15w40 Rotella, $13 jugs at O'Reilly's

[Top Cat]

Originally Posted by VulcanJeff

88k miles is no joke. Curious, how often do you change it? My comment above about the fella who said his clutch seemed grabby with synthetic: what can you say about your experience?

I change the oil and filter at 5,000 miles.
As for the clutch, no grabbing except after sitting for 4 or 5 days then only at start up.
I did have the plates and spring changed at 60,000 miles. Just thought it was slipping a little but not bad. Had stock parts put in not the judges stuff as the stock lasted long enough in my mind.

Originally Posted by dshelly

Tim ? Maintenance ?

I do oil and filter, lube the rear gears in the wheel thingy, Check tire pressure before every ride. Everything else my mechanic takes care of.

Originally Posted by VulcanJeff

I'm betting there is an inside joke there that I'm not privy to hehe

These guys think my bikes are neglected because I don't get anal like they do with driveshaft lube, swingarm lube and shimming, checking every odd noise that shows up.
I leave my bikes mechanicly stock and don't have the problems they do when installing after market pipes, ECU's etc.

[dshelly]

Originally Posted by Rcbozo

Walmart has it for a slightly better price of $12.74 / Gal. it's not a 5 quart jug.
I have used Rotella T 15w-40 in all 5 ( 2-900's, 3-1700's) of mine and my wife's Kawasaki's totaling about 88,000 miles. It's always preformed well. They get changed every 5,000 miles.

Hey Rcbozo.... So you're from Napoleon huh? I was born and raised in Bryan. We used to play football against you guys in the 80's ...

[macmac]

Originally Posted by VulcanJeff

I'm betting there is an inside joke there that I'm not privy to hehe

Naw, it's that I have about had it with oil threads.

And I suspect my lifters make a lot less noise because I run a blend of oil, where the thickest is 10w-40, which assists in letting the hydraulic lifters fill better than they will with thick oil. I run Mobil 1 full syn oil and have since the first week I bought the bike in June 06.

[Ipack]

seeing this tread made me wonder ....so I did some reading . I use the 15w-40 and have no issues with it . Kaw blesses the 20w-50 down to like 40 degree f. I believe . some things I found reading ... 5w-40 is a 5w oil that will not thin beyond a straight weight 40 when hot . So in my mind the 5w-40 could be to light according to the owners manual . If one wanted to according to what Ive read mix oil as the viscosity's do mix .....so you could get some 15w-40 and cut it with a quart or to 5w-40 T6 and have something in between the 10w-15w in a synthetic blend , to me this sounds like a useable idea ....but I myself don't want to use the 5w-40 alone ....Kawasaki call for either 10w or 20w .....while I agree we most likely don't need the 20w in a water cold motor the 15w is a good mid fit point ....since diesel engine have many gears in the motors as our transmissions do I feel the 15w is a good thing ....as the gears do cause the oil to shear .....while I may try the 5w T6 and 15w T in a mix to get the benefits of the synthetic ....I believe I'll pass on the t6 as a stand alone .

[VulcanJeff]

I reluctantly started this thread knowing there would be mass groans and "here we go again" grumblings under everyone's breath :-) The Big V is a new machine to me and I had to ask. I appreciate everyone's response.

[Top Cat]

Originally Posted by VulcanJeff

I reluctantly started this thread knowing there would be mass groans and "here we go again" grumblings under everyone's breath :-) The Big V is a new machine to me and I had to ask. I appreciate everyone's response.

I don't see any grumbling.
I think we tried to answer your questions.
Some of us have a , shall we say, quirky sense of humor
Ask any question you want we will try our hardest to answer politely and not tell you to do a search like on some other forums.
Well, there is one guy who likes to tell people to do a search but he will go unnamed as he knows who he is.

[macmac]

Originally Posted by Top Cat

I don't see any grumbling.
I think we tried to answer your questions.
Some of us have a , shall we say, quirky sense of humor
Ask any question you want we will try our hardest to answer politely and not tell you to do a search like on some other forums.
Well, there is one guy who likes to tell people to do a search but he will go unnamed as he knows who he is.

These new guys have no idea I can kill the same beaver twice.

So far as I can tell my valve train is quiet, and I have a right side only Caddman. I get no huffing or clicking noises and never have. I think thinner oils libe better than thicker oils too. And since the Nomads are water cooled there is no need for thicker oil.

My pet peeve is that damned 'W' as in 10w-40 doesn't stand for weight. it stands for WINTER, and IMO 20w is closer to a bigger winter by 10 than 10.

The other day at the town dump I got a cool old wooden box. I plan to use it for powda, ram rods, mops, and worm rods for my cannon. The hinges were rusted real stiff, and so I lubed them with water

[Sparks500]

Originally Posted by macmac

These new guys have no idea I can kill the same beaver twice.

So far as I can tell my valve train is quiet, and I have a right side only Caddman. I get no huffing or clicking noises and never have. I think thinner oils libe better than thicker oils too. And since the Nomads are water cooled there is no need for thicker oil.

My pet peeve is that damned 'W' as in 10w-40 doesn't stand for weight. it stands for WINTER, and IMO 20w is closer to a bigger winter by 10 than 10.

The other day at the town dump I got a cool old wooden box. I plan to use it for powda, ram rods, mops, and worm rods for my cannon. The hinges were rusted real stiff, and so I lubed them with water

Was it a soap box?

[minst7877]

I have used the Rotella T-6 in mine since I got her. Have not noticed any issues with the clutch as long as I do regular changes 3000 -3500 miles. have had it get up to 4200 once due to a long unplanned trip and was starting to notice the clutch didn't feel quite the same. Got home and changed the oil and all was good. These bikes need regular changes due to the oil shearing action of the wet clutch.

DC

[VulcanJeff]

I ended up going with 10w40 Valvoline motorcycle oil. You know, the cool looking black bottle with the label purporting "kicks major asses if your bike has a wet clutch". Or however it is worded LOL!

Loves me, and I mean LOVES ME, an oil change. Oh how I love that restored sense of silky smoothness in all my machines whether they be 2 or 4 wheeled.

Clutch action is smoother than before, I might add. And in my opinion there was nothing to complain about prior to the oil change, not even the very last mile ridden prior to the oil change. So I dunno if what I'm experiencing is the benefit of fresh oil in general or if the Valvoline wet clutch additives are doing their thing. I think I could go so far as to swear that once fully engaged, the clutch seems to be locking up tighter. That's not to say it was slipping before but the bike seems to have a small detectable bit more oomph when accelerating briskly through the gears. When the throttle it twisted, the bike lunges forward with aplomb.

Ugh. Life without a centerstand is a little inconvenient. It worked out well though. I drained the oil out the pre-filter screen "cavity" or whatever the proper term is. Just for kicks, I pulled the main plug and sat on the bike upright to see if much/any would exit. Not much to speak of. It took 3 quarts exactly. The manual says 3.3qt w/filter. The filter I bought was a NAPA Gold #1365 that ended up being about 3/8" shorter than the factory Kaw filter. (not implying the shorter filter = 3/10ths less oil, just saying it is shorter).

Balancing the bike upright to check oil level isn't as difficult as I first thought. I've gotten pretty good at it. What a pain though.

[macmac]

The long filter is 1358. These are good filters and made by WIX. 51358 is the WIX number. These are longer than stock.

[roadhawg]

Originally Posted by VulcanJeff

I reluctantly started this thread knowing there would be mass groans and "here we go again" grumblings under everyone's breath :-) The Big V is a new machine to me and I had to ask. I appreciate everyone's response.

I know I am "weird" cause I do like oil threads! And tire treads too!

Have always used Rotella T6 and I have logged close to 160 k miles on my nomads.

[VulcanJeff]

Originally Posted by macmac

The long filter is 1358. These are good filters and made by WIX. 51358 is the WIX number. These are longer than stock.

Interesting. I will have to revisit the 1358 because I think the counter guy said they were the same length. I rattled off the 1365 from memory, having read it as someone's regular filter on their early Nomad. I was pretty sure it would work on my 05 1500 Classic but asked the guy to check by application. My bike called for the 58. He went and grabbed both and compared them visually. I don't remember him saying one was longer. Maybe he's smoking crack. Or I am. Or both us? The 65 was actually cheaper he said - probably by only a mere few centagos - but I said gimme dat six five please. And as I mentioned, the 65 is about 1/4 to 3/8" shorter than the Kawi filter I spun off.

[macmac]

The long filter won't fit if you have a goat belly, not that you do. The parts guy was right for the fit, since he will have no clue about a goat belly or not at NAPA. He is shoving over the counter what a book says.

WIX is rebranded for NAPA, check both numbers... Other than a pre fix 5 the numbers are a dead match.

The one filter I know to avoid is fram... I have had 2 turn inside out on my turbo volvo car and that's not fun with in 5 minutes of changing the filter. IMO total junk.