What oil injection oil, and can I do away with it?

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Sep 10, 2005
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Erie, PA
I am working on getting some old kawasaki bikes up and running. They were using bel ray Si-7 oil and the tanks are now mostly empty. Was wondering if I can just leave them dry and mixt the fuel 32:1 or if the pumps will die as a result of running dry.

What is a good oil I can use for oil injection?
 
regular 2 cycle oil (not tc-w3) is usually fine..
although in some specialty applications such as snowmobile use.. you need
to make sure it will still flow at cold temps.

Also some of the more specialty 2 cycle oils may be too viscous for injection use.
 
Yes, you can pre mix at 32 to 1 and get a great result. Plus you will never experience an engine failure due to oil pump problems.

I know many people try to simply leave the pump in place and capped off. Unfortunately, they tend to fail over time that way.

Some pumps have a piston that rides on a rotating cam. You could withdraw that piston so it's not pumping anything, and properly secured, it will sit there forever.
 
Those oil pumps were known to fail. Most of the old guys would mix oil and gas in the tank, AND fill the injector tank, just for added insurance.
 
A friend has a 2-cycle Suzuki 175 with the oil pump. Looking at the service manual, it seems that the oil is pumped through the main bearings before getting mixed with the fuel. Maybe I'm wrong, but at least in that bike it doesn't look like pre-mixing the oil and fuel is a good idea.
 
On these kawasaki's the oil goes into the intake port on the cylinder.

I have nothing against using the pump, but back in the day it was like driving a mosquito fogger. The mufflers would drip oil they were overoiling so much.
 
With pump full of oil you could loop it so pump and lines full of oil constantly recirculate to keep pump lubed. Cable off pump so it' stays in idle position. Did that on snowmobiles back in the day before oil injection became reliable.
I like Klotz injection oil.
 
Back in the early 70's I bought a Suzuki 185 from a guy . He used Quaker State Outboard Motor Oil in the injector system , so that's what I continued to use . I was just a kid and didn't know anything about oils . That bike ran great for the 5 years that I owned it .
 
A friend has a 2-cycle Suzuki 175 with the oil pump. Looking at the service manual, it seems that the oil is pumped through the main bearings before getting mixed with the fuel. Maybe I'm wrong, but at least in that bike it doesn't look like pre-mixing the oil and fuel is a good idea.
I believe Suzuki is the only one that did that.
 
I use Lucas Injection oil on my Polaris ATV. I don't trust oil injection so I also run around 50-60:1 in the tank. I don't foul plugs so ... Must be ok.
 
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