synthetic or not?

[bonstrosity]

How many of you use synthetic oil? is it worth it to switch? what are the benifits? is it even feasable with the wet clutch? let me know
Bonstrosity

[rockadaous]

synthetic here. I recommend swapping

[Spedee]

I use Castrol GPS Synthetic Race Oil.

[KatDan]

Amsoil here, the biggest things i notice are smoother shifting and longer service intervals. definitly worth it.

[Black_peter]

While the thread is open but not to try and pirate it.. :P
What about synth brake fluid?

[StraKat]

Considering I change oil every 2500 miles I'm using standard oil. 10,000 miles, no problems.

[trinc]

act-evo


tim

[jhugh]

I don't think anyone can argue that synthetic isn't a better oil all around. As for
'wet clutch' problems just be sure to use an oil made for that application - which is to
say a motorcycle specific oil.
For me it simply comes down to $. I do oil changes about every 2-2.5k and use
Suzuki oil ($1.90/qt) without any problems. The synthetics I see are about $5.00/qt.
or more. If I were racing the bike or going longer on the oil change interval then I would
switch to synthetic but for the use it gets now I'll stick with the Suzuki stuff.

[Anonymous]

Re: synthetic or not?

How many of you use synthetic oil? is it worth it to switch? what are the benifits? is it even feasable with the wet clutch? let me know
Bonstrosity

Synthetics are awesome...especially "motorcycle specific" syn oils (Mobil 1 prefered by me) There are no additives in their that would affect the clutch (which you have to be careful because a lot of oils do have additives that affect this)

As far as I know, I thought all brake fluid were synthetically designed anyways...could be wrong though,

I'm sure Cyber will chime in soon.

[The CyberPoet]

Sure, I'll kick in...

The answers to everything you seek are in my upcoming book -- become an oil expert overnight!

Now that the plug is done, here's the deal:
Synthetics are generally longer-lived than dino oils because their hydrocarbon lengths are uniform and so you don't start with some of the chains already shorter than ideal. This is an issue when the oil is heavily taxed, either by stretching the oil change periods past what they should be (why would you?), or more often, because the operating environment is rough on the oil (high heats, dust, condensation at night, crappy fuels, fuel additives, etc). The kats, being air-oil cooled, are substancially rougher on oils than any car (and the majority of motorcycles) on the market these days.

As always, I'm going to pitch certain ideas:
JASO-MA. This is the best oil rating for the Kat. Oils which conform to the JASO-MA spec will serve you better than any oil which doesn't. Period. A JASO-MA spec dino will serve you better than a non-JASO-MA synthetic. There are now a large number of JASO-MA spec motorcycle oils available, including both dino and synthetic blends from Castrol, Mobil, RoyalPurple, HondaLine, etc. Find one and use it.

All that said, I generally use Castrol GPS. It's cheaper than many of the choices, has a good blend of detergents and additives, meets the JASO-MA spec (at least in the US version -- check with your local castrol website for specs of their products in your country), and the inside of my engine (pics available -- search for the thread) likes it. I love Castrol's R4 Race oil, but it's not suitable for the Kats because of the 5 weight basis (pro: more power out of the engine; negative: faster wear on the journal bearings and rings, oil tends to break down faster than the GPS).

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[duff daddy]

ah i dont think i can swithc i got 36k on my bike ill just see more blue smoke come out lol

[Yellow]

ah i dont think i can swithc i got 36k on my bike ill just see more blue smoke come out lol

and you're thinking about whipping your poor engine with NOS

[GTman]

I'm switching to Amsoil as soon as I've got some more miles on my bike. I was going to use Castrol until reading this article. https://www.bmworlando.com/pages/ser...aq/syn-oil.htm I figure if I'm going to spend the extra money for synthetic it might as well be real 100% synthetic.

[bonstrosity]

Thanks guys, I'm really thinking about switching, I'm happy with the performance of synthetic on my truck so I thought why not on the kat.

[The CyberPoet]

I'm switching to Amsoil as soon as I've got some more miles on my bike. I was going to use Castrol until reading this article. https://www.bmworlando.com/pages/ser...aq/syn-oil.htm I figure if I'm going to spend the extra money for synthetic it might as well be real 100% synthetic.

Actually, if you do further research, you'll find that there's synthetic and synthetic (they cover that in the article you linked to). GPS 10w40 in the USA is a Group IV synthetic (synthetic by creation). GPS 20w50 is a mineral oil (part synthetic by extraction & recombination, mostly good base stock). Castrol GTX (car oil) on the other hand is a Group III synthetic (synthetic by extraction & recombination), but doesn't carry within it the properties that make it ideal by any means for use as a motorcycle oil.

I'll go back to the simple standard endorsement: JASO-MA.
Any oil that can pass this standards suite will work exceptionally well for the Katanas. The spec involves:
The oil weight (thick enough for our purposes and containing a decent amount of ZDDP);
the ability to withstand shear forces (improved shear resistance);
a very low evaporation rate (two and half times more stringent than the API spec), which reduces sludge formation and viscosity loss;
a very low foaming tendency (virtually zero foaming), which reduces sludge formation;
reduced sulfer content (no sulfated ash build-up on the valves, reduced acid formation in the presence of water which reduces viscosity breakdown as well), and'
extremely diligent High Temp High Stress Viscosity values (HTHS Viscosity) which is the most crucial factor in maintaining bearing and engine health under the type of loads our air-oil cooled engines run under.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet