Quote:
Originally Posted by AresROC
Thanks I didn't think about breaking in the engine when the road is wide open in front of me. 
I have heard of dino oil for breaking in vs synthetic. Don't really understand why but my thinking is although synthetic offers more protection, dino oil have more variables that can help the engine wear and set in more evenly? sounds plausible?
Local Walmart only had 2 different synthetics so I bought both of them.
Bruces, I tried the oil cap temp gauge but it didn't fit... the one I tried is in my Sig BSR Chronicles |
The basics of dino oil vs. synthetics during break in is a tricky subject. A lot of modern high performance engines actually do come with synthetic right from the show room. The key difference here is the machining tolerances on modern engines, as well as how clean and free of swarf (metallic machining deposits) as well as tighter tolerances and so on. These engines are based on an old design, cheaply built with loose tolerances, and as such don't quite fall under the "modern" and especially not the "high performance" aspects mentioned previously.
Why Dino oil? It comes down to mainly one thing, synthetic oils have a higher viscosity index at the same "weight" as conventional oils. This means that they maintain a higher viscosity at higher temperatures, and are thus considered more "slippery" (less long term wear), which is fancy speak for they are just better at doing their job when things get hot.
The tricky part? Motorcycle synthetics rated for wet clutches don't contain friction modifiers, so they will still allow the rings to "bed in." It will take longer for them to do so though, and in the meantime you will deal with a lot more blow by and fuel contamination in said oil. Breaking it in with regular dino oil will help get it over with. 500 miles is more than adequate as Jerry mentioned, and then you can switch right over. Plus if you take your bike out for a few decent rides, you would be amazed at how fast that 500 miles will go by. I was putting more than that on my last Hawk every month just using it to commute to work and run errands, and could easily do a 100 mile day on a weekend.
One other reason to switch to a regular Dino oil that is worth mentioning has to do with the flat tappet style lifters and cam that these engines run. I use and recommend Rotella T4 for this reason as well - it contains high levels of Zinc (ZDDP) at roughly 1200-1400ppm. This is critical in the break in stage to help prevent excess wear on the cam and lifters. Ideally the oil you run should contain more ZDDP than many modern oils contain - thanks EPA - but the break in stage is the most critical.
T4 also comes in the recommended viscosity for these engines, 15w-40, and is wet clutch rated. Plus, at less than 15 bucks for a gallon, you have enough oil or at least 3 oil changes.
As far as the valves, you can set them tighter than you have them now to help make them a little quieter. You can go down as low as .002" on both intake and exhaust, but I would recommend leaving them where they are until the break in period is done as those clearances will shrink some. Even with the clearances set at .002-.004" these motors are just tappy, as that is the nature of a solid lifter design.
Nerd rant over. Hope it helps.