a few things i would like to pick ya'ls brains about

1st is using synthetic oil is it good or bad?
2nd is using seafoam on a motor that hasnt run in 10 yrs. I want to do this to make sure of no sludge or deposits. Mind you that the motor was put in and already riden for 40 miles with no hicups but a small amount of engine noise that i dont remember being on the old motor... this new motor only has 5400 miles on it as of right now so i want to run something through to clean it then put synthetic oil in.
THOUGHTS!?PLS

Nick

 

I'm no expert here. My understanding is the following:

Synthetic oil is great for newish engines with really good seals. I'm told it will have a fairly dramatic affect on such an engine. At the same time, I hear that it will cause leaks in an older engine that has not had synthetic in it before.

I've yeat to hear a bad thing about Sea Foam. I wish I coudl fidn some! Over at the Goldwing forum, guys just rave about it and judging by their use of it, it seems that it's almost never a bad idea to use it.

Greg

 

I switched to synthetic with no ill effects. Only good. Easier starts. More power. Better piece of mind.

Synthetic should be slightly thinner before it heats up, because they start with a thinner base. This is good for easier starting, therefore, better for your engine.

So, it is possible that it would be more likely to leak when cold. Mine did not. If it had, I would have fixed the leak, because switching to synthetic was more important to me than masking leaks.

 

Also, Amsoil recommended running an engine cleaner before switching. I did because mine sat for 5 years. I believe sludge is a good thing to get rid of!

I would believe that the cleaner would cause problems way before the synthetic would though. The cleaner thins your oil while it is in, and could cause rubber parts that are ready to go to go ahead and die.

If you are worried, look at the inside of your oil filter housing, was there any sludge in there? What about around your cams? I had a tiny bit, so I decided to go ahead and run the cleaner. No ill effects!

 

i no issue apparent when looking at the oil filter or surrounding metal housings did not pull the cam cover to check but will when i get home my run the seafoam just to be sure. how much should i put in the oil????

 

Geebake you should be able to get seafoam at advance auto parts, auto zone, carquest.
If you can't find it let me know and I'll get you some.

 

The only real and documented problems I know of are the wet clutch issues with friction modifiers that are added to the synths. I have heard of the seal leakage but haven't yet verified it. Mobil makes some synths that are especially blended for motorcycles. Amsoil is a very popular one and I haven't heard of bad things with it. These oils omit the modifiers. Some stories that the oil was changed to amsoil and then the bike ran bad. Change the oil and the engine runs smooth again. Not the oil to me but more like bad gas that cleared up at the same time the oil was switched back. Oil just doesn't affect engine performance unless the crankcase is over filled.
Mobil has some great info on their web site and there is always bobistheoilguy.com Great place for research.

 

Run about a half a can of seafoam through the crank case, about 5 mins. before the oil changs.

Also as far as synthetic goes: Synthetic will not make good seals leak! synthetic MIGHT however be the last straw that finally makes those old worn, cracked and barely sealing gaskets and seals start to leak. So if you suspect your bike is in poor shape, it might not make things a whole lot better when you have to replace all your gaskets because they were ont eh brink of being dead.

 

Some oils have molybdenum as a friction modifier and it's not a good idea for wet clutches. But as long as the API seal on the back of the oil bottle doesn't say 'energy conserving', you're OK. You'll find that designation only on the lower viscosity oils (5W/20, 5W/30...) as far as I've seen.