YAOT! (Yet Another Oil Thread)

[Mcgyver74]

I"m getting ready to do another oil change (bike has 2500 miles I'll hit 3000 this weekend)

Stupid Q, but is it OK to go to Synthetic already (Mobil 1 Red cap) or should I wait 10k like a friend of mine recommended (He said you shoudl run YamaOil until 10k then can go synth)

Thanks

 

[Patriot]

https://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/Oils1.html

Choosing a Break-In Oil for Your Motorcycle

The theory that synthetic oils should not be used during break in is the same as the theory that your engine will break in better if you use synthetic oil but add a dinner candle to your four quarts of engine oil. Frankly, I find this theory, um, questionable. Oh, hell, laughable. Corvettes and Porsches come from the factory with Mobil-1 in their engines. Remember, these engineers have designed world-champion engines for F1, Indy, Le Mans 24 hours, etc.

There's a lot of mythology surrounding break-in oil. It's simply not the case that synthetic oils are more "slippery" than conventional oils. Also, break-in of a modern engine is completely different than break-in of an engine made before about 1980. Modern engines, by comparison to something made in the '60s, are pretty much already broken in from the factory due to the fact that today we hold much tighter machining tolerances. The exception, of course, would be the Ural, a motorcycle made on a production line unmodified since about 1935.

I recommend you change your break-in oil at 75 to 100 miles, 100 to 150 kilometers. Your engine does shed a fair amount of metal particles in the first 20-50 miles, and I really can't understand why you would want this stuff floating around your bearings for the first 600 miles, 1000 kilometers.

I put Shell Rotella "synthetic" (87% group III) oil in my DL650 at 75 miles. It burns no oil, gets great gas mileage, and runs great. I recommend you switch to a good synthetic at your first oil change.

hope this helps,

Mike in Nawlins'

 

[user 213]

Clean oil good, dirty oil bad.

Do what makes you happy. As Mike said, it's not going to hurt anything if you go synthetic now. It won't hurt anything if you wait another 4k either. Any real break in was already finished at this point.

 

[Mcgyver74]

Thanks guys,

I followed the break in per the manual (oil change at 600, vary speed till 1000 etc) but now as far as I'm concerned it's broken in. So next weekend, in goeth the Mobil 1 Afterwords I may look for Rotella or other mentioned oils here to save a few bucks

I know that there are many schools of thought about frequency of oil changes, personally I do the following

1) If it's not synthetic, oil change at 3k or 3 mos which ever comes first (Usually it's the 3k )

2) If running synthetic, I change every 5k

I know I'm changing way more then I need to, but it makes me feel better that I'm babying my baby

Thanks again (and thanks to the mod who moved this, it's appreciated!)

 

[johnny80s]

I use Rotella dino changed every 6k. Using the walmart filters too. Oil change only cost me 15 bucks as opposed to almost 50 when I used synthetic castrol and yamaha filters.

Now I have more money for fish and chips when I ride with fairlaner.

 

[user 213]

FWIW - Some of the newer guys might not realize that Yamaha specs a 10k KM oil change interval for bikes everywhere else. That's 6200 miles. I split the difference between the US spec of 4k and the EU spec of 6k and do it at 5k, regardless of synth or dino oil. It's not a matter of the oil breaking down, that's not going to happen with any oil under normal conditions. It's simply a matter of removing the combustion wastes, (crud), from the engine with the dirty oil.

 

[Fred W]

+1 - and the kind of mileage you do effects the combustion deposits in the oil greatly. If you are a 10 mile commuter you will have many more stop start (cold idle) cycles in 3k miles than a guy doing an IBR.

I have no problem running 5-6k miles per change, so long as my rides are all multiple hours in length, which they generally are. My commute involves climbing a set of stair over the garage.

 

[Mcgyver74]

Thanks everyone

 

[YAM TOM]

As they say oil is the life-blood of the engine. I would never go 6000 miles on dino oil. I dont even go that far on full syn oil but thats just me. Pay the big price for a new bike makes sence to me to take care of it. Maybe overkill but makes me feel better and its easy to do

 

[rbentnail]

As they say oil is the life-blood of the engine. I would never go 6000 miles on dino oil. I dont even go that far on full syn oil but thats just me. Pay the big price for a new bike makes sence to me to take care of it. Maybe overkill but makes me feel better and its easy to do

Gunny. FWIW I had oil sample analyes done when my bike was new. Valvoline 20w-50 was "good" even at 4500 miles. I decided to use that mileage for changing it.