Royal Purple Syn., Change Intervals?

[wildbill84]

I bought some Royal Purple SAE 10W-30 today and I plan on making the switch tomorrow. I was using Pennzoil 10W-30.

My local AutoZone just started carrying the Royal Purple line.
I opened it up to see if it was really purple, and it is!
Kinda confused now.
How do I know when to change it now?
With reg. oil I just went by color.

Thanks for your help. -Wildbill

[earlwb]

I go by mileage or time (hours running).
I change about every 1,000 miles. Change the oil when the odometer is around a thousand mile increment and it is easy to know when to change it.
Color doesn't really work for knowing when to change the oil.

[90GTVert]

Royal Purple is a good oil, you should be able to stretch out your oil change intervals. In a car I'd say 5,000 miles if you wanted to. Since small engines use very little oil, I usually try and do it every 750-1,000 miles. Theother reason I like to change oil in these little motors often is that they don't have much of an oil filter, more or less just a screen. Even in a car I don't like going over 3,000 miles with any oil.

[scooterollie]

I agree with Earl and 90GTVert but would add one more thing - if you don't hit 1K miles/yr., change the oil once each year. Most of the Chinese scoots with Honda derived engines have an oil sump of less than 1 quart capacity. The engines work hard, turning 2-3X the RPMs of an auto engine and, since most are air cooled, can run quite hot at times. That's a lot of stress on .8L of oil. The Linhai water cooled engines have a 1.4 L. sump (don't know about their air cooled engines) which means that the oil isn't stressed quite as much in any given mileage.

[90GTVert]

scooterollie said:

I agree with Earl and 90GTVert but would add one more thing - if you don't hit 1K miles/yr., change the oil once each year.

True, but I should add that if you own a scooter and don't ride 1,000 miles a year... you should give it to someone who appreciates it.

[stewntexas]

'GIVE IT???' GIVE IT???

There is a position for you on the Democratic Party Platform Committee.

[Andi]

stewntexas said:

'GIVE IT???' GIVE IT???

There is a position for you on the Democratic Party Platform Committee.

Easy there partner, I'm sure he was making a joke.

Andi

[90GTVert]

Wow.

[wildbill84]

Thanks for the help.
I'll be changing it at 1000 miles.
I was reading another post on royal purple, and the member said his idle speed went up after making the switch to royal purple. He says it creates less friction, which is pretty cool.

[scooterollie]

Wildbill;
I take those claims of higher idle speed and more miles per gallon with a grain of salt. I have used synthetic oils in autos for a few decades and never experienced anything like that. My last two scoots were switched to synthetic at about 1K miles and I haven't really noticed any difference. The big claim to fame for synthetics is their greater resistance to heat related breakdown, allowing them to be used for longer change intervals. Because they maintain their lubricating abilities for longer periods of time, they also may result in less internal engine wear over time. However, when is the last time you heard of an engine that self-destructed because it was run on dino oil and not synthetic? Use any good quality oil, change it hot and change it often and you won't have an oil-related engine failure.

[wildbill84]

Here's the actual quote-

Not scientific, but when I switched from Mobil 1 to Royal Purple, both 10/40, my idle speed increased. I take that as a sign of less friction. Less friction means more power and longer life.
4/14/07

I didn't make the switch to Royal Purple syn. today, having seconds thoughts now.
If I make the switch, then I'll be paying $8 every time instead of under 3.
Aint that much of a difference, but i'm gonna think about it.
I got a while to. My oil in the scoot now is still pretty fresh.

[randy]

Horsepower TV did back to back dyno pulls on a engine with dino oil and then with Royal Purple. I think they picked up like 7~10 hp. and I forget the amount of torque they picked up over dino oil but it did increase also. My point being if you pick up hp. and torque just by changing oil you are reducing friction and thus lower operating temps. and less wear on the machine. The increases in hp. and torque on a scoot engine would probably be minimal but the other advantages would be well worth it.

[wildbill84]

Yeah, you're right.
Thinking it over, that's $8 every 800miles, its not a real long time, but considering how much it costs to change a car's oil & oil filter; $8 aint bad at all.
Guess I was in my right mind after all when i bought the quart of Royal Purple. :-)

[scooterollie]

Wildbill;
The additional $ once/thousand miles or once/year is not a budget buster. If it makes you feel better, use it! No question, synthetic oils are great oils.

Yes, there are HP gains with synthetic oil but those are mostly attributed to the smaller, more consistent molecule size and generally lower viscosity of synthetic oils. Even with the same viscosity rating for both oil types, the synthetic oil will flow better/faster at low temp. because of molecular differences.

Here is a quote from another source on oils:
"Advantages of Synthetic Oil
Synthetic oil was originally developed for high performance racing engines. Mobil tried to popularize synthetic oil for passenger vehicles back in the early 1970's. At the time, Mobil was promoting 20K or 25K oil changes with synthetic, but they soon backed down from this. Synthetic oil is a good choice if you have a vehicle with a high performance engine (in fact synthetic is required for many of these engines). It is also a good choice if your vehicle is operated in extremely cold climates. It has higher resistance to breakdown caused by heat and it flows better in extreme cold. Unfortunately for the synthetic oil industry there is virtually no advantage to using synthetic oil in a non-high performance engine that is operated in moderate climates. You probably could go a bit longer between oil changes with a synthetic, i.e. following the normal service schedule even if you fall into the severe service category, but I wouldn't advise this. In short, synthetic may give you the peace of mind of knowing that you are using an oil that is far better than necessary for your vehicle, but it won't reduce wear or extend the life of the engine. The mistake some people make it to wrongly extrapolate these benefits onto normal engines operated in mild climates, with the ultimate lack of any knowledge being manifested with statements such as "synthetics provide 'Peace of Mind,' or 'Cheap Insurance,'" or other such nonsense."

Here is the link to that site: www.nordicgroup.us/oil.htm

[slowscootin07]

I've had my 91 Mustang since day one from the dealer and have used nothing but good ole 5w30 dino oil since then. I change it every 3000 miles whether it looks clean or not. Maybe that's why I have 289,000 miles on the original engine

Don't monkey around with the "blood" of any internal combustion engine and change it regularly as the above Dawgs have stated. Oh and I've never heard of an engine going bad because you change the oil too often. Not changing it often enough is a whole different story.

Heya 90GTVert are you on Stangnet too under this name??? Bluestang2.3 here:)

[90GTVert]

slowscootin07 said:

Heya 90GTVert are you on Stangnet too under this name??? Bluestang2.3 here:)

StangNet and the Corral, as well as others. Glad to see another 'Stang owner here.

[natefromogden]

800 miles is way early to be accomplishing oil changes, dino oil or synthetic, even for our air-cooled scooters. Do a little research and see what manufacturer recomendations are for a small air-cooled dirt bike, and remember, our scoots have forced air cooling not just fins radiating off heat.

I'll bet you find out that you can stretch that $8 bottle out to 3 X that 800 miles safely.

[rerun2]

Well, I don't use synthetics, and I don't really care about 'recommended' oil changes... I change the oil in my cars at 3000 miles, the book says 10-15,000. (Lexus), and I change oil in my scooter at 1000 miles, or earlier. That is MY peace of mind. As stated earlier, there has never been an engine failure due to frequent oil changes, and the lack of any meaningful oil filtration on the scooter just makes me change out the oil to remove particulates even if the oil is still keeping all its properties. For me it is just doing the right thing by my machine, I take care of it, it will take care of me.

;D

[randy]

Rerun,I think you are right on the money with your maintainece on your Lexus. I have seen and read about Toyota and Lexus with oil sludge problems and I am under the belief that if the owners would have changed oil at the 3000~3500 miles they would not have all this grief. We pulled apart a Lexus RS 400 and it had enough metal in the oil pan to make 4 or 5 GY6 engine blocks.

[YellowScooter]

I change mine every payday which runs every 2weeks. I run it pretty hard, so I feel it's the least I can do. Heck it's only a quart for both the engine and the rear diff with some left over at the bottom of the bottle. I use the castrol 5/30 thats on tap at work.

[slowscootin07]

800 miles is way early to be accomplishing oil changes, dino oil or synthetic, even for our air-cooled scooters.

natefromogden, I don't understand? Do you mean don't switch to synthetic until you reach 1000 miles on a new scoot? That much I know, but are you saying never change it before 800?

This may go off into a cage tangent comparison, but bear with me since it's all about the oil, filtration and the capacity of it.

Example 1) My car holds 6 quarts dino. Changing the oil at 3000 miles means effectively that I use 2 quarts per 1000 miles. But wait. This is a 2300 cc motor. I've serviced Corollas and such with the same size motor that take 3 maybe 4 quarts. That means they use 1 quart per 1000 miles.

Comparing my car to the Corolla means my oil should be cleaner
that it's oil at a 2:1 ratio of sorts. I know for a fact that my oil filter is about 3 times larger than any Toyota or Lexus. I couldn't even tell you the filtering ratios so I won't go there.

PS for Lexus owners. You can do 6000 miles with the oil as long as you change the filter at 3000. Your filter is puny and is a major contributor to the sludge issues.

Example 2) I have a customer that comes in every 9 months for his oil change. It's a higher end Mercedes and holds almost 10 quarts. his manual says change it every 10K. Since it uses synthetic it should last 5K, however at double the normal capacity 10K could be doable at about 1 quart "dirtied" per 1000 miles.

Example 3) Our tow truck which is a F450 Diesel uses 15 quarts at 5000 mile intervals. Basically it "uses" 3 quarts per 1000 miles and it is horribly filthy at 5K.

Now here's what to take into consideration. All of the above examples have true oil filters and "dirty" 1-3 quarts per 1000 miles. Now let's look at a GY6. It holds less than a quart of oil, really doesn't have a filter per se and works a whole hell of a lot harder than it's 4 wheeled larger capacity counterparts. If using the above formulas, then a GY6 uses less than a quart per 1000 miles with no real filtration. I'm sorry fellow Dawgs and Dawgettes, that makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

I'll be purchasing a Peg very soon and after it is broken in, I'll be switching to Syn and changing it every 700 miles at most.

Perhaps I've missed something, perhaps not. Feel free to enlighten me if so

[wildbill84]

I usually change my pennzoil 10W-30 @ 800-900(k/m?) on the odometer which is really approx. 525miles; more or less depending on how accurate my odo. really is.
It's lost plenty enough color at this point to require changing.

[earlwb]

slowscootin07,
automobiles and trucks have real oil filters that work pretty good. Our little scooter engines don't have oil filters (that wire screen is only for big chunks of stuff). The air cooled engines are even harder on oil than the water cooled engines.
A little scooter engine typically cruises at around 7,000 to 8,000 rpm or so as well. A automobile engine cruises at around 2,000 rpm or so.
Thus the little scooter engines are really hard and abusive towards lubricating oils.

I change my scooter engine oil at about every 1,000 miles, give or take a little, as I do it on the weekends or holidays. In the heat of the summer changing the engine oil, maybe, every 600 miles or so would be wise too.

[scooterollie]

Exactly! Less than 1 quart of oil in an engine that cruises at 3X the RPMs of an auto means that oil is subject to a good bit of stress and contamination. Only makes sense to change more frequently in this type of vehicle.

[wildbill84]

I was reading the labeling on my Quart of 10W-30 Royal Purple and it says 'energy conserving'
I have red other posts stating if your oil says this, that it's not good for Gy6 motors.
Is Synthetic oil an exception, with the 'energy conserving' thing? Thanks

[wildbill84]

[vinorider]

Here is a good link for all you want to know about motor oil. www.nordicgroup.us/oil.htm#Which%20Oil%20to%20Use