oil for your air cooled pitbike engine, important

[pwnage5000]

i work at farmright mowers and if you want a proper long life from ure engine you shouldnt use car or big bike engine oil!, the reason is that this oil is made for liquid cooled engines and is multigrade, usin this in ur pitbike can result in your oil frothing and possible ceasure due to lack of oil or if that dusnt happen the oil will still shorten the life of your engine. The best oil to use is honda mower oil not just because of its high quality but also cus it is single grade oil that is made for air cooled engines and will give ure engine a very long life and increased performance. ;-)

 

[jacko1992]

u rekon

gona do my oil 2moro

 

[Fiddy@norway]

are you sure of this? I've never heard that before, any of the gurus got any thougths on this?

 

[MasterSpoon]

Personally I would stick with proper bike oil. Depending on what this guy is talking about if he means using say a 40 weight oil instead of a multi grade 10w40 then it can only result is faster engine wear as far as I can see. With a single grade oil it would be way to thick when cold and would probably not manage to get the oil circulating around the cylinder head properly.

If you are worried about the oil being made to use in a small air cooled engine (remember these are small motor bike engines not lawn mowers.....) then go to honda and buy what they recommend for a crf50.

Pretty much regardless of if the motor is water or air cooled it still has the same oil system so that should not affect it, only real difference is these pitbikes can get hotter then say a water cooled bike.

Hey pwnage5000 would you put lawn motor oil in a honda xr400 ? they are air cooled, how about an old GSX1100 ? they are oil cooled like most of the bigger pitbike engines.........

 

[ducar.r.spec]

i told him this last night
its the wrong viscosity

 

[tubes380]

i agree with cactus, the old air cooled xr's took the same oil as any water cooled wrf's and the like, i have been using regular car/bike oil in my engine for over a year and a half now and no signs of wear yet, and im sure that the old xr's are still running on the regular bike oil

 

[Cactus Jack]

Yes , I've heard of it ..... from mower shops ..... the only problem is that I've been running a Victa Commando mower with a 5 HP Tecumseh engine (has a separate oil tank and pumps the oil thru) on valvoline XLD since 1994 when I bought the mower brand new ....... I have mowed thousands of BIG lawns with that mower for the past 14 years , gone thru hundreds of blade changes , and it's still running to this day having had zero mechanical repairs .... She's starting to get a bit rattly and puffs out a bit of smoke since I recently started using Castrol 4T 4 stroke mower engine oil but starts first pull and runs for hours on end without a problem .... I've only ever had to replace 1 air filter (paper cartridge up on the handle bar) and 1 spark plug ....

I know people who bought Rovers with Briggs and Stratton motors and ran them on mower oil and my step dads B&S spat the rod thru the cases after about 1 year ..... I've also ran worked XR75's on car oil , Valvoline XLD and Castrol GTX and the crank , head , cam and Yoshimura 5 speed tranny are still in great shape after 32 years ....... the only part that shows signs of trauma is the primary drive crank gear which has teeth hat are polished like chrome ....... but that's pretty good going for a 1974 model part that spins at 12,000 + rpm crank revs .......

I know the guy who started the thread means well .... but does he really think that mower shops want peoples mowers to last as long as mine has without needing to spend unnessary money on repairs , tune ups or even a new mower ?????

I've got some really good advice for him if he genuinely wants to help people out ..... STOP selling people mowers that have the air filter down on the motor ....... the oiled sponge blocks up really quickly making the engine run super rich and lose heaps of power ...... the excess fuel washes oil off the cylinder causing rapid cylinder , piston and ring wear plus contaminates and thins out the oil in the sump and can easily result in the seizures he's referring to ........ Also , when the air filter is blocked , oil gets sucked up past the rings and contaminates the fuel plus oils up the spark plug .... It also makes the mowers a bitch to start and makes them chew thru fuel like there's no tomorrow ..... I've helped stacks of people out by simply letting the know what the problem is .... I've even seen people buy new mowers because they thought theirs was stuffed when it was just a dirty air filter ....

People who reckon 2 stroke mowers have more power make me laugh big time ..... you buy mowers going off the HP rating .... a 5 HP four stroke has the exact same power as a 5 HP two stroke .... the only difference is that the 5 HP four stroke will last a hell of a lot longer ...... where most people get the idea that 2 strokes are more reliable and powerful lies in the fact that most manufacturers only sell them with high up fitted air filters .... way out of the dust and fast block up zone ..... a choked up 4 stroke might only be putting out 1 HP .......

Any mower manufacturer who fits air filters on the motor and any mower shop who sells them without recommending to the customer to fit a snorkel kit are nothing more than scammers ......

Maybe even the mono grade oil shortens engine life since it contains NO friction modifiers ...... and is most likely another scam of the mower industry .... LOL .....

If consumers want to think like sheeple , they'll be welcomed by the "shepherds" at their local mower or bike shop ..... like lambs to the slaughter ........

 

[roost666]

well said cactus jack

 

[pwnage5000]

lol some people

just reliyin on my head mecaniks 30+years of experiance lol no big deal and honda oil is 10w30 mineral oil lol oh and oil on foam air filters is to stop dust gettin in the engine lol if its blocked then it needs to be cleaned honda mower oil is the same stuff as there motorbike oil just diff bottle lol and u tune a mower so it dusnt flood lol man sum people are just stupid do research befor u tryin prove sumbody wrong

 

[Squeeby]

Posting on behalf of Masterspoon who currently cannot access miniriders. Behold:

"The best oil to use is honda mower oil not just because of its high quality but also cus it is single grade oil"

"honda oil is 10w30 mineral oil"

"honda mower oil is the same stuff as there motorbike oil just diff bottle"

"u tune a mower so it dusnt flood"

"do research befor u tryin prove sumbody wrong"

Hmm maybe I would say that you would have to take some of your own advice from that last quote.

Let me explain a few things here. Multigrade oil means its viscosity from hot and cold are different. Normally referred to as say a 10w30 oil, this means that when cold it will have the viscosity of a single grade 10 weight oil at that temperature, however a 10w oil when hot would be way to thin so when it is hot it works with the viscosity of a 30 weight single grade oil. This is done to make it so its not to thick when cold and not to thin when hot.
Don't just take my word on it tho, hell a 10 second search in google will tell you everything Motor oil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So in one breathe you are saying that honda mower oil in single grade then the next saying its 10w30 (multigrade) oil ?

As for honda mower and motorbike oil being the same stuff I can not comment as I am not sure of this but you did tell people not to use the motorbike oil yeah ? So your telling them not to use the motorbike oil but use the mower oil that is the same stuff just in a different bottle so you say ?

Onto the part about tuning it so it doesn't flood, now as Cactus said this is not due to poor tuning, simply a dirty air filter as it restricts air flow and increases the vacuum in the carby / manifold and draws more fuel out. Think of it like leaving the choke on.

 

[Calcutta]

brilliantly put

 

[kaneo]

I think you guys are all forgetting that car or mower oil will make you clutch slip like crazy in the mini bikes.

 

[Cactus Jack]

We haven't forgotten anything ...... I posted a link in another thread which showed that "motorcycle" specific oils proved to be over priced BS when laboratory tested and compared to car oils ....

The wikipedia link says that mowers don't get anywhere near as hot as an air cooled motorcycle engine and they're right because they're constantly cooled by fan forced air . 30 weight single grade oil won't hack higher temperatures and degrades to 20 W . 20W is the best for eliminating start up wear but you need higher than 30 to compensate for viscosity loss at higher temperatures . Horizontal engines have crap cooling compared to a vertical or water cooled engine ... especially if ridden revving at low speeds so a 20w50 oil seems the best all 'round oil for use from cold to scorching summer heat .....

I've always run my worked XR75 on Valvoline XLD 20W 50 .... it's not friction modified and certainly doesn't cause clutch slip even though XR's only have a 3 plate clutch ......

 

[numroe]

Multigrade means the base oil is the lighter/runnier stuff, and special additives are introduced by the oil manufacturer to maintain viscosity as heat increases. When the additives break down (due to heat, acids, etc), then all you end up with is the lighter base oil - which is not viscous enough for higher temps after startup.

Single grade oils are (I believe) intended for engines which spend large amounts of time at the same running temp (eg. always on), and/or have ridiculously long oil change intervals. Eg. many diesel engine applications. Bikes don't typically fit into either of those categories.

I'd assume the single grade oil theory for lawn mowers makes the assumptions of: 1) always using super cheap oils (or rather re-badged super cheap oils in a more expensive bottle) where the oil company additive packages are also cheap and nasty, in which case a multigrade oil does not stay "multi" for long. 2) Not changing the oil often which also breaks down the higher temp viscosity additives. In which case I think single grade would make some sense for the typical neglected mower engine.

IMHO, the answer is not to use single grade oil in our bikes. The options are to use either a DECENT multigrade oil (like more expensive bike oil or a good quality diesel oil), OR just to change your oil more often - which we must do anyway due to other issues like clutch particle contaminants and/or lack of good oil filtration.

Examples of good value diesel oils (for use in bikes - and every engine you own) are Shell Rimula-X (Rotella) and Castrol Delo.

i work at farmright mowers and if you want a proper long life from ure engine you shouldnt use car or big bike engine oil!, the reason is that this oil is made for liquid cooled engines and is multigrade, usin this in ur pitbike can result in your oil frothing and possible ceasure due to lack of oil or if that dusnt happen the oil will still shorten the life of your engine.

 

[Linkavitch...]

oil

for my aircooled hummer i use bp superbike 4 for 4 strokes...use a multigrade oil

 

[Linkavitch...]

oil

and dont use oil with friction modifiers ur clutch will slip until its stuffed

 

[Gawain]

First of all pit bikes have in general very poor oil filtration systems, so you need more regular oil changes to remove contaminants. This means that synthetic or even semisynthetic oils are pretty much a waste of time. These oils are primarily designed to extend oil change intervals as the oil components break down more slowly. As for monograde oils... Well, a pit bike has alot more in common with a bike than a lawnmower... IMHO any 20-50 to 10-40 mineral oil changed regularly is the way to go, coupled with regular oil changes. A dirt cheap oil changed regulary will probably give longer engine life than the most expensive full synthetic motogp grade oil changed when the engine rattles. The main thing to avoid are oils with 'energy conservation' or such, these have friction modifiers that can cause clutch slip.