Bank Holiday Burgman DIY Weekend

[Data]

Just out of interest I took a peek at my own air filter the other day. Seeing halfabusa's filter was a real eye opener, appearing much dirtier that either of us expected for a filter that had covered just 3700 miles or thereabouts.

So here is mine with 4300 miles on it:

Air filter reduced.JPG

I gave it a quick hoover after instructions from Mrs Data that it was unacceptable to allow the filter to be dirty. She hoovered the house every other day so I should do the same to the filter, apparently!

And to compare, here's halfbusa's again:

Halfabusa's filter.jpg

Quite a difference. But it's due to our different riding area's. Halfabusa rides into London each day. I lead a charmed life here in North Essex where the air is full of butterflies, sweet smelling nectar, and GT85 instead of heavy traffic fumes!

Anyway...Suzuki recommend replacement early if used in a dirty environment, so do other manufacturers so beware!

[halfabusa]

That filter looks pretty clean compared to mine! But as you said, you're living the high life there with cleaner air all around. Good on Mrs. Data to tell you off! That'll teach you to hoover around the bike more often

I think the other contributory factor to mine being so dirty was the oil that got clogged up in the air filter as we saw that day, and i recall you giving me a technically detailed information about how a clogged CVT filter would eventually result in oil being sucked out into the air filter and cause this mess as well as sticking a lot more dirt in the end (can't remember the specific details as i was high on GT85 at that point)

So apart from London traffic (+ Blackwall-Cancer Tunnel) the CVT filter needs frequent attention.

That would also explain the top ups i had to do for the engine oil...

[Data]

Hi halfabusa, yes it's not too bad is it compared to yours. I think I didn't make my point too clear about the cvt filter clogging up. When that happens it increases pumping loses at high revs particularly. It does not directly cause the air filter to clog more. However, the oil in the air filter is normal. The crankcase breather directly vents into the air box with combustion bypass fumes which always contain some oil vapour. The oil vapour deposits oil on the filter over time. It's done this way to clean up the emissions and recycle unburned hydrocarbons. That's why it's difficult to wash a paper air filter because of the oil, and if you do it generally damages the paper in the filter and reduced the size of the pores where the air gets through. In effect depending how wet your paper filter gets, it generally doesn't do them any good and has a similar effect to running a dirty air filter. Best to replace it really.

Your oil consumption was probably down to the engine running a bit rich due to the blocked air filter and your wide open throttle approach to London traffic! Keep an eye on the oil level. If it still uses some switch to fully synthetic 10/40 oil and it will probably stop using any oil at all.

How's she going this week?

[halfabusa]

I see, so oil on air filter to a level is normal then... I think coming from a tmax i expect high speeds from the poor burgman on open stretches and therefore push it to high revs frequently, which may have contributed to the oil build up as well as polluted air generally. My oil change time will be soon, i'll get some fully synthetic oil for the next change to be on the safe side. I used Motul Scooter Expert last time, is there any other brand i can try that you would recommend? (something good quality but not unnecessarily expensive)

[poldark]

I'm sure Data will confirm but you can get car fully synth as there's no integrated wet clutch on the scoot, saves some dosh I think.

Asda are decent price, I was lucky to get some Halfords branded when they had the £10 deal a while back, but this one is only £4 a litre.

5W40 fully synth

Checking Halfords they've 20% off some options, so this might be worth a look, £6 a litre.

5W50 fully synth

[Data]

Yeah...but high revs on these Burgmans is ok. They go like a train. Just keep the filters clean, use good motorcycle oil (it's better at high revs than car oil we found) and you'll be fine...it's well up to the job. I doubt you'll murder it! I'm often cruising at 7k or above. Having said that mine doesn't use any detectable amount of oil now. It did use some until around the 3000 mile mark but since then virtually nothing even when ridden quite hard for long periods. I guess the engine has conformed to the stage it just doesn't use any. I use 'Putoline' 10/40 semi synthetic motorcycle oil. I'll be switching to fully synthetic after 6k. Putoline make a fantastic 10/50 Fully Synthetic which is the one I will go for when I make the change to fully syn. It's not expensive either. It's interesting too that different oil brands can affect how much oil your engine uses. I've heard that Motul semi is often 'drunk' in large quantities by some engines but those same engines often don't use oil at all when switched to another brand. My own local dealer stopped selling Motul for that very reason and took on Putoline instead. Motul is a good brand but there is something different about it's makeup for some of it's oils. It's ester based I believe, but contrary to popular belief I'm not an absolute oil eggspurt so if someone out there knows more about it then do chime in.

Little Edit: Poldark (hello mate!) is correct of course. You can buy some good stuff in the car line and with our dry clutches there is no problem in that area. But the thing we found was that mostly the fully syn is 5/40 and it didn't protect quite so well at the prolonged higher revs that motorcycle engines reach (compared to the average car engine). This was based on bench testing on several engines. Motorcycle/scooter engines of our size run at high revs/power settings for much longer than cars and temperatures can reach near critcal levels. If you go for car oil at least go for a 10/40. But the motorcycle stuff is cheap enough as you don't need much of it.

[poldark]

OK, so are we saying that it's not just wet clutch compatibility (JASO MA) that differentiates car & bike oil, that there's other characteristic benefits?

I've seen many forum posts from people using car oils, I've just swapped out the SH125 oil for the fully synth Halfords oil, not that I'd claim it has a high-revving performance motor!

[Data]

Yes, that right Poldark. I used car oil in my GSX1400, a semi and that was wet clutch too. I had zero problems. I used it because the GSX1400 is a low revving engine and spent most of it's life at 2500-3500rpm and you'd be doing 80mph or more! Peak revs were 6800rpm so fairly car like. I used an oil called 'Eurolite' 10/40 semi. The bike covered big miles too. But these scooters engines deserve a motorcycle oil really since they have molecular chain structures that don't mash up so quickly at high revs helping the oil to stay longer in spec, and also have more friction modifiers in them to help them run cooler at high revs and reduce wear. By the way, I learned all this last year during testing from the oil boffins. Those guys know their stuff.

[poldark]

Interesting, I did treat the SH to a dose of Activ8 a while back, so overall I think I'll be OK.

[halfabusa]

Hmm, strange stuff about motul. I found a good price on opie oils for shell, so i ordered a couple of 1L bottles from there. They have a 20% discount code on their main page so it comes to just under £20 inc shipping which is good price i guess...

Here's the one i ordered: http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-69341-shell ... e-oil.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

While on the topic, do you guys change the oil filter with every oil change? I tend to do that on the bikes as they don't cost much and the cleaner the better right?

(Btw, i unashamedly used castrol car oil on the tmax with wet clutch and had no issues either even after two oil changes - asda had a tempting discount on the oil )