Originally Posted By: sunruh
except that ALL of his uoa's show his oil to be 20wt!!!
an oil must be at 9.3cst or 56.7954susvis to be a 30wt.
NONE of his are
tbn isnt worth a bucket that is half full of dino wizz if it dont shift worth a darn
or the clutch feels like i've rolled 7 at the tables in LV.
10w30 in one of these motors just isnt smart unless you have an oil sponsor and in which case you arent running 10wXX anyway
his 6 uoa's of gn4 10w30 prove its not up to the task of 3000mi in this motor
Good discussion, that's pointing out some good information. I gathered Honda is specifying a 10W30 for that engine and his riding conditions based upon using it for the life of the engine so far? The wear numbers are in great shape so the shearing is inconsequential, then that makes it all about the shift quality.
My experience with 30,000 miles of oil analysis in my ZRX 1200 is oils are going to shear down a grade in a shared clutch/ transmission system given enough time. As we are both saying, it's just a matter of at what mileage the oil shears. When oil in the ZRX goes below 40wt, shifting goes downhill. Honda probably is good with a 30 wt to begin with as they may have a nicer fit and finish to the tranny than an older Kawasaki.
The only two oils I have tested that did not shear were the Rotella 15W40 T5 Syn blend I ran for 3,700 miles and Castrol 20w50 dino MC oil I ran after that for 3,000 miles. Shifting remained great with those oils, as well as the M1 15W50 I ran for 4090 miles, but the M1 had sheared down to a 40 wt. The other 15w40 Dino oils when I went about 4000 miles sheared down one grade, and the one oil I went a bit over 5,000 miles with (Rotella T6 full syn 5W40) sheared down one grade.
Definitely all oils shifter great when new, and the ones that were 40 or 50 wt and stayed in grade shifted fine the whole time, as well as the M1 15w50 that sheared down to 40 wt.
My 1980 Yamaha XS 1100 loses shift quality around 2500 to 3000 miles, I run 20w50 dino oil (spec is 20w40) in that because I can't get the benefit of longer oil change intervals that synthetic brings. The old air cooled lump contaminates oil a whole lot faster because of looser tolerances necessary for an air cooled engine and run a [censored] ton hotter overall which kills oil. Yamaha recommends 2500 mile OCI's as well.
V1, you could easily run Honda GN4 10w40 in your bike since you like the Honda oil, and most likely go longer before changing, and not lose shift quality as you indicate shifting goes south as the oil gets older and is sheared down to 20wt.