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Well I finally got around to changing to synthetic oil. I've talked about it for a couple years now, and my wife (Loonette here) changed to synthetic last year. My bike has just about 30,000 miles with dino oil. After a lot of reading it seems to me that there should be no reason to fear changing to synthetic at any point, and any problems people have with their engines after the change is coincidental.

Anyway, I will report any changes, or any findings. I chose to do this because I tend to be a bit neglectful of changing my oil at the closer intervals, and I like the idea of being protected a bit longer. I still plan to do the changes at 6 or 7000 mile range as opposed to the 10,000 I've heard some people claim. At around $9 a quart, I will not do the changes more often. I'm currently use Mobil 1 RacingT motorcycle blend. I will be looking for possible alternative in the synthetic world if they sound good, but save me a couple bucks per change.

scan wrote:Well I finally got around to changing to synthetic oil. I've talked about it for a couple years now, and my wife (Loonette here) changed to synthetic last year. My bike has just about 30,000 miles with dino oil. After a lot of reading it seems to me that there should be no reason to fear changing to synthetic at any point, and any problems people have with their engines after the change is coincidental.

Anyway, I will report any changes, or any findings. I chose to do this because I tend to be a bit neglectful of changing my oil at the closer intervals, and I like the idea of being protected a bit longer. I still plan to do the changes at 6 or 7000 mile range as opposed to the 10,000 I've heard some people claim. At around $9 a quart, I will not do the changes more often. I'm currently use Mobil 1 RacingT motorcycle blend. I will be looking for possible alternative in the synthetic world if they sound good, but save me a couple bucks per change.

I switched to Synth Oil for my courier bikes back in the late 80's and early 90's and had no problems with my power plants, if anything the Synth held up better then the regular oil I was using prior to that.

Back then, I rode year round, 7 days a week, 12 hours a day in stop and go city core traffic to hammering it on the highway. Never had an engine failure or oil related problem after I switch to Synth oil. And those were on small bikes, CM 400's, KZ 550's. Wont count the CB 650 since it lasted only 6 weeks before being murdered by a Ford Pick Up.

Recently had an issue come up where a customer was saying that we shouldn't have recomended he switch his bike to synthetic at the first service because this would cause it to burn oil on a big bore v-twin.

We went straight to the Kawasaki Tech Center and asked. They said quite literally that if you want too, you could roll it out of the box, drain the oil and pour in synthetic with no ill effects.

Turns out he wasn't checking the oil level correctly - so he had added an extra 2liters to his engine.

Even funnier is that Kawi told us there was an instance where a customer had added an extra 10 liters to his vulcan 2000 because he wasn't following the correct oil checking procedure.


That's a REALLY long winded way of me saying "you'll be fine."

Im an HD mechanic. How the hell do you get an extra ten liters in any motor? I guess the person is warming them up and then checking after stopping the motor and then not waiting for the drain down. Mistaking this level for not full and adding more. But 10 liters? some people leave sporters and softails in storage and the oil drains from the high oil tank to the bottom of the motor. dumb "O Ring" adds more oil. start bike and blow out the oil stick when the oil tank gets full. 2 extra liters will do this. 04 sportsters and later have a locking oil stick. Can you say cracked oil tank.
oh and by the way synthetic isnt going to hurt a thing. Used to put it in my old ZRX1100 too.

So mileage isn't an issue when switching to synthetic?

I've been contemplating the switch on mine, with 75k kms, as the synthetic oil is cheaper by the quart compared to the JPN oil I buy in town.

crazy5dave wrote:Im an HD mechanic. How the hell do you get an extra ten liters in any motor? I guess the person is warming them up and then checking after stopping the motor and then not waiting for the drain down. Mistaking this level for not full and adding more. But 10 liters? some people leave sporters and softails in storage and the oil drains from the high oil tank to the bottom of the motor. dumb "O Ring" adds more oil. start bike and blow out the oil stick when the oil tank gets full. 2 extra liters will do this. 04 sportsters and later have a locking oil stick. Can you say cracked oil tank.
oh and by the way synthetic isnt going to hurt a thing. Used to put it in my old ZRX1100 too.

The Vulcan 2000 also has a dry sump, and the way things worked out he was able to get 10 liters above and beyond the 4.5 it normally takes. Every time he checked it it was down a little and he added more.

wow what kind of dry sump tank has room for extra ten liters? harleys are about maybe a half a liter extra max. thats why they blow out the dipstick, or blow apart the new plastic sportster tanks.
For ms. shorts there. what synthetic is cheaper then JPN dino. Is it from the base? i resently bought a case of oil and sent it from America, and it was still half the Japanese price for the same oil. Red line syn. With 75K how much longer are you going to keep it?

crazy5dave wrote:wow what kind of dry sump tank has room for extra ten liters? harleys are about maybe a half a liter extra max. thats why they blow out the dipstick, or blow apart the new plastic sportster tanks.
For ms. shorts there. what synthetic is cheaper then JPN dino. Is it from the base? i resently bought a case of oil and sent it from America, and it was still half the Japanese price for the same oil. Red line syn. With 75K how much longer are you going to keep it?

Yep, from base. Mobil 1 and Royal Purple run $4.75 - 6.75/qt. I buy the RP for the Duc since its the weight I need. I don't mind paying for synthetic as I like to run it in my trucks too.

I'm going to see if I can take my bike back to the US so I can ride immediately vs setup costs (everything, house, vehicles, etc). Keeps me from needing to modify a new bike right away.

The mileage I do have on it crossed my mind though. I'd hate to get it over there for it to kill over soon.

crazy5dave wrote:wow what kind of dry sump tank has room for extra ten liters? harleys are about maybe a half a liter extra max. thats why they blow out the dipstick, or blow apart the new plastic sportster tanks.

I don't think you could put 10 liters extra in a car engine.

maybe that 10 liters was in the gas tank??????

Never know there are some very gullible and not so "mechanically inclined" people out there (sorry trying to put the words nicely rather than mean).