i am approaching my first oil change @ 8hours on my 18 horse kawasaki v-twin air cooled.i would like to go with t-6 rotella 5-40 full synthetic but i have read where 40 hours of conventional oil should be used to fully seat the rings.in that case i would use shell rotella 15-40 weight. i dont want to end up with a oil burner.please advise me.thanks for any input.
how many hours before synthetic
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If it were mine i would run the Rotella 10w30 for an oil change then go to the rotella 5w40 after that.
I'd like to see the link where it is said to run that engine 40 hours on convental oil before going to synthetic. Is this from the manual? Ed
T-6 is an excellent oil. It will be fine. If you have 4 or 5 hours on your engine, the rings are seated.
Lawn tractor (Kohler), snow blower (B&S) and generator (Shonda) each got synthetic after about 15-20 minutes of 'break-in' on their factory fill.
All run strong and none of them burn any oil.
All run strong and none of them burn any oil.
I'm not sure why people think they must break in an engine on dino before switching to synthetic. per an Amsoil engineer at a presentation: (engineer, not salesperson) synthetic oil is not any more slippery than normal oil and will not impede ring seating. many cars are shipped from the factory with synthetic.
that being said, if you want to make sure, what is the break in period as listed in your motorcycle's owner's manual? I think mine was 600 miles
that being said, if you want to make sure, what is the break in period as listed in your motorcycle's owner's manual? I think mine was 600 miles
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6 hours on my 23 horse Kawasaki V twin, changed out FF for 5W40 Delo HDEO. 45 hrs now, runs great, oil still clear.
Originally Posted By: tomcat27
I'm not sure why people think they must break in an engine on dino before switching to synthetic.
Because it's still in some of the manuals. I installed a rebuilt engine in my son's car about a year ago. The engine remanufacturer is a nationwide company. It said in the manual to use dino oil as a break-in oil. BTW, the engine uses roller lifters and there is nothing high-performance about it. I broke it in with dino oil and continue to use dino oil. But that's my preference on the engine, not because I think it needed dino oil as a break-in oil.
I'm not sure why people think they must break in an engine on dino before switching to synthetic.
Because it's still in some of the manuals. I installed a rebuilt engine in my son's car about a year ago. The engine remanufacturer is a nationwide company. It said in the manual to use dino oil as a break-in oil. BTW, the engine uses roller lifters and there is nothing high-performance about it. I broke it in with dino oil and continue to use dino oil. But that's my preference on the engine, not because I think it needed dino oil as a break-in oil.
Just to add another wrinkle - I had heard this had to do with certain ring materials requiring the dino for break in. In particular that chrome-moly rings did not reqire dino for break in.
“I'm not sure why people think they must break in an engine on dino before switching to synthetic. Per an Amsoil engineer at a presentation: synthetic oil is not any more slippery than normal oil and will not impede ring seating. Many cars are shipped from the factory with synthetic.”
“Syn oil comes in brand new engines. It is fallacy that engines need conventional oil to break in.”
These statements are well worth repeating.
OPE engines notoriously shed a lot of metal during break-in. I'd change the oil any time between 2 hours and the 8 hours recommended to flush most of it out … then switch to whatever you want. And I wouldn't go the full 100 hours on the second oil change … probably 25-50 then drain it again to get rid of the remaining bits. This is especially true if the engine doesn't have an oil filter.
“Syn oil comes in brand new engines. It is fallacy that engines need conventional oil to break in.”
These statements are well worth repeating.
OPE engines notoriously shed a lot of metal during break-in. I'd change the oil any time between 2 hours and the 8 hours recommended to flush most of it out … then switch to whatever you want. And I wouldn't go the full 100 hours on the second oil change … probably 25-50 then drain it again to get rid of the remaining bits. This is especially true if the engine doesn't have an oil filter.
I use the same oil that came in my John Deere Z445 with a Kaw motor for the first 8 hrs, then I put in the same oil I will be using from then on out.... a Schaeffer 10w30 HDEO CJ-4/SM syn blend oil that my semi truck and my Yamaha EF2000is motors get. Even my John Deere XUV 825i gator gets the same oil. A good one size fits most oil for my needs. Killer add pack. The Z445 will be entering its 3 year of mowing, the Yamaha generator has about 500 hrs on it, the 825i is still pretty new.
I think I left the original oil in my 18HP Kawasaki V-Twin for about 5 hours. I then switched to synthetic. No problems what so ever 13 years down the road. I do use my John Deere garden tractor pretty heavily and the engine is often very heavily loaded. No oil consumption and no smoke, even after all this time.
I've been using Mobil 1, 5W-40 Turbo Diesel Truck and changing at 50 hour intervals. I expect this engine will outlast me!
I've been using Mobil 1, 5W-40 Turbo Diesel Truck and changing at 50 hour intervals. I expect this engine will outlast me!
That engine can't tell if you are running syn, semi, or dino. It's lube and the issue with the first hours is debris, not synthetic oil.
Use whatever is in the spec, syn of dino.
Syn is generally a little better and could possibly run a bit longer OCIs. But the first 2-4 OCIs should be very short just to get rid of debris so it basically doesn't matter what oil you use.
Your rings and bearings will set just fine with syn or dino. Just change that oil often during the initial hours.
Use whatever is in the spec, syn of dino.
Syn is generally a little better and could possibly run a bit longer OCIs. But the first 2-4 OCIs should be very short just to get rid of debris so it basically doesn't matter what oil you use.
Your rings and bearings will set just fine with syn or dino. Just change that oil often during the initial hours.
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