Regular oil changes, necessary or waste of money?

[flymo]

Originally Posted by Sideshow#36

As I say, I'd rather change the oil every meeting and filter every 2, than have to shell out for a new engine. (£600ish)

This was kind of the point I wanted to examine with the thread really SideShow. I wonder if there is any more risk of having to shell out for a new engine at all that would be reduced or elliminated by changing more often.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by embee

As a general guide, it's better to change oil before laying a bike up for winter rather than after, less risk of acids causing corrosion. I confess I don't always get round to it.

I never get round to laying bike up for winter either.

Originally Posted by flymo

This was kind of the point I wanted to examine with the thread really SideShow. I wonder if there is any more risk of having to shell out for a new engine at all that would be reduced or elliminated by changing more often.

Changing it more often is insurance. Every second race weekend is good interval, every weekend is even better.
Longer oil stays in engine more of particles from metal, clutch plates will collect and stick together. This stuff tends to stick to inside of engine and in worst cases turn in to chunks which can plug galleries and reduce oil flow. Which leads to failure.
Cleaner oil is better than dirty oil.

I suppose for a race bike, it is wise to reduce the service intervals. I would think max milage would be 2000 miles. I guess you are doing less than this anyway. Modern engine oil is good, and even in a race-prep'ed SV, the engine isnt a highly-tuned peice of kit. Using good fully synthetic oil from a known brand is the wisest idea. Maybe flush the engine first with very cheap oil before putting in the new stuff?

Gets me thinking, how many miles would an endurance racing bike do in a 24 hour race? That might be a good benchmark to go on.

RE: smell. My engine oil smells a bit disgusting, for a while it reminded me off a chemical called trimethylphosphite, so I used to get very nauseous. But i've forgotten what that smells like, so now I just go "eww" and get on with the job.

For what its worth (and in the context of this thread, probably not much) I change my engine oil every 6 months, or every 4500 miles (give or take a few hundred), which ever comes first. IIt works out I have an oil change either side of the coldest months of the year (so cotober, then april), which is nice.

Originally Posted by Alpinestarhero

Gets me thinking, how many miles would an endurance racing bike do in a 24 hour race? That might be a good benchmark to go on.

We did 1600 miles with sv. On same oil

Originally Posted by zadar

We did 1600 miles with sv. On same oil

So there you go, maybe this is a good maximum to go on

[jambo]

When Castrol were developing / showing off their current oils, they had 2 cbr600 engines running continuously on a bench (presumably attached to an engine dyno or similar to provide load), they had them following data logged laps of brands hatch set by Jeremy McWillams. For 20,000 miles.

Then they stripped them down to inspect them to check for wear. Both were, to my knowledge still running fine.

Now that's an extreme test to check an oil, and there was only ever 1 cold start in 20,000 miles, but it suggests that you can get away with more than one race meet per oil change. I don't know what interval I would use though.

Jambo

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

I never get round to laying bike up for winter either.

Isn't it better just to drain the oil if you're storing it?

[flymo]

Originally Posted by zadar

Changing it more often is insurance. Every second race weekend is good interval, every weekend is even better.

Is it though? It sounds like a good idea but then it might simply be a waste of time and money.

So far, I've only ever changed oil on my race bikes once a year and that seems to be adequate really bearing in mind that a season is typically from late March to early October (less than 9 months at very low mileage). I was wondering if there really was an advantage in using brand new clean oil every time or if it was simply over-caution.

Race bike is also dependent on the fuel used Kwak 600 using aviation fuel and fully synthetic engine oil on a seasons endurance racing[10 races of two man team, two bikes, 3hour races]Fifteen hours racing plus practice
No oil change and engine stripped over the winter resulting in no apparent wear and top end clean as a whistle.
Depends what you are doing with your bike,if you lay it up for six months winter,whether you change the oil before the lay up or after the lay up it is going to be subject to a minuscule amount of condensation which would normally be burnt off the first time you ride the bike-----------sorry don't comprehend that bit about condensation from the previous posts
As for changing oil,it will last a lot,lot longer if you use a higher grade/spec than the manufacturers recommend------i.e Fully synthetic as against semi-synthetic.
This can save money as the life and tolerance of the oil is not subjected to its maximum but I would still recommend the filter changes at the regular service
intervals

A questioned asked many times but everybody should send a sample for analysis and you would be surprised how much money is wasted in unnecessary oil changes