Valvoline 10w40 : Kawasaki ZX Forums: Kawasaki Ninja Forum

94zx9r · 03-23-2009, 04:49 PM

I just recently bought the bike and the prior owner said he did NOT use synthetic oil. so i went to the parts store and found some valvoline motorcycle 4 stroke oil 10w40. Has any one eles used this before and would they recomend it. It does meet JASO MA and says superior wet clutch protection. The bike has 28,000 miles on it. Just as an average, whats the life of one of these engines with good care.

SLIDER · 03-24-2009, 11:26 AM

I used it in my old cbr to top it off, but that was it. the stuff is cheap so I don't know how much I'd trust it. I'd swap in some factory oil or a good synthetic considering the mileage. if the bike is properly maintaned you can get 100k miles easy providing you don't abuse it. when I worked at a shop, we had a customer that had 200k miles on his blackbird 1100xx with a side car. ran great.

94zx9r · 03-24-2009, 05:44 PM

Ok,first whats so "bad" about it and yea it is a little on the cheaper side but i think i paid like $4.50 or something like that a quart. Since where on the topic what about Fram filter for bikes, good or bad. I dont pound the hell out of the bike but hey its a 9R you gotta rev-it out respectively. On another thought any one ever use Sea-foam, either in the tank or the crankcase??

Aurora Dan · 03-24-2009, 06:14 PM

I'm w/ Slider whats double the price, 4 piece of mind & something you'll only change 1 a year!! Good synth. will cost u between 8-12 $ a qt. Also your bike should run a little cooler w/ the synth. Just do it!!!!! All the cool kids are!!!!!!

ZX-7 CHRIS · 03-24-2009, 06:20 PM

i do not trust any synthetic oils ! the only brand of oil i will ever use in my bikes is Castrol GTX. have had bad experiences with cheap oils, & especially synthetic ! i know alot of people like synthetic oil, but from all my experiences i trust Castrol GTX. i swear by it !

Aurora Dan · 03-24-2009, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZX-7 CHRIS

i do not trust any synthetic oils ! the only brand of oil i will ever use in my bikes is Castrol GTX. have had bad experiences with cheap oils, & especially synthetic ! i know alot of people like synthetic oil, but from all my experiences i trust Castrol GTX. i swear by it !

Your right, I should of specified. I run Motul, chris u shouldn't through them all under the bus. Y do alot of the top racers run full synth. Motul etc.??? Riddle me that....Why So Serious...........

ZX-7 CHRIS · 03-24-2009, 08:13 PM

I may have been a little harsh on synthetic oil, so i apologise to anyone who likes syn.oil ! top racers may recommend synthetic oil, but if you are a top racer, your oil is being changed almost on a daily basis, so then i guess it would'nt matter, but i do not trust the stuff ! back in the day, i had a IROC Z28 with low miles on it, i took it in for an oil change. on this same day my parents had a brand new van ready for its first oil change, so we took both vehicles in. the mechanic was singing praises about synthetic oil, & talked us into switching to it. we figured " what the hell, lets do it !" when we picked up the vehicles, we checked the oil level in both & they were fine. two weeks later, my engine in IROC seized. so dad checked the oil in his brand new van, it was severely low !!! both vehicles !!!!!!

dad swithed back to CASTROL & never had a problem again !
i had to shell out over 3k for a new motor, went back to Castrol .

now i know that synthetic oil has improved since then, but i'm not willing to take that chance again, especially on my motorcycles!!!!!

94zx9r · 03-25-2009, 05:34 AM

What type of castrol oil do you use? What do you people think is the better of the synthetic oils as far as brand and anti-wear properties. I work in a garage (auto) and we have a lot of custermers who use Mobil 1 full synthetic and they go crazy mileage on their oil changes and the oil that comes out almost looks as black as disel oil, granted they have never had an issue (yet) but like someone said somewhere alot of high-end car manufactures recomend using synthetic oils. I will probably change to synthetic soon and recs on what to use?

SLIDER · 03-25-2009, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 94zx9r

Ok,first whats so "bad" about it and yea it is a little on the cheaper side but i think i paid like $4.50 or something like that a quart. Since where on the topic what about Fram filter for bikes, good or bad. I dont pound the hell out of the bike but hey its a 9R you gotta rev-it out respectively. On another thought any one ever use Sea-foam, either in the tank or the crankcase??

there's nothing bad about it. But it is a company that puts more testing into oil for cars than motorcycles. when I used it it was about $3.50/qt. then again the dollar may have changed since then. But even still, I don't trust an oil that you get at kragen. using synthetics isn't bad, but the bike needs to be fully broken in(about 7k miles) in order to use it. otherwise the engine will have problems seating rings,bearings, etc. I know exactly what zx-7 chris is talking about being a little leery of synthetics. I built a chevy 355 for my 70 nova for the purpose of drag racing and a DD. I put synthetic in it at about 2k miles. the oil level was low constantly and I ended up blowing the engine at 8k miles. I don't believe it was chalked up to the oil though. I'm pretty sure I snapped a ring because I raced it way to much.

these bikes are put together very tightly. they actually like synthetics once broken in. use a well known brand. Motul, repsol, golden spectro, redline, or any of the factory brands. try to avoid oils with "molly" as some clutches will slip. since you work in a shop you know just as well as anyone that using synthetic doesn't mean you can or should run longer between oil changes. the whole point of a better oil is better protection, not extended service intervals. I change my oil every 2500 miles just to be on the safe side since I'm extremely hard on the on the engine.

Hammerhead · 03-25-2009, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZX-7 CHRIS

i do not trust any synthetic oils ! the only brand of oil i will ever use in my bikes is Castrol GTX. have had bad experiences with cheap oils, & especially synthetic ! i know alot of people like synthetic oil, but from all my experiences i trust Castrol GTX. i swear by it !

Bean oil causes varnish to accumulate in the piston ring lands and eventually gums up the rings to the point that they freeze in place. Racers use bean oil because it's slicker than petroleum oil and they tear down and rebuild frequently so the varnish doesn't become an issue. For a guy who doesn't trust synthetics, you are dumping just about the worst possible swill in your engine.

Hammerhead · 03-25-2009, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZX-7 CHRIS

I may have been a little harsh on synthetic oil, so i apologise to anyone who likes syn.oil ! top racers may recommend synthetic oil, but if you are a top racer, your oil is being changed almost on a daily basis, so then i guess it would'nt matter, but i do not trust the stuff ! back in the day, i had a IROC Z28 with low miles on it, i took it in for an oil change. on this same day my parents had a brand new van ready for its first oil change, so we took both vehicles in. the mechanic was singing praises about synthetic oil, & talked us into switching to it. we figured " what the hell, lets do it !" when we picked up the vehicles, we checked the oil level in both & they were fine. two weeks later, my engine in IROC seized. so dad checked the oil in his brand new van, it was severely low !!! both vehicles !!!!!!

dad swithed back to CASTROL & never had a problem again !
i had to shell out over 3k for a new motor, went back to Castrol .

now i know that synthetic oil has improved since then, but i'm not willing to take that chance again, especially on my motorcycles!!!!!

Since you didn't change the oil yourself, have you considered the possibility that the moron who did dumped some recycled Red Dog in there and charged you for synthetic?

Hammerhead · 03-25-2009, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 94zx9r

I just recently bought the bike and the prior owner said he did NOT use synthetic oil. so i went to the parts store and found some valvoline motorcycle 4 stroke oil 10w40. Has any one eles used this before and would they recomend it. It does meet JASO MA and says superior wet clutch protection. The bike has 28,000 miles on it. Just as an average, whats the life of one of these engines with good care.

I've never even seen their 4T bike oil, but their car oil used to contain plastics that would turn the inside of a car block milky white. A good friend used to work at an oil test facility where they would test motors to destruction to see which oil made them last longest. I have never bought a qt. of any Valvoline oil since he told me that. Before synthetics, I always used Pennzoil or Quaker State dino oil in the cars and trucks. Now I use full syn in the bike and syn blend in the cars.

94zx9r · 03-25-2009, 03:55 PM

Well with 28,000 miles i'd have to say my engine is broken in, and a synthetic oil change shouldn't hurt any thing. I too like to change my oil sooner rather than later (cant hurt) and the consumption issues, you should be checking your oil often espically if your riding hard. I just cant make my mind up on a type of synthetic oil to use everyone says something differnent about every brand, both good and bad. Does mobil 1 make a full synthetic motorcycle oil 10w40. Whats about amsoil I heard that wasn't bad. So many choices???

**Shifty1** · 03-25-2009, 04:46 PM

I prefer to stick to motorcycle specific oils. Spectro 4 (conventional) 10w-40 in particular. They also offer up a synthetic (Golden) and a partial synthetic (Premium) which is basically just a half & half of conventional and synth. Keep in mind also, if you are going to switch to synthetic, it's better to ween the bike onto it over a few oil changes. It sounds wierd but it is the smart thing to do as engines get used running with a particular kind of oil. I'd say if you are going to make the switch, substitute 1 quart with synth, the next time do half and half, by the third time you should be able to do full synth completely.

My .02.

Hammerhead · 03-25-2009, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 94zx9r

Well with 28,000 miles i'd have to say my engine is broken in, and a synthetic oil change shouldn't hurt any thing. I too like to change my oil sooner rather than later (cant hurt) and the consumption issues, you should be checking your oil often espically if your riding hard. I just cant make my mind up on a type of synthetic oil to use everyone says something differnent about every brand, both good and bad. Does mobil 1 make a full synthetic motorcycle oil 10w40. Whats about amsoil I heard that wasn't bad. So many choices???

I have been running Mobil 1 4T Racing oil for a couple of seasons now. Amsoil 4T is good as well as Motul 3K 4T, Repsol 4T and a few others. Only drawback is price: all these oils run $8-12/qt.

94zx9r · 03-25-2009, 08:16 PM

ok I'll be going to a kawasaki dealer soon to have my new michelin pilot road 2tires put on and see what types of oil they offer and how much it is. Also i'll see what their opinon is on switching to a synthetic oil. Weening an engine on new oil, thats new to me. Thanks for the input though

94zx9r · 03-31-2009, 06:01 PM

Ok. So the dealer says oil is oil (motorcycle) and as long as you change it at 3000, you should not have any issues. With that said, I am still going to swith to synthetic amsoil and use a Kawasaki oil filter. I will let you know how it works out.

Hammerhead · 03-31-2009, 08:05 PM

Oil is oil alright, but some oil is better than other oil just like motocycles. All depends on your type of riding, climate, change intervals etc., etc. You can get by with high-quality motorcycle-specific petroleum oil if you change it frequently. Synthetic motorcycle oils protect wear parts better which makes your motor last longer and can be changed less frequently with no ill effects due to better heat resistance. Pay upfront or pay later. Your dealer has a vested interest in wearing out your motor quicker and getting you into the shop more often to buy oil so he can sell you other stuff. If you want to see his ugly mug less often, use synthetic.

bluedevil10r · 04-02-2009, 10:12 PM

Shell Rotella 5W40 19 bucks at Wally World!
I like Motul.
I won't use Repsol because they sponsor that that Spanish Midget!

rockingmtranch · 04-03-2009, 10:12 AM

I don't feel mixing oils or viscosities is a good idea. Synth should never be mixed with regular oil in my humble opinion. And, seeing the insides of many car engines for rebuilds, the cleanest were always users of Valvoline oil. Pennzoil were always the worst (at least this was a personal observation and in no way am I endorsing one over the other). This was a few years back but it at least pointed out to me that not all oils are the same.