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new bike / when to change oil ?

By czechalien,
in YZ400F/426F/450F/450FX

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Grand Master

grayracer513

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The question of how often to change the oil in a YZF is complicated by the fact that the oil si shared with the transmission, and the question has less to do with the engine, or with synthetics vs. conventional oils than it does with whether the oil is really formulated to be used as a gear lube.

There are a lot of very good engine oils available, and most of them will do a good job of protecting the engine in just about anything. What there are not is a lot of engine oils that are blended with a tough enough set of oil additives to allow them to retain their viscosity in the transmission, and viscosity loss becomes an issue long before heat resistance, oxidization, etc., comes into play. This situation has begun to improve over the last 3 years, however.

Look at page 9 of this oil comparison at the results of the standard ASTM D-6278 viscosity shear stability test. Note how some oils remain in the correct measured viscosity range to the end of the test, while some fall out and become very much thinner.

I use Amsoil MCF, and find that the oil stays in grade to somewhere outside of 8-10 hours, so I change it every 3rd or 2nd ride day, depending on what the upcoming ride will be like. Shell Rotella, OTOH, a very popular commercial oil, and a very good engine oil looses a great deal of viscosity very rapidly, and should be changed each ride day if you use it. If you ride long distances, I wouldn't advise using it. Where your particular Bel-Ray falls on this continuum is an open question. You can see that the Bel-Ray oils tested didn't do that well.

If you really want to know, you can send a sample of your own used oil to Blackstone Labs (google them) and find out how it does.

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Grand Master

grayracer513

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The oil test was done on products marketed as motorcycle-specific, and obviously not all such products were included. Redline does not produce a M/C specific 40wt product, so any offerings they have in that viscosity would not have been included. They do have a 20w-50 M/C oil, and perhaps you should challenge Amsoil to include that in a future revision of this test, which happens periodically. Their 40WT Race Oil (15W40) would be an interesting test subject, too, but again, it doesn't fall into the tested category, marketing-wise.

I'd actually like to see them toss in a couple of the automotive oils that are popularly used by a lot of riders in the belief that M/C specific oils aren't worthwhile, but that hasn't been the focus of the test.

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Experienced

Gunner354

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The oil test was done on products marketed as motorcycle-specific, and obviously not all such products were included. Redline does not produce a M/C specific 40wt product, so any offerings they have in that viscosity would not have been included. They do have a 20w-50 M/C oil, and perhaps you should challenge Amsoil to include that in a future revision of this test, which happens periodically. Their 40WT Race Oil (15W40) would be an interesting test subject, too, but again, it doesn't fall into the tested category, marketing-wise.

I'd actually like to see them toss in a couple of the automotive oils that are popularly used by a lot of riders in the belief that M/C specific oils aren't worthwhile, but that hasn't been the focus of the test.

Redline does offer motorcycle specific oil in a 40 wt.

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Grand Master

grayracer513

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http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=109&pcid=13

Been using the 10-40 oil in all my bikes and quads.

So, there it is. On that I stand corrected. Again, if you'd like it included in the next test, you should challenge Amsoil to do so. Given the performance of Maxima Ultra, and how close the top 5 or so oils in the test were, I wouldn't expect it to perform significantly better than the best PAO oils, though.
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Experienced

Gunner354

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So, there it is. On that I stand corrected. Again, if you'd like it included in the next test, you should challenge Amsoil to do so. Given the performance of Maxima Ultra, and how close the top 5 or so oils in the test were, I wouldn't expect it to perform significantly better than the best PAO oils, though.

I agree that the group 4 and group 5 oils are both good.

I just choose to use the one that is a group 5 oil. If I can extend or prevent a catastrophic engine failure by using a group 5 oil it's worth it to me to pay $12 quart.

Ome thing is for sure, both these oils are far superior to a pretroleum oil under extreme heat and severe engine needs. There is no way I would use a petroleum based oil in a motor that holds just over a quart even if I changed it quite oftion.

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Grand Master

grayracer513

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So the yamalube im using isn't good? What do you use/ recommend as a top quality oil?
You didn't give me any information about the oil other than it's weight grade (the picture was nice, but I'm not going to research the oil to answer the question), so my assumption is that it's a bottom of the line conventional oil about which I know nothing specific. Based on that, I can't recommend it, especially not for ten hours.

The current premium synthetic Yamalube is said to have been significantly improved, but I don't have any hard data on it.

I use Amsoil MCF (MCV is hot weather), and I change each 3 ride days at most, regardless of how little time that might be. 10 hours is the high limit.

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