"Da oily bird get's da woim"

[prometheus578]

Just thought I'd pass along an interesting experience.
Had a Kawa 1200 in the shop yesterday. Rattlin' and knockin'... we were afraid to keep it running. Lifters? cam? cam chain? wrist pins? Stethoscope indicated topend, but was makin' noise all over.
It was the other Mech's job, so I just stood around drinkin' coffee, offering puzzled looks and snide comments.
"Drain the oil and see what the metal chunks look like."
No chunks of anything.
Pulled the bodywork to get to the cam cover. Valve clearances ok, cam chain tight, even pulled the cam caps to check for damage. Nothing.
Put it back together, filled it back up with Kawasaki oil and fired it up again. Started to look for the noise once more. But the more the bike ran... the quieter it got. After about 5 minutes, it was purring like a kitten.
On a hunch, we called the owner.
"Why yes... I did just have it in another shop for an oil change."
That oil change just cost him an extra $150 for our labor.

Same thing occurred with me. Had let my truck's oil level get down, so dumped in two quarts I had laying around the shop. Lifters now rattle for a few when first starting.

Synthetic oils... evil, pure evil!

[RS Thornton]

Prometheus,

Was it low on oil, or that it was at the right level but the synthetic oil ran like crap?

I am constantly amazed by the marketing job that big oil has done with synthetics. They are a more pure oil stock and have a lot of benefits as long as they are not contaminated. But, after about 5 minutes in an internal combustion engine they are prettty much contaminated.

[prometheus578]

"I've got the runs"

Was it low on oil, or that it was at the right level but the synthetic oil ran like crap?

Oil level was fine... just ran like crap.
Triumphs take fully synthetic, Victory's take the synth blend, and good ol' Kawasaki's are designed fer regular earl. Yes, the technology didn't exist then(well, it did, but wasn't much in use), but I always run with what it was designed for.
Even different oil blends by different distributors can make an audible difference. And if it's audible... just what's going on inside... where it counts?
And don't everybody now gang up to beat me up on this one. I just report what I see. (and hear)