Thoughts On A Cold Oil Change.

I think you're missing the point. The fact is that most bearing and component wear does takes place on startup, it's not "meaningless". The fact that actual starting (cranking) time is far less than actual running time is completely irrelevant. Yes, many very large engines have a pre-lube system installed and this is purely to extend engine life, when repeated stop/starts (especially cold starts) are unavoidable during operation. This is important when you can't drop the engine out and strip in an afternoon like you can with a bike engine and where the cost of a rebuild could potentially write off the engine/machine. So which engine fares better, both engines serviced as per schedule. A 10 yr old engine with 10k miles of short commute type runs, barely getting warm and hundreds of cold starts or a 3 yr old engine with 100k miles of long distance motorway runs with only a fraction of the cold startup time?

 

I was far from being pedantic. I highlighted your statement as I was addressing your very assertation about engine wear and not other items of your post. Your response might of been better either rebutting my assertion with facts or considering its merits. Had you proven your point with fact I would of held my hand up and said "I stand corrected". But you chose to take offense instead.

 

You are rather changing the criteria here and your choice but I will go along with it.

I have a 1995 Daytona 1200, If I need a replacement engine sometime I'll take the one with least mileage thanks.

 

Not offense its just the way your choosing to take it, In the same way you chose to take one aspect of my comment and center on that rather than the context of the whole point and i was just being being rather factitious because you chose to justify your "meaningless" comment based on this, rather than what i actually stated
"Considering most engine bearing surface wear takes place during startup having no oil pressure for that first start you do when voiding the pump of all oil despite oil residue being present would likely create more accelerated wear."

IE for clarification. startup is when in comparison most accelerated engine wear takes place and cold starts in particular and adding the fact that it was compounded by the absence of oil pressure, so we will have to agree to disagree as i have no interest in playing the i know better game.

 

I add swarf to my oil cos then I don't need to put so much in. Saved £'s in oil. (Got quite a few engines to recon though)

 

I take no offense at all, I'm pretty chilled about the whole thing. You have your stance and that is that.

 

I don't know if you are doing a wind up, as I find it hard to judge on t'internet, so treat my reply with that in mind... but... I've been using that exact stuff for quite a few years in my trophy, although the packaging kept changing over the years. It seems reasonable to me and is a good price, however I've decided to go to mobil 1 15w50 racing 4T this year. The reason being I left the oil in for a couple of years because I did bugger all mileage in one year and thought I'm not chucking out good oil for 200 miles use... bad mistake, that oil looked and smelt badly degraded. Whereas every yearly change before that it looked like brand new oil.... my mistake, not the oil, I should not have done that. Plus I find the engine is running the fan after stopping for a few minutes which I just don't remember being normal (I've done a coolant flush with 2 lots of distilled water etc). So I checked my original owners manual and they specifically mentioned mobil's 15w50 synthetic or their 10w40 semi synthetic. It might make bugger all difference but for an extra tenner I was prepared to try it.
I'd still be happy to go back to shell though if I don't notice a difference with mobil .

 

Good to hear I'm not the only one... it felt like a bit of a confession that you'd normally only speak about in hushed tones... Hi my name is Wattie and I didn't change the oil on schedule......
Don't know why mine was so bad though. Anyway it's due for the annual change in Oct so I'll find out soon if it's back to it's normal state.
Actually typing all this has made me think and it was the year that the bike was running poorly after a winter layup. Bad fuel was diagnosed as the cause so new fuel and fuel cleaner was run through it which cured it after a few hundred miles. It was popping and stuttering at low rpm so that may have not helped. In hindsight maybe I should have changed the oil after this rather than running it all summer and changing in the autumn....

 

I've used the 10/40 shell AX7 semi synth stuff for years in the Z, it used to be called Advance VSX. It not only meets but exceeds the bike manufacturers specs which is the important thing. I did try the fully synth once but observed no difference so I couldn't see the point in paying extra for it. At 8 years old and around 35k on the clock the Z runs as sweet as the day I got it and that's a high revving 4cyl motor kicking out 200+bhp, not a classic twin with classic performance. When "bike" oils first became available the car vs bike oil debate arose from the fact that (most) bikes have an integral gearbox which makes more demands on an oil due to the shearing effect of the meshing gears. Having said that a friend of mine ran his CB900F Honda almost exclusively on Unipart 10/40 car oil for the time he had it, some 45k miles and never had a single issue with it so go figure. Bike specific oils can now be had quite cheaply if you shop around so why not use them.

 

My name is Dick and I also used to run the Shell Helix 10w40 semi synth in all my cars IE high HP very modified and never had a problem i rate it as one of the best oils going way exceeds the recommended spec of the original recommended oil and some motors where giving double the std BHP...had it analyzed after 3K once and it was virtually contaminate free maybe the oil or just a good motor.

 

I can't get too exercised about oil, I'm happy with this stuff for the old bird

I'll get me coat..........

 

Like I've said before, it"s the specs on the can that's important, not the badge. Obviously Halfords don"t make their own oil. Some years ago it was Mobil but not sure who makes it now.
I've used Halfords brand in the car, 4.2L turbo diesel with no issues and diesels are harder on oil than petrol engines.

 

Yeah but down my way shell works out cheaper than halfords and gets delivered to my door.

 

I feel the debate was sidetracked somewhat. The original argument for cranking the bike without oil was to extract every last drop of the old stuff. Notwithstanding how much damage this may or may not cause, it’s a pointless exercise in the first place!!