Should I do a UOA?

[Blue636]

This is the first time I'd ever do one. My bike has 4500 miles on it now, more or less... probably more. In about a hundred miles my oil will have a thousand miles on it, it's my first time using this particular oil. It is Motul Synth/Blend 15w-50.

What do you guys think?

 

[Chris]

I'd say 1000 miles will not tell you much, how about 2500 miles or until shifting quality degenerates.

 

[Blue636]

Will do, 2500 miles it is. I just didn't want to leave it in for too long because I don't know how well this oil is working in my bike. It seems clunky in shifting now as opposed to the day I put it in.

 

[Brio]

I just changed out my motul 10W 40 full syn. had @ 6500kms@4100mi. I found it to be the same the day it was put in to the day i changed it(still had great suspension quality & viscosity)I'm now using 15W 50 which my manual actualy recomends(triumph said it was a typo in it's manuals) The shifting is better,ALL I can recommend is to use the grade that your manufacure recomends at least till it's broken in (triumphs@10000mi)

 

[Blue636]

Well, my bike is definitely broken in at 4,600 miles now. The break in period was only until 1,500 miles for it... it's not like a BMW or anything where you have to wait a century before they consider it broken in.

Anyhow, when you switched to the 15w-50, was it the full synthetic or a synthetic blend? I plan on changing this one at 2000 miles and send it in for an analysis to see how it's doing. If I like it then I'll stick with but if not I may just use Mobil 1 15w-50.

 

[flyguy]

Hello all:

I'm an Amsoil dealer (don't worry I'm not going to try to convert anyone) and I have a question about motorcycles and UOA. I have used UOA on heavy equipment and automotive applications before and have a pretty good understanding about it. This summer we will be sponsoring a local road racing motorcycle team. In the past seasons this team (and the others in the series, I presume) would change their oil each weekend. They were using another syn oil (not Amsoil) and would change just because they didn't have any way of knowing whether the oil was still acceptable or not.

My general feeling is that almost any syn oil should be able to stand up to more than a few hours of racing but this of course brings up the UOA concept. In addition to the regular test items how would you be able to determine if an oil is still acceptable in a motorcycle? In particular the EP/AW aspect of the oil. I should mention that the oil to be used will be Amsoil 10w-40 motorcycle and the testing would be done by a local Caterpillar dealership since it's lab can turn the samples in a day or less.

I understand, of course, that the small sump capacity makes doing the test rather uneconomic. The plan is to try to get some sort of baseline, ie: being able to go two or three races instead of just one.

Thanks for any advice..

flyguy

 

[KW]

quote:

---

Originally posted by flyguy:
Hello all:

I'm an Amsoil dealer (don't worry I'm not going to try to convert anyone) and I have a question about motorcycles and UOA. I have used UOA on heavy equipment and automotive applications before and have a pretty good understanding about it. This summer we will be sponsoring a local road racing motorcycle team. In the past seasons this team (and the others in the series, I presume) would change their oil each weekend. They were using another syn oil (not Amsoil) and would change just because they didn't have any way of knowing whether the oil was still acceptable or not.

My general feeling is that almost any syn oil should be able to stand up to more than a few hours of racing but this of course brings up the UOA concept. In addition to the regular test items how would you be able to determine if an oil is still acceptable in a motorcycle? In particular the EP/AW aspect of the oil. I should mention that the oil to be used will be Amsoil 10w-40 motorcycle and the testing would be done by a local Caterpillar dealership since it's lab can turn the samples in a day or less.

I understand, of course, that the small sump capacity makes doing the test rather uneconomic. The plan is to try to get some sort of baseline, ie: being able to go two or three races instead of just one.

Thanks for any advice..

flyguy

---

I think you have a good plan of attack. I think a lot of racers change their way to often. A sport bike ran on the street should be harder on the oil than a track bike. The testing will let you know for sure, but I think you should be able to run at least 3 races with a good oil in the bike.

 

[flyguy]

There are some very legitimate reasons for changing the oil after a short interval in a race bike. A few riders I spoke to operate without air filters! Nobody should operate any motor without an air filter in my opinion but if you insist then I, as the guy selling the oil, want to be able to give some appropriate advice. For those guys the best advice is to put the air filter back on and if they won't then the next best advice is to buy lots of oil and change it often!

I have also heard that some of the older bikes don't have oil filters, so obviously this would suggest a shorter change interval. The third reason would be if the bike is dumped. This may result in the engine running in an abnormal position or some shock to the driveline. I guess that either of these may indicate the need for a change. For the average rider, however, with air and oil filter in place and no crash, there probably in no good reason to change the oil after a single weekend of racing. I would like to be able to back this up with some data though.

Thanks
Flyguy

 

[flyguy]

Getting to that racing season so I'm just going to bump this thread back to the top....any comments on UOA's for race bikes, ie, what to look for other than standard parameters?