I mentioned in this thread that I was looking to prepare a Kymco scooter for a long-distance road trip and wanted to ensure that I had a suitable oil.
The somewhat aged owners manual and shop manual I have (neither of which have a model year, and the shop manual doesn't mention a few extra parts that the 2006 model has) mention that the scooter should use API SG-spec oil in 15W-40. Of course, the SG specification is obsolete (though many motorcycle oils continue to specify it).
I was curious if using modern (SM spec at the time of writing), automotive oils (i.e. not marketed as motorcycle oils) would be suitable in a Kymco scooter, so long as the scooter does not share engine oil with the transmission. As all Kymco scooters have separate CVT transmissions and a dry clutch, it would seem that an automotive oil would be satisfactory.
To confirm this, I wrote to Kymco and received a response from Joe Wofford. As the email exchanges occasionally went on to great lengths, I've quoted only select portions of the messages. I've taken the liberty of inserting paragraph breaks to improve readability, as well as correcting minor spelling/grammar errors.
Quote:
We use a 10w 40 oil for motorcycle engines (Valvoline conventional) not necessarily for a wet clutch. This works best for us as we have many opportunities to open our engines for inspection or testing.
As long as you follow the recommended service schedule (which is a high frequency schedule) you will have no worries even in your high temperatures. There are indeed many oils to choose from and one can be a bit overwhelmed by them, but the bottom line is, these are simple engines with roller bearings rather than bushing type bearings and are designed to run moderately cool compared to multi cylinder engines. These engines are very durable because of this.
The main area of to be concerned about is in the valve and head area. The cam is on rollers, but the valves and guides are typical. Keeping them adjusted on a small engine is more vital and the cleaner the oil the better.
Though this engine does not have an actual oil filter, the pump and the reservoir is designed so that the heavy particles in the oil will settle in a chamber near the screen filter and the oil pick up for the pump is high enough and baffled by cast chambers in the case that for all practical purposes prevents the heavy particles from being recirculated by the pump. This practice has been used for many years by many manufacturers of small engines and has proven to be affective.
(...)
I will suggest the KYMCO update their printed materials to reflect new and more modern oils as you bring up a valid point about the manual.
Sounds good, and if Kymco updates their manuals, that'd be excellent. However, I wanted to be 100% sure and not read too much into his answer, so I then responded and asked for a definitive yes/no answer as to whether or not ordinary, SM-spec, xW-40 automotive oils would be suitable in these engines. I used the specific example of common Pennzoil 10W-40 in the yellow bottle, and compared it against "fancy motorcycle oils" (my words, which he repeated in his response).
He responded thusly:
Quote:
Yes, any modern (e.g. SM-spec) motor oil, conventional or synthetic, in xW-40 should provide ample protection so long as the oil is changed at the prescribed intervals. There's no need for fancy motorcycle oils like Mobil1 Racing4T. Regular Pennzoil 10W-40 in a yellow bottle would work fine. You should have no issues with any of these oils.
All right, there you have it. According to Joe, modern automotive oils of the proper weight are suitable for use in Kymco scooters.
He went on to say that he's heard that one can often run extended oil intervals on synthetic, but he has no personal experience with it, nor do they test for such things at Kymco.
Personally, I wouldn't risk extended intervals in an engine with no oil filter, no matter how good the passive gunk-collecting design of the reservoir is.
The somewhat aged owners manual and shop manual I have (neither of which have a model year, and the shop manual doesn't mention a few extra parts that the 2006 model has) mention that the scooter should use API SG-spec oil in 15W-40. Of course, the SG specification is obsolete (though many motorcycle oils continue to specify it).
I was curious if using modern (SM spec at the time of writing), automotive oils (i.e. not marketed as motorcycle oils) would be suitable in a Kymco scooter, so long as the scooter does not share engine oil with the transmission. As all Kymco scooters have separate CVT transmissions and a dry clutch, it would seem that an automotive oil would be satisfactory.
To confirm this, I wrote to Kymco and received a response from Joe Wofford. As the email exchanges occasionally went on to great lengths, I've quoted only select portions of the messages. I've taken the liberty of inserting paragraph breaks to improve readability, as well as correcting minor spelling/grammar errors.
Quote:
We use a 10w 40 oil for motorcycle engines (Valvoline conventional) not necessarily for a wet clutch. This works best for us as we have many opportunities to open our engines for inspection or testing.
As long as you follow the recommended service schedule (which is a high frequency schedule) you will have no worries even in your high temperatures. There are indeed many oils to choose from and one can be a bit overwhelmed by them, but the bottom line is, these are simple engines with roller bearings rather than bushing type bearings and are designed to run moderately cool compared to multi cylinder engines. These engines are very durable because of this.
The main area of to be concerned about is in the valve and head area. The cam is on rollers, but the valves and guides are typical. Keeping them adjusted on a small engine is more vital and the cleaner the oil the better.
Though this engine does not have an actual oil filter, the pump and the reservoir is designed so that the heavy particles in the oil will settle in a chamber near the screen filter and the oil pick up for the pump is high enough and baffled by cast chambers in the case that for all practical purposes prevents the heavy particles from being recirculated by the pump. This practice has been used for many years by many manufacturers of small engines and has proven to be affective.
(...)
I will suggest the KYMCO update their printed materials to reflect new and more modern oils as you bring up a valid point about the manual.
Sounds good, and if Kymco updates their manuals, that'd be excellent. However, I wanted to be 100% sure and not read too much into his answer, so I then responded and asked for a definitive yes/no answer as to whether or not ordinary, SM-spec, xW-40 automotive oils would be suitable in these engines. I used the specific example of common Pennzoil 10W-40 in the yellow bottle, and compared it against "fancy motorcycle oils" (my words, which he repeated in his response).
He responded thusly:
Quote:
Yes, any modern (e.g. SM-spec) motor oil, conventional or synthetic, in xW-40 should provide ample protection so long as the oil is changed at the prescribed intervals. There's no need for fancy motorcycle oils like Mobil1 Racing4T. Regular Pennzoil 10W-40 in a yellow bottle would work fine. You should have no issues with any of these oils.
All right, there you have it. According to Joe, modern automotive oils of the proper weight are suitable for use in Kymco scooters.
He went on to say that he's heard that one can often run extended oil intervals on synthetic, but he has no personal experience with it, nor do they test for such things at Kymco.
Personally, I wouldn't risk extended intervals in an engine with no oil filter, no matter how good the passive gunk-collecting design of the reservoir is.