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Oil Change and owners manual

6K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  Kamilla10 
#1 ·
I Just bought a used Kawasaki z1000 2006 model 40, 000 kms the oil in the sight glass is black so I want to change the oil asap, I was wondering what the best oil and filter to use is and if I should use an oil flush before I drop the oil, and if anyone has any tips on dumping and refilling the cooling system, Also I was wondering if anyone can tell me the best site to download an owners manual for my bike would be. Any information would be much appreciated.
 
#2 ·
Welcome here.

My opinions- it is best to not do an engine oil flush, but it is a good idea to add some Startron or Seafoam cleaner to the fuel tank once in a while.

The best engine oil and oil filter - do a search here for what people previously posted about their choices.

Best site to download the service manual- Google is your friend, and you can often find a free download somewhere.
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#4 · (Edited)
Some more writing about oil, first from a Ducati forum in 2014- their air cooled engines with high compression often wear faster than most water cooled motorcycle engines:


“I have many used oil analyses (UOA's) that consistently show higher retained viscosity with Amsoil MCV at 100 C after 6,000-10,000 kms in service, than either MOTUL or Redline do when brand new straight out of the bottle. And the Amsoil stuff is comparable, or better in price.”


“Tried many oils throughout the years from well known oil brands like Shell, BP and Castrol to some less known like Kroon, Fuchs Silkolene, Motorex and Motul... Best results on a stock class Honda CBR600RR measured on a dyno came from the Motul 300V and secondly the Silkolene Race Pro! Both made almost 5% more rear wheel horsepower than the least performing oil... Same went for chain lube... Tried it all... Silkolene performed best!”


“Of the oils I've tried, the Motul got chewed up by the gearbox the fastest and lost viscocity (and hence some running pressure) much earlier than the others I used. My switch to Penrite was mainly as a result of that single issue and the fact that it has the highest VI of all the oils I can find data sheets for.”


“The Motul 300V is very similar to the Amsoil Dominator 15W50; neither are recommended for over 500-1000 mile oil change intervals. Pick the right oil for your application. Any dealer who recommends Motul 300V for the street is talking out of his A$$!”


“Try not to get too caught up in the thin oil mania that's also coming out of the USA (thanks to the distorted push from CAFE legislation to save fuel and keep city air cleaner).”



“I tore the old 748 down after 59,000 km:

The gearbox is fine, the cams are fine, the crank is fine, the rockers are fine, the oil pump was so good I put it straight in the 853 build as it was the best of the four others I had.

The valve guides are still so good they won't need replacing on its rebuild.
The main bearings and bigends had reached the end of their service life and in reality should have been refreshed long before that mileage on a hard ridden high revved 748, but as said before the crank had been well protected.

In short that engine had run all its life on Motul and Penrite and considering the absolute abuse that had been dealt out to it I was delighted with its condition.
I changed to Penrite from the Motul as I found it held viscosity better for longer which did matter at that time on an engine nearing the end of its big ends service life, and I have stuck with it on the new engine (In Australia).”



“When I took the bike to Jeff Nash in early 2000 for some tuning we talked about oil types. At the time Jeff wasn't a dealer, but had a shop where he did service work as well as built race engines for himself as well as customers from all over the country, he had the opportunity to see the internals of many race engines using Red Line and Motul as well as other brands. His recommendation was that I either continue to use Red Line or switch to Motul, but that he couldn't recommend any other brands.”



“There have been documented failures using the wrong oil, such as Motul 300V for the street and for using the factory recommended oil change interval. Leave all that racing stuff for the track! Motul 300V is great for the track, but not for factory oil change interval! For the street try the Motul 7100 if you want synthetic.”



“As 99.6% of us are street riders it doesn't make a difference what we pour in. Our engines have an easy life.

I worked in the bike biz for 13 years and have never seen an oil related engine failure. I've had engines apart that have failed and have used the crappiest cheapest dino oils. These air cooled engines (same guts as water cooled btw) were in bad shape. Overheated to the point that the oil was burned. Again, 90 percent of us have never experienced this.

When these engines were opened up the stink was so bad I had my guys take them outside to keep us from gagging. When the parts were cleaned from one of these cook jobs, I had to replace the five gallons of solution in the cleaner as it made you puke. That shows the amount of heat that these things were exposed to.

Rubber cam chain slippers and rollers as hard as granite, clutch plates de bonded from the steel plates, (takes over 450 degrees F to do that) rings broken into small segments, piston domes and ring lands melted. Cams that were overheated to a straw color which is around 700 F, O rings and oil seals that turned to powder and so on.

Guess what... The oil film held up. The trashed piston skirts were fine. The trans gears were fine. Cam and rockers were fine.

Nothing has changed with the engine guts in a bike in 35 years. Yeah the power output per litre has increased but the metallurgy is essentially the same. Cranks are medium carbon stuff and induction hardened on the bearings. Trans parts are typically 8620 carburized material that is hardened and tempered. Same with cams and rockers. It's the same stuff they used in 1946. Further design advancement has given us better working products while maintaining the same low cost materials in our production vehicles.

Diesel engines- same materials in them as our beloved motos, and same high compression. And these things go a million plus miles before they're worn out.

Diesel oils have more anti wear additives than today's crap which must be formulated with minimal wear additives (zddp) to not eff up catalytic converters.”



“Car oils have been proven to shear out of grade faster than bike oils or HDEO. Most car oils are now API SN which limits the critical anti-wear additive combo of Phosphorous and ZDDP to 700ppm, about half of that commonly found in most bike oils. High Temperature High Shear Viscosity (HTHS @ 150 C), or film strength, is also weaker in all API SN automotive oils than comparable weights of bike specific oils. Personally, I wouldn't even think about running an oil in our Ducs that has an HTHS below 4.0 mPas and many conventional oils are below this threshold.”



From longer posts at Motul 300V or Redline - Page 5 - Ducati.ms - The Ultimate Ducati Forum



My advice, based on testing oils for 13 years in a 2002 Honda Shadow VLX cruiser with a clunky transmission and a super light clutch, and also in my 2008 Kawasaki ZZR600 engine and clutch: Use about half Valvoline 20w-50 synthetic motorcycle oil for smoother shifting, and half Rotella T 15w-40 regular diesel oil for better clutch feel. Change them when you start to feel the shifting get worse, or by doing used oil testing to a lab like the oil nerds at the Bob is the Oil Guy Forum.
 
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