oils ain't oils?

[Sprocket]

In my last profession of a plant mechanic, I was rebuilding plant engines every other day, albeit two stroke engines for the simple fact the causes of failure always seemed to be insufficient lubrication, or excessive wear due to insufficient air filtration, basically ignoring the oil to fuel mix ratio, and not cleaning the air filters often enough. On completion of the engines, they were started and had the knackers ragged of them under load, allowed to cool and then retuned and started normally and tested again under load, as these machines had to perform when needed,. Interestingly, the motors that were put under load like this always tended to have the report of more power about them than machines rebuilt by other outfits, the way it was described was they just seemed to have an edge, they accelerated faster, and seemed to have a bit more grunt to the engines compared to others.

I was taught this method of rebuilding by an old fart, one of these been everywhere done it all, repair anything bodgers from the past, a guy that knew all the short cuts and was happy to pass on his knowlege before he retired.

The four stroke motors, mainly Honda weren't worth repairing, when they died, they were scrapped, as often if it was found the piston rings were out of tolerance, then the wear was evenly distributed around everything else, the labour costs and time required to strip, clean and inspect were just not worth it, when short engines could be had for less.

I did rebuild a few, simply for the fun of it, and practice with the cylinder hone in attaining the cross hatch pattern, but this operaton was only done on machines we had a lot of, as the time out of service was of little consequence.

But knowing this way of breaking in an engine, I did not do it that way with my rebuilt VW air cooled motor, I followed the manufacturer's instructions to the letter, as I could not afford to replace the motor again, post an explosive incident on a British motorway, ( blew a hole through no.3 piston, set fire to the oil, which then blew the rocker covers off and left a trail of burning oil down the road.)

[slabo]

Anyone here reads enough Chinese to know what kind of oil this is? Synthetic or mineral? full resolution here if you cannot read from photos below.


bought at the gas station for 50rmb.
thanks.

[humanbeing]

This is the cheapest grade Castrol M/c oil that for chinese market.
Next time, look for this guy's (Famous guy in chinese m/c forums |Pirmany school PE teacher that sells oil as hobby) shop

[slabo]

Thanks for the link. I see they sell Synthetic for 70rmb, so what I bought for 50 should be mineral; which is what I want.
Can anyone confirm this?

[andre555]

Hi slabo, on the back of the bottle this API.../JASO... stuff is the classification. --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_oil

Btw in the "teachers" shop they sell it for half the price: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=1816628367

[XXX]

Hi Jape,
Hav'nt been on this site for a while, but have enjoyed browsing through some of your many posts.Re oil, I used Mobil 4t mineral motorcycle oil in my RT200 for the first 30k; since then have been using Penrite HPR Gas 10 10w50 semi-synthetic. The Penrite oil is cheaper than the former.It is a good motorcycle oil, though on later containers to hit the shelves, it makes no mention of being suitable for four stroke bikes...as is does on the label of containers marketed up to about last year.Evidently this is to avoid confusion with motorcycle specific oil which Penrite have just recently introduced in N.S.W.
It sells here for about $45 for 5 litres.I can recommend it because I have covered over 40,000km with this oil in various high performance sports/tourers, including a Triumph ST 1050, with no problems...and another 35,000km with it in the Kinlon!
Cheers,
xxx

[andrecroes]

Intersting article on motorcycle oils (the author is an oil chemist): http://vfrworld.com/tex_vfr/tech/oil.htm

[DanDaMan]

I buy generic grade 10/40 car oil , then every "oil change" I Drain it , strain it (a few paint strainers work well) and if still slick to the fingers pour it back in , on my 2010 DF 230cc I am still running the same oil I put in her on uncrate day 5,000 miles later

[ritumiky]

I heard a lot about Mobile 1. It is well known brand of oils and maintain its quality as well. It oils are very much powerful that gives a good pick up even if in the car also.

[Lao Jia Hou]

I buy generic grade 10/40 car oil , then every "oil change" I Drain it , strain it (a few paint strainers work well) and if still slick to the fingers pour it back in , on my 2010 DF 230cc I am still running the same oil I put in her on uncrate day 5,000 miles later

Hehe ... love it!

How the h3ll did my buddy and I make it from Alaska to the southern tip of South America, back in 1973 on a pair of 4 cylinder Japanese bikes? Long before any discussion of oils? Jeez, rotary phones were still the norm. Anyone know what a "party line" is? OK, I'm old.

On that trip, we changed oil maybe ... hmmmm ... twice? Maybe three times? I only clearly remember once, though, when we salvaged used oil from a truck barrel in Peru .. strained through nylon stockings (I don't think pantyhose were developed yet). And we only "changed" the oil because we were pirating oil out of our crankcases to keep the chains lubed, and we were getting really low. We probably never really "changed" the engine oil - just kept topping it up. Filters? Huh? In 1970s Central/South America? Yeah right.

How the h3ll did we old farts ever manage to survive without GPS, mobiles, and max-farkles? Well, I guess the education system, back in the old days, was shitty and we were just dumb. Yeah, too dumb to know any better ... but damn we had good times. We made it, our bikes made it.

Moral of the story, IMHO - don't get caught up in the hype about oils. Much of the oil hype is similar to those breast enlargement creams advertised on Chinese TV!
/rant