Everyone seems to have a different opinion when it comes to oil

The service interval is 5,000 miles (well, it is on mine, anyway) on regular HD oil. Going over is unlikely to hurt it, especially if you run with synth. There must be a good safety margin built in, otherwise you'd be seeing problems all over if the engines self-destruct at 5,001 miles without a change.

The service interval on my car is 20,000 miles. The oil looks like **** after about 12k, but it still works. My cars always do well over 100,000 miles before they are renewed and I've never had a problem yet...and before you say anything, my car gets hammered much more than the bike, 'cos its not mine - it belongs to the company I work for

Now I'm not saying you should run 8,000 miles without a change - there's no need; you pay so little for oil and it's quick to do. Just saying it would almost certainly do it no harm whatsoever if you did risk it.

 

5000mi oil changes sounds good to me. I am currently running Syn 3 as the dealer where I did the 1000mi service only had that in stock. I may try some Amsoil this summer. The local Hog Shop owner was running Amsoil this winter and he said that the engine never got hot enough to vaporize the water formed on startup; worked okay on trips to Phoenix but not here in the high country. With Syn 3 my engine runs hot enough for spit to sizzle, in winter, so I assume that any water in the oil will also be vaporized and spit out the breather. That might be something for you folks who are able to ride in winter conditions to think about.

 

I give up, what about it?

 

Is anyone's bike (oil temp) running uner 215 degrees? And do we realize how quickly a v-twin gets up to temp? If there is any moisture in the engine somewhere, within 5 min it's outta there, vaporized. Boiling point varies according to your altitude, but most of us fall between 200 and 215 f. So, in my crippled mind, not getting hot enough to vaporize water isn't an issue at all. I've been running app 220-250 depending on the weather.

That's my thinking anyway. Anyone have a comment??

 

My EVO has always ran 180 to 190 during normal riding if the air temp get's over 90deg. and on a long run oil temp would climb to about 210deg. I dont know if this is normal for all EVO's but Ive never had a problem with moisture in the oil.

J.B.

 

I change every 3,000. Oil is cheap, and you never have heard of an old bike getting too much service. Every bike I have owned has been sold with over 100,000 on it with confidence that it will run another 100.

 

The one sure way to find out how many miles to put on your oil is to have an oil analysis done on it when you drain it. Synthetics can go 5000 miles withoiut a problem , but for what we pay for these machines, I change it at 2500 after the break in changes with a filter.


http://www.blackstone-labs.com/free_test_kit.html

 

Everyone will pretty much do what makes them comfortable; but, to add a little fuel to the fire~~
The Guzzi user manual recommends changing the filter (it interchanges with the harley) only every THREE (3K miles) oil changes if using dino; if using syn, as on the newer bikes, the recommendation is to change the oil and filter every 6K miles. On my EVO I intend to go the 6K route using Castrol Syntec. YMMV!!!

 

Here's my 2 cents.

1 oil filter - $8.95
3 quarts Mobil 1 - $21.00
20 minutes to do a quick change - $0.00

KNOWING you don't have to worry....Priceless!!

Take the extra time and change it halfway.