X-Pect Backroad Development

[China Rider 27]

The team they say, since we are doing the break in oil changes anyway, why not do some analysis for the thread to see what we can learn. The riding weather has to be bad to do this stuff right! After draining the shipping oil, we installed the Rotella T-4 with a magnetic oil drain plug to collect any ferrous metal residue that being steel or iron. At each oil change we let the oil drain overnight into a collection tub before we slowly poured off the top to evaluate the residue. Sitting overnight may allow the heavier particles to sink down through that viscosity to the bottom of the tub. Mouse click click on the pictures twice to zoom in and see detail.

Ride time 10-minutes then oil change, mileage 1 mile







Ride time 1 hour then oil change, mileage 16 miles







Ride time 3 3/4-hour then oil change, mileage 93 miles







Picture of couple of nonmagnetic pieces fished out of the bottom of the oil tub and a magnet swirled through that oil with a couple of iron shards.



Picture of the oil before pour off the next day after the drain and we see particles in suspension that have a shimmering quality. This is typical of what the team has seen with all CG motors at oil change. It is not magnetic and the consensus is it be clutch friction disc material but whatever it is, it surely churns throughout the motor.



Discussion: Metal parts are wearing in creating ferrous metal residue. The small dark pieces in the oil appear to be pieces of gasket material. The small silver reflective pieces appear to be small pieces of aluminum. What we don’t know is the level of contaminants smaller than can be seen with the eye down to some microscopic level (Microns) and what may be their composition metal, fiber, etc. Interesting the make up of the iron material on the magnet is mostly big pieces, long shards, of different shapes. The team has used magnetic drain plugs before and usually you will see a good amount of smudge of metal paste of very small particles almost a liquid attached to the magnet, but this in motors that have some mileage on them and between oil changes. You do not see that here, yet, and that could be just the low mileage between oil changes. The drain plug magnet did not get all the loose ferrous metal as we found a few shards in the bottom of the drain tub but no paste.

The team thought going on to a 500 mile change would be good but the curiosity is up so I think will see at 250

[Boatguy]

Question. Were these metal pieces, this metal dust, too small to be caught by the oil filter?

[China Rider 27]

This question tests the limits of the motorcycle mechanical knowledge of the team as we have never taken apart a CG motor to understand firsthand the workings so if we get this wrong anywhere you motorcycle mechanics out there can clean this up. The CG motor does not have an "oil filter" that one thinks of like a car which forces all oil through a media to trap particles.

There is a screen on the oil pump inlet within the oil sump that prevents large size particles from being sucked into the oil pump so some of these particles would be kept out of the oil pump and others small enough to pass through the screen. If not sucked up into the pressurized oil system they are still in the crankcase where they can still be thrown around in the workings. The second device is called an oil spinner or centrifugal oil filter that sits on the end of the crankshaft and I believe it is connected to the oil pump and as oil enters by force it slings the debris out to be trapped against the sides. The spinner does need to be cleaned so often and also the screen but the oil pump screen faces out so it does not trap particles, it prevents them from entering, think of a sewing thimble shaped screen facing out. To really get the debris out the oil has to be changed.

[Boatguy]

I see! For some reason I thought it was set up logically. I figured the “oil filter”, which is actually a screen, yes, would be before the pick up for the pump. So that all oil from the sump had to go through it to be picked up for pumping. I guess not. It would’ve been a better design that way.

May have to pick up the magnetic plug myself. Just to get some of that metal out of there. I didn’t see very much come out on my oil changes.

[China Rider 27]

To clarify some, again the team are no trained motorcycle mechanics, the oiling system has two parts a "splash" system and the pressurized by an oil pump system. The rotating mechanisms pick up oil from the sump and splash it in the case and the oil pump pressurizes oil to the crank and such and it is pumped up to the top of the head. So some of the debris in this oil may never make it to the oil pump inlet and just keeps getting tossed around.

This is a new engine being broken in so we expect there to be some metal and debris. Like you, I have not noticed much metal in the oil changes on my CG motors but maybe I just never looked hard enough for it. We also expect over time for the metal to decrease. The one test on the residue showed that the magnetic drain plug may not be perfect at catching metal but it is pretty good! One test does not prove it is always that good.

WARNING: Beware, the team highly recommends if you use a magnetic drain plug get one made of steel not aluminum. That yellow plug magnet you see in the above posts is a cheap aluminum drain plug that snapped off inside the case!

[TominMO]

Which magnetic steel drain plug do you recommend? What is the thread pitch and length? Thanks for the great work.

[China Rider 27]

This is the one used in the testing, appears well made and sturdy. The specs on size are in the description. Recommend you do not overtighten. We torque these to 13.6 NM or 10 ft lb but we also use some hylomar (Megadan's idea) for sealant that provides some extra holding power.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[TominMO]

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

This is the one used in the testing, appears well made and sturdy. The specs on size are in the description. Recommend you do not overtighten. We torque these to 13.6 NM or 10 ft lb but we also use some hylomar (Megadan's idea) for sealant that provides some extra holding power.

Just ordered, thanks!

I use wheel bearing grease on the threads as a sealant on every drain plug I own, since in essence it's just ridiculously thick oil. Never had a leak. Might provide some slight extra holding power too, but IDK.

[China Rider 27]

Got a weather break yesterday to get in a ride for an oil change at 254 miles. Ridetime total since last oil change 5.5 hours.

Metal magnetic. When I took it out I accidentally rubbed half of the flat end on my glove so it is missing a small portion mostly soup but it is a small amount.









Residue with a piece of hylomar sealant. Few pieces appears of aluminum of larger nature and small reflective material either aluminum or clutch friction disk.





Few pieces of magnetic metal from swirling the residue.





Discussion: Appears to be a reduction in metal shedding, less magnetic and non magnetic metal and any other debri. This sample taken after 145 miles of riding as compared to the other tests of the first 109 miles of operation. The team has to see what 500 will look like!

[J4Fun]

I think your doing a great job of explaining why the oil should be changed frequently when the bike is new! If it was like our cars and had a nice filter system, then not so much worry! My Snapper lawn mower is 15 plus years old and still works great, I believe because of the maintenance that was performed over the years….it doesn’t have an oil filter type system. Just thinking out loud…

[China Rider 27]

As the team was putting the bike back together to refill with oil one of the team members reminded me the team leader, we had not cleaned out the oil intake screen since we got this motor running! E—gads! We have been draining the oil from the drain plug. I said that means another post! Right. “You’re killing me with these post requests!” How do we get anything done, we spend half the time blogging about it!

Thinking about it, I would guess there are hundreds of bikes out there that have never had the oil intake screen removed so you can thank the team for this post.

The oil intake screen is behind the large chrome fitting with a six point nut head behind the shifter on the left side. There is the nut with a rubber O ring to seal, a screen, and a spring to keep the intake screen compressed against the engine. It uses a 24 mm socket size or wrench but a socket works best with an extension and you will have to lift the shifter up to turn it or remove the shifter completely. It is under pressure when you remove it so be ready. Checking and cleaning of these screens is needed from time to time but at least once during break in.

Screen sitting over intake after the nut and spring are removed.



Dirty screen and some on my finger after I touched it.




Close up of the screen with big pieces of aluminum stuck to it and something looks like cloth carpet residue.




Clean out.

[Boatguy]

That’s the “oil filter” I was talking about with you the other day. Surprised you forgot about it after talking about it.

I had smaller metallic sheen in the drain plug effluent. Nothing in this screen.

[ExMxer]

Love this thread.... What shift lever did you replace the stock one with? My new Xpect arrived yesterday, wanna replace the stocker. Thanks!

[China Rider 27]

Sorry I didn't see that til this morning. This one I used.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


It works real good but it sticks out seems a little too far. I was thinking of trying the IMS that fits on the HAWK but last time I looked they were like $40.

[ExMxer]

Good! I took a leap of faith and ordered that very one. Thanks for the reply