Kawasaki Ninja Forum banner

Oil Question! Time sensitive

6K views 15 replies 10 participants last post by  computerguy400R 
#1 · (Edited)
No ladies and gents, this is not "what do I do with my old oil?" or anything like that. I do know how to use the search tab up top and google!

I actually happen to be lucky enough to run into some Royal Purple 5W30 oil, my engineering senior design project was redesigning the crankshaft rotation path in the standard combustion engine. Now that the project is reaching an end, I was offered some of the oil as we received it for free. Being a broke college student, I will accept anything for free so I was like "hellz yeah!!" (mods, if that word is unacceptable, I will gladly take it out, I was just really excited) :dance:

Anywho.. My first question was can this go in my bike?! I did some research but it seems everyone uses 10Wxx. I know the first weight represents the viscosity when cold and I'm curious as to whether or not a lighter viscosity at colder temps would be a bad thing. My thoughts are that it would only help, but I'm an electrical engineer, so it's not something I'm confident about.

Does anyone have any experience or know whether or not 5W30 oil would be beneficial in any way to a 09 Ninja 250R? If not, would anyone be interested if I opted to try and report back the general feel? I don't have the access, time or money to for dyno testing but I can at least report how the bike feels!

Thanks for any help or advice and ride safe!:thumb:
-Chris

Edit: I should say that I have not been given the oil yet, I have until noon tomorrow to grab some. That's why it is time sensitive! sorry about that!

Edit #2: I did more searching using different variations of 5W30, I found another thread in the forum referring to 5W-30 that talked about the numbers being the degrees in celsius. I don't ride below 5 celsius, however, I do ride above 30 celsius. Does anyone know how sensitive these numbers are? Would it be dangerous to ride regardless of the upper limit?

I believe it was spooph who posted the original information, so thanks to him for the indirect help!
 
See less See more
#3 ·
Thanks for the response, I think I'm gonna grab as much as I can.

That's the American dream right?
lol I'm not sure about the exact details of the American dream, BUT it should definitely include free oil if that's not in there! In my defense, we did a lot of work for our customer without pay. Actually, I paid tuition to be a part of this project that most companies charge thousands for just the services that were included!
 
#6 ·
Not sure on the Ninja 250... think you would need to do something like another member did on here. He got some HDD magnets and stuck them on the clutch case. The DR650SE I'm hoping to pick up next week, you can buy after market sump plus and a small ring shaped magnet that sits in the oil filter to grab bits.



Felix







 
#7 ·
Cmorin, is the oil specific for motorbikes? Remember that the engine oil on our bike is shared with the gearbox, so normal car oil is not always good for bikes. I'm not familiar with Royal Purple except its polish products, so I am not sure how good or bad it is, just double check before taking the plunge. Using the wrong oil could possibly void your warranty.
 
#9 ·
Here's the site listing for the oil.
Royal Purple XPR Racing Oil

The oil that I was offered is the pictured bottle.

"XPR 5W30 works well in a variety of applications from oval track late models to bracket racing. It is extremely versatile and produces excellent horsepower while preventing wear."

I am pretty sure it was intended for use in a car, however we used it in a 10HP Briggs&Stratton Model 20. I intend to change my oil more often than every 3k miles, I want to keep this bike rolling as long as possible, So I think I'm gonna give it a shot and report back on the feel!
 
#10 ·
Here's the site listing for the oil.
Royal Purple XPR Racing Oil

The oil that I was offered is the pictured bottle.

"XPR 5W30 works well in a variety of applications from oval track late models to bracket racing. It is extremely versatile and produces excellent horsepower while preventing wear."

I am pretty sure it was intended for use in a car, however we used it in a 10HP Briggs&Stratton Model 20. I intend to change my oil more often than every 3k miles, I want to keep this bike rolling as long as possible, So I think I'm gonna give it a shot and report back on the feel!
The XPR 5W30 is Racing Oil. Royal Purple does make motorcycle oil, but this ain't it. This one appears to be multipurpose, so it must meet motorcycle standards somehow. Royal Purple Synthetic Oil Recommendation Chart A few free quarts, if it doesn't work well, you lost nothing. Another lessen learned.
Yes you can use car oil in a lawn mower because it does not have a wet clutch or tranny.
 
#11 ·
I didn't even see that part of the website, good find. It looks like this exact oil is recommended for endurance high performance road racing. I don't do too much racing on the roads around here but I do ride aggressively considering the drivers on these roads, so I think I should benefit.
 
#15 ·
So you have a batch of good unknown synthetic engine oil.Put it in a Car Oil container and it's a car oil.Put it in a Motorcycle oil container and it's a motorcycle oil.
It's not that much difference.
There's plenty of differences between auto and cycle oils.

A diesel oil like Rotella or Delvac is closer to a cycle oil and is safe to use. A regular auto oil is not safe to use in most cycles.

Eventual clutch sipping is a possibility with auto oils because of Friction Modifiers, but the more important issue is low levels of Zinc and Phosphorus (in current auto oils). Cycles need higher levels of Zinc and Phosphorus to protect the cams and rockers from galling.

Diesel oils and motorcycle oils have safe levels of Zinc and Phosphorus, auto oils don't.


Jay
 
#14 ·
Well listen Chris,I KNOW my answer to this,is FAR PAST when You originally ASKED IT,but from MY knowledge and personal experience in dealing with sportbike-engines,it IS IMPERATIVE that You HAVE to use an oil specifically DESIGNED for motorcycles!!! Kawasaki's all use a "wet" sump clutch that SHARES the oil that lubricates it,with the Engine!! So UNLIKE an "engine-oil" that ONLY flows through the engine-internals ALONE,in a Kawasaki-engine,the oil ALSO passes through the clutch-assembly and through all the transmission-gears which of course,adds all the HEAT and STRESS from those,TO the oil as well!! So motorcycle oil contains extra "ingredients" in it,to help support all that extra-heat and wear from being shared with the everything in the tranny and clutch-assembly!! Hope this helps!! Ride-safe!! ';]
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top