Post weekend ride photos...

[Regalman]

At least I got to work on my bike in the house again...

If I had to guess, I'd say the lower end bearing went south.

[Regalman]

Man, I thought for sure someone would give the oil king grief for having an oil related motor fatality.

[blt]

Ok...what kind of oil were you using??

How do you know its an Oil related failure??

[Regalman]

Amsoil 10w40... at this point it is simply speculation.

Earlier this month I did a street ride in southern OH. During the last day my motor got a bit louder. Not really a knock, but something was louder and it sounded like it was coming from the lower end.

I changed the oil and looked for metal. Nothing looked out of whack. The motor sounded normal idling until it warmed up a bit and then the sound came back.

I had a ride this weekend, thought about tearing the motor ahead of time, but decided to ride it anyways. I figured it would either stay the same or get worse or go bang. The noise got a bit louder so I decided to the pull the motor and investigate. When I dropped the oil the drain plug had a small flake (sliver) of metal on it.

Bike runs fine, if I put some earplugs in I wouldn't know anything was up with it. Sound certainly seems like its comign from the bottom end. I was really hoping it was stator bolts backing out, but I doubt thats the case.

On the plus side, all my freinds tried to convince me to sell it when it first started sounding funny, but I refused, I'd rather take a hit than sell known crap.

[06wrx]

I'll never run amsoil. I've seen what it's done to several engines(all of them went south....)

In the DRZ, its Silkolene only. In the WRX, its Pennzoil only. People can say what they want, but my dad has run trucks, and his cars(including high performance engines) on Pennzoil and never had a problem since he first started running it.

[MattB1969]

I thought amsoil was good for our bikes??? I just switched to it 1500 miles ago! Should I not use this brand??

Man I hope your bike isn't to severely damaged.

[Regalman]

Its way too early to speculate... I did however put a sample of the oil I dropped when the original damage occured. I planned to send it to blackstone today, but left it on the shelf in the garage this morning.

The oil had about 1,000 mile on it when it first started exhibiting signs of a problem... I planned to change it after the trip, looks like maybe i should have changed it before the trip.

[MattB1969]

Its way too early to speculate... I did however put a sample of the oil I dropped when the original damage occured. I planned to send it to blackstone today, but left it on the shelf in the garage this morning.

The oil had about 1,000 mile on it when it first started exhibiting signs of a problem... I planned to change it after the trip, looks like maybe i should have changed it before the trip.

Hmmm; I'm going to change my oil after work.....I'll use the Amsoil I have but will switch to a different brand possibly if this is a problem you had caused by the oil itself.

Keep us posted...

MB

[Regalman]

Honestly, it could be totally unrelated to oil. My mechanic freind has the motor, but he also has two new twins, so i'm not sure when he will get a chance to tear it down.

[drcool]

I hope it turns out ok. How many mile on your bike now Regal. My new DRZ is stacking up miles pretty good this summer. Liable to see 15 or 16,000 by the end of this season. We are contemplating teardown if for nothing more than inspect but it's a tossup whether it would be worth the time.

[ptgarcia]

The oil had about 1,000 mile on it when it first started exhibiting signs of a problem... I planned to change it after the trip, looks like maybe i should have changed it before the trip.

Its not likely it would have mattered.

[Regalman]

Just over 9 grand... but its had a rather hard life. Lots of street miles in the mountains where it was WFO the entire time trying to keep up. [My bro actually claims his Husky is what did it in, because it died when I was trying to keep up with him] When it wasn't on the street being abused it was in the dirt.

I hope to know more before too long... need to get parts ordered... or worst case, start parting it out.

[MesserSchmidt]

I'm way too messy when I work...there's no way I could tear down a bike in an area that small and not get anything on the carpet.

[Wayward Son]

15w50,really not kidding.

[MattB1969]

15w50,really not kidding.

Is this a better weight oil to use? I currently use Amsoil 10w40.......Or did I just miss something in the conversation?.....? Thanks Eddie!

[Metalhead201]

I have amazing results with the golden 4 blend from spectro 10w40. when I took my engine apart all the oil in the bike was still golden. no brown to be found. top end looked brand new at 8k. I always had good luck with spectro back on the 2 strokes so I figured I'd carry it on. I used the honda hp4 without moley on my CRF but I still prefered spectro. If someone knows something I don't please inform me.

[Regalman]

15w50,really not kidding.

I may have learned a hard lesson. I'd thought about moving to the higher grade but in MI we always end up doing stupid stuff in the cold weather.

I honestly never thought I'd have a problem using a quality 10-40... I guess the teardown will probably prove me wrong.

I plan to send in the bad sample... see what it says. Maybe it got a whole crapton of gas in it and dilluted the wizz out of it or something.

[Regalman]

I'm way too messy when I work...there's no way I could tear down a bike in an area that small and not get anything on the carpet.

I droped the oil, coolant, and removed the gastank outside... then rolled it in.

Had some oil come out when I took the oil lines off... but other than that it was pretty clean.

Plus, its a rental that will get tore down soon... so its really no skin off any butts if I were to make a mess.

[GOF1]

My wife was walking past when I opened this thread. She said, and I quote "Don't you EVEN f@#$ing think about it!"

Hope your damage isn't too serious.

[Wayward Son]

10w40 in the winter is fine.

its not winter.