes changes using a cheapish dino oil to clear the sh!t off the clutch ... not a happy bunny!

In all honesty though, most modern oils are more than up to the challenge of extended usage - I think we've all had the shite skeered out of us by the prospect of a catastrophic failure on the first mile past service interval. Sure a decent synth will outlast a cheap dino by probably 3:1 but we've been conditioned to change oils at 2/3000 miles no matter what.

I found a quite readable item here which goes into the relative merits of car oils v. bike specific oils, and perhaps the most important thing is the filter, but you'll have to read it to see why!

Going back to the ST anoraks - there was one guy there who used the slickness of the gearchange as his oil change indicator! I'll stick with a combination of my "Oh Sh1t it's low!" methods and DFH's perpetual topping up!!

G

slow codger · Post by **slow codger** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:01 am

Do Not use this................(Phat are you listening)..................

(couldnt find a pic of the cooking oil)

Dave E

dfh · Post by **dfh** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:15 am

Greg wrote:Haha DFH very funny! I didn't think irony was something most antipodeans were susceptible to!

Oil threads are great aren;t they? G

The oils drizzled on the threads in your avatar are mighty interesting too...

Must admit I belived the Honda ST11/1300 had dry clutches like Guzzi's BMW and 'wings... live and learn

Cheers DFH