'03 Kawi Meanstreak 1500 - Rotella T6 -2000 mi

[va3ux]

First run with T6. Compared to other UOA from this engine, T6 results don't look much different. The short run (2K miles) was to keep consistent comparison with last year's UOA. Last year I was dumping and testing at 2K due to fuel dilution, which now seems to be fixed. As with other oils, T6 sheared to a 30 weight in relatively few miles. No TBN done because none of these oils will ever be in the engine long enough for TBN to be a concern.
Previous UOA are further down.

Code:


2003 Kawasaki Meanstreak 1500 (1500 V Twin)

38,500 km on engine (23,870 miles)

3,200 km on oil (2000 miles)



Shell Rotella T6 5W40



Analysis by Fluid Life, Brantford, Ontario

July 24, 2012





Sodium 1

Potassium 0

Silicon 10

Aluminum 5

Iron 19

Copper 8

Lead 2

Tin 0

Chromium 1

Calcium 995

Zinc 1230

Phosphorous 1070

Magnesium 983

Moly 55

Boron 58



Fuel < 0.6%

Cst@40C 70

Cst@100C 11.5

VI 159



Oxid.(A/cm) 1.96

Nitr.(A/cm) 5.47

Sulf.(A/cm) 0.1




And here are the UOA from the 2011 riding season :

Code:


2003 Kawasaki Meanstreak 1500 (1500 V Twin)

Shell Rotella T 15W40 in right hand column



Canadian Tire Motomaster Formula1 Premium Motorcycle oil in the first 2 columns (10W40 - made by Shell Canada)



Analysis by Fluid Life, Brantford, Ontario

August 10, 2011

Motomaster Motomaster Rotella T 15W40

1000 miles 2000 miles 1500 miles



Sodium 0 0 0

Potassium 0 0 4

Silicon 15 14 6

Aluminum 4 6 4

Iron 15 24 19

Copper 8 11 8

Lead 0 1 0

Tin 0 0 0

Chromium 0 0 0

Calcium 2073 2056 2213

Zinc 982 979 1141

Phosphorous 805 808 987

Magnesium 22 23 12

Moly 75 73 9

Boron 140 122 42



Fuel 1.44% 1.51% 2.16%

Cst@40C 80 77.6 90.4

Cst@100C 12.8 12.2 12.5

VI 159 155 134



Oxid.(A/cm) 1.38 2.18 6.05

Nitr.(A/cm) 2.91 4.32 4.89

Sulf.(A/cm) 0.1 2.70 1.93

 

[va3ux]

And current fill after the run of T6, is Motul 7100 10W40. Figured I would go all out a try real synthetic.

 

[sunruh]

well 5w40 is known to thin down to 30wt. at least in shared sumps.
from the history you can see that the 15w40 stayed in grade, yes at the bottom of the scale, but it is in grade.

your iron is in the range of the history.
your copper is in the range of the history.
the lead of 2 chromium of 1 is either scatter or ???

i wish your test showed flash.

all in all, i see no reason not to run the t6 5w40. it gave the same wear numbers as the other 3 in the history. it could be a good cool/cold weather option. however, at twice the price of 15w40 whitejug i see no reason to run this in the summer.

lets see how the more spendy motul fares. chew it up for 2k and do a uoa please!

btw, congrats on getting the fuel issue solved!

steve

 

[Sillicon]

I have been curious about the Motomaster Formula motorcycle oil for a while. I have always passed it by because I figured if Amsoil 10w-40 turns to water in my bike after 2000 miles, cheap dino wouldn't do any better. While it looks to me that the Zinc and Phosphorus levels are lower than Amsoil/Mobil1, which is to be expected, was the bike fairly quiet? The viscosity seemed ok, I mean, keeping up with T6 can't be bad can it?

 

[va3ux]

Originally Posted By: Sillicon
I have been curious about the Motomaster Formula motorcycle oil for a while. I have always passed it by because I figured if Amsoil 10w-40 turns to water in my bike after 2000 miles, cheap dino wouldn't do any better. While it looks to me that the Zinc and Phosphorus levels are lower than Amsoil/Mobil1, which is to be expected, was the bike fairly quiet? The viscosity seemed ok, I mean, keeping up with T6 can't be bad can it?


I couldn't tell any difference in the sound or feel of the engine/tranny with the Motomaster oil compared to anything else I've tried. No difference. The Vulcan V-twin engines are mechanically noisy anyway. But your evaluation is right - there isn't a heck of a lot of difference in the results between Motomaster and T6. A perfectly good oil for 1500 miles (2K miles max). Made by Shell Canada. I think it was on Sale for $3 a quart so I thought I'd give it a shot at that price.

 

[va3ux]

Originally Posted By: sunruh


lets see how the more spendy motul fares. chew it up for 2k and do a uoa please!

btw, congrats on getting the fuel issue solved!

steve


Thanks Steve. And I do plan on a UOA for the Motul 7100 at 2K miles. I won't dump it at 2K miles - I'll sample and wait for the results before deciding the next step. Another week or so I'll be sampling.

The fuel issue - I'm not truly sure what corrected it and I'd like to see one more UOA with no fuel before declaring it 'solved'. But I did do something that may have unexpectedly corrected it.

 

[sunruh]

so what did you do???

i want to know just to expand my knowledge. even if it is on a bike/motor/brand i will probably never ride. maybe it will help someone else.

steve

 

[va3ux]

Originally Posted By: sunruh
so what did you do???

i want to know just to expand my knowledge. even if it is on a bike/motor/brand i will probably never ride. maybe it will help someone else.

steve


This is hypothesis/conjecture, but certainly feasible.

I was troubleshooting the fuel dilution issue late last summer. Possible causes : 1)Rich fuel map 2) Inadequate crankcase ventilation 3) Excessive blowby (rings) (4) Leaky injector. I was able to reasonably rule out (1) & (2). (4) meant removing the injectors and sending them out for testing/cleaning and I didn't feel like doing that during riding season. So I focused on blow by/rings.

Compression tests showed the back cylinder down significantly. Figured I'd repeat the tests with oil added to each cylinder. I didn't have any regular oil in a handy oil can but I did have a can of fogging oil. I gave both cylinders a real healthy dose of fogging oil but then got called away and didn't get back to do my followup test for better than 24 hrs later. With the oil, the rear cylinder compression was up to snuff. So, rings could be an issue based on that observation. About a week later I repeated the compression tests (no oil this time) and the compression was suddenly fine in both cylinders. Repeated next day - hot and cold engine - same thing, compression was good. So what changed ? The only thing I could think of was a good flood of fogging oil sat in both cylinders for a day. I checked the MSDS and there indeed appears to be several components to this product that could also be present in penetrating oil, and may have acted as solvents for carbon/varnish. Did I inadvertently accomplish a ring soak/cleanup ? Maybe. I also applied Stabil fogging oil twice during storage this past winter. This year, I have normal compression in both cylinders, no excess fuel in the oil (for 1 UOA so far) and I just realized that I no longer have the persistent small accumulation of oil in the air cleaner where the crankcase vent hose terminates. And I always did before. It's bone dry and has been all season.

So my theory : dirty/stuck rings, cleaned by the solvency of a 24hr soak with fogging oil (which contains other things besides just light oil.)

 

[sunruh]

you seem to know exactly what all you did and in what timelines, so that all seems highly plausible.

i am curious what fogging oil you used?

another interesting point to discuss would be: if the rings where stuck and causing blowby and the dilution, WHY where they stuck in the first place?

steve

 

[va3ux]

The fogging oil was this :

Motomaster Fogging Oil

The MSDS for it is here :

MSDS

I think you'll see where my idea developed after you look at this. For this past winter I used STA-BIL Fogging Oil.

I'm the 5th owner of the bike and this is my 2nd full year with it, so I don't know the maintenance history. It was hardly ridden for the first 8 years of it's existence; it sat far more than it ran. So we can only speculate about the stuck rings (if that's what actually occured), and possible lack of maintenance.

 

[va3ux]

2K mile sample of Motul 7100 went into the lab today.