Before I change my oil...

I thought I would ask a noob question to the experts. I am about to do my first oil change on my air cooled 82 XJ 750J. I bought Mobil 1 fully synthetic 10 W 40. 3 quarts because I'm going to change the filter as well. I looked around town and no one had the 20 W 40 that Haynes specifies. I'm up in south east CT, where the summer temps are around the 80's so far this year. I definitly pleasure ride, and next week I plan on using it for daily commuting, so I'm putting some serious miles on it. So is fully synthetic 10 W 40 ok? Being fully synthetic, what milage interval do you guys recommend 'till the next change? And, can I change the oil with no center stand or jack? All I have is the kick stand right now.

Sorry for the book of questions, but I don't want to put myself in the hurt locker. I bought her for $900 and she's absolutely wonderful. Oh, and I definitely won't mess with that middle drain plug!!! I've read enough on that nasty thing. Thanks in advance!

 

Well, depends on how many miles are on it currently. If its a high mileage bike, dont use synthetic. It may cause leaks. Synthetic has great detergent qualities. That will clean deposits from the inside of seals and possibly cause leaks.

I like Castrol 20w-50 (non-energy conserving!) and change oil/filter at 1k miles.

 

This probably sounds like overkill -- but, if you are switching from dino-oil to full synth:

1. Buy 4 or 5 cheap oil filters
2. Buy enough oil for *3* changes
3. *DO* pull the middle plug to FULLY empty all the old oil out.

Do your first change.

After about 250 - 300 miles drain into a CLEAN container and change the filter, put the oil you drained out back in (plus a bit for the filter) -- don't worry about the middle plug.

At around 500 miles do another complete oil change. New oil, new filter, pull the middle plug.

At 1500 do the filter change thing again.

At 3000 complete change.

After that a complete change every 2000 - 3000 miles.

The reason for the frequent initial changes is that the full synth will flow better than the full dino-oil and it will clean crap out that you wouldn't believe was inside that block. It will carry more particulate matter through the system and it will also "give it up" to the filter easier.

No two motors will be the same. If it still looks really clean at the first filter change then go a little longer before the first full change and feel comfortable with pushing regular changes a bit farther than 3000 miles.

Full synth or full dino --- small, high-revving engines are HARD on oil. I'll be staying with dino oil and changing every 1500 - 2000 miles.

Gerald

Oh, and you do need a jack or center stand or *some* way to keep the bike vertical and level or tilted slightly forward of level. You'll never get the old oil out if the bike is leaning on a side stand.

Go spend $90 at Harbor Freight on an ATV jack ($60 or $70 if you catch it on sale).

 

Hold it!
It's Forum's Policy is to NOT recommend changing the Middle Gear Oil.

Attempting to withdraw the Middle Gear Drain Plug could fracture the Plug and cause a leak that will require many hours of hard labor to rectify.

Do NOT attempt to take-out the Middle Gear Drain Plug without understanding that that it IS NOT a hardened Drain Plug.
There is a long history of Members who did not heed the warning and were left to begin the long and tedious chore of doing the repairs.

The Draining of the Middle Gear is NOT mentioned in the Factory Workshop Manual as "Maintenance".

If you attempt to take-out the Middle Gear Drain Plug and DO fracture it you will cause your engine to leak.

To fix it you will have to "Clear the way" of every obstacle and possibly have to remove the engine to facilitate the repair.

Removal of the entire exhaust system will be absolutely necessary.
Eight rusted Exhaust Collar Nuts on warm-butter soft steel studs.
You might break one of those.

Fighting to get the Header Pipes out of the Exhaust Collector.
That could take hours all in itself!

Removal of the Collector and Silencers.
More rusted and frozen fasteners and clamps!

Nobody to help you do all this needless and thankless work but yourself.
Why?
Because you tried to change the Middle Gear Oil and Broke the Plug!

It ain't worth the aggravation!
It ain't worth the risk!

There's less than a half-cup of Oil in there and will change itself inside of 10-seconds after you start the engine with fresh oil in the Sump.

 

Mobil 1 10w-40 is great oil. I use it in both my bikes.

My Seca has a lot of miles on it and there are no leaks.

You don't need to go through any special steps to switch from regular oil to a synthetic, just change it like you normally would. phorce1 's method is overkill and unnecessary.

 

I stated that at the start. I've helped switch a couple of high mileage air cooled VW engines to full synthetic and my procedure is what was found to work best because the full synthetic REALLY cleans out the case. That's where the suggestions came from.

It may not be necessary on a motor barely half the size of the smallest VW motor.

And, Rick -- sorry, I missed the policy of not suggesting to change the middle gear oil. I haven't reached that stage on my bike so I haven't yet read of the pitfalls.

 

Thank you Rick O Matic! There is absolutely no need for the extra step/GREIF....

THe oil that remains will be "recycled" with the new oil.

Just change the oil and filter. No rain dance needed.

 

I thought we were supposed to stay away from synthetics (excluding those for bikes) due to the XJs having a wet clutch?

 

Yeah, me too...I KNOW we're supposed to stick to conventional oil because of the clutch, AUTOMOTIVE synth=bad, Auto conventional=fine as long as not "energy conserving."

 

Thanks everyone! I think for now I'm going to take back the mobil 1. They had some stuff there for 4 stroke bikes that specifically called out wet clutch protection. It was the conventional stuff, but that's ok. And I guess I'll go grab a jack before I get started. Thanks again, and I hope this helps other noobs approaching the same situation in the future.

 

Synthetic works fine with wet clutches.

Has long as it doesn't say "Energy Conserving" on the label, you're good.

Read this: http://www.xs11.com/stories/mcnoil94.htm

 

Double-check the ratings listed on the back of the bottle. It's probably got a JASO MA rating, which is what I'm told you want.

 

Great article. Although it was from 1994. I doubt that things have truly changed that much in 14 years, but who knows. She's got 23K on her. I went back and picked up some 20 W 50 petrol based. I'll try that this time, and maybe change over to synthetic next time. I'm a Mobil 1 guy for my cars, so I'll try it on the bike next time.