Z1OwnersClub GB

I know a lot of you guys swear by the old GTX but why is this is this so good when its basically an engine oil not gearbox oil., Hence this is why they developed a specific oil for motorbikes.

GTX does well in Zeds as they're overenginered, it's not a bad oil but 30 years later whole motorcycling looks a bit different and revs nearly twice as much, no modern sports bike would last a day on GTX I'd say, I personally use Rock OilTRM but that's mostly personal prefference apart that the bike sems to burn less than on other oils, GTX must have sentimental value for some bikers, as said old Zed is so good it would run on fish and chips oil possibly, as to the motorcycle oil additives to help clutches I don't know, I used to run an old Yamaha back in the '80s on GTX car oil only and never suffered a slip

The Z transmission was also over engineered, compare the massive wide gears with those from more modern gears in the later transmissions, the Z gears are twice the width. Many of the oils intended for cars where never designed to be used in a gearbox. The oil you choose should be one that has passed well in gear performance tests, after all the transmission is probably the most expensive part of the engine to reclaim because of a poor choice in your oil. To examine gear oil performance the ASTM test methodology D-5182 (FZG) is used. In this test, two hardened steel spur gears are partially immersed in the oil to be tested, the oil is maintained at a constant 90 degrees a a predetermined load is placed on the pinion gear,and rotated at 1450rpm for 21700 revolutuons , the gears are then tested for scuffing, each oil is rated on how much scuffing has occured, if the gear has more than 20mm of wear along width the gear tooth the test is ended and the oil has failed the test, if there is less than 20mm of wear the test is repeated with additional load. Each time additional load is added, the test oil advances to a higher stage, the highest stage is 13.
6 oils passed stage 13 with no scuffing wear at all. These where Amsoil, Bellray, Maxima Maxim 4, Valvoline 4 stroke, Royal Purple and Lucas HP.
Another consideration for your choice in oil is the high variable of operating temperture, most oils are designed for water cooled engines where the engine temperture is much more stable, aircooled engines will demand an oil that can withstand higher tempertures and have high shear viscosity stability.
A simple test you can carry out on your current choice of oil is to see what condition the oil is when you come to carry out an oil change. A good oil will look similar to when you poored it in, so if its gloopy and brown when it goes in and black and thin when it comes out, change your oil more often or change to another oil. we see some popular car oils which are black and broken down even after just 500 miles. Oil choice will become more important to you as more of the original Z transmission parts become unavailable from Kawasaki. Dont be fooled into thinking that because its an old bike and you dont thrash it then any oil wll do.
Steve

Hi Steve,
Very authorative reply as usual, but is that a no to castrol gtx then and if so what would you use?
Steve R
(using Castrol GTX and slightly worried now!!!!)

Steve R,
QUOTE; 2nd para of Debben reply above;
6 oils passed stage 13 with no scuffing wear at all. These where Amsoil, Bellray, Maxima Maxim 4, Valvoline 4 stroke, Royal Purple and Lucas HP.

I think Steve Debben sell Amsoil, not cheap though, but most of us only need a yearly change tops, so a good investment!

We stock what we use, and will not sell what we wouldnt use in our own engines, We could make life much easier for ourselves if we used a commonly available oil and took advantage of some of the big profit margins and sponsorship benefits offered by many of the oil companys. A sad fact is many of the bikes racing have sponsorship and stickers from one oil company but actually use another oil to maintain reliability and the performance edge. I wouldnt want to get into "Use this oil" debate as everybody has there own opinion on which oil is best, however if you look at the special unique requirements of the Z engine and then research which oils will best fullfill these demands you can eliminate many of the oils offered, choosing an oil because its on the shelf localy, because its cheaper or because of a flashy marketing image should shorly be lower in the list of priorities than how it performs in performance tests.
Pigford, I like your avatar, did you draw it yourself? Steve

Hmmm, now I'm a tad worried as well. Been using Castrol Active4T (formerly Grandprix). Have mulled over this oil thing before, but have also subscribed to the theory that Z's seem to last pretty well 30 years ago on the oil available at the time, and therefore, should still last on "basic" oil today.....providing the regular changes are done.
Now I'm thinking again...............and I hate that.

Steve, go to your Personal CP, over on the top left of the screen, in the personal menu, and you can browse through loads of em!

Maybe a silly question Steve but do you post oil

Hello Ed Z1R, We can post oil, but we have to use a parcel delivery company, Oil wieghs about 1kg per litre and so 4 litres cost the same to deliver as 8 or 12 litres, We can supply the oil filters as well ?3.50 to z10c members, carriage up to 12kg is ?8 with Amtrak. Regards. Steve

steve will you be attending donnington this year , if so could we order and collect there. just a thought

Hi BunnyZ, wont be at donnington as a trader but I hope to come up to look around, If I am free that weekend I could happily bring some oil up with me, Regards, Steve

Steve,thanx for the info,possibly another silly question,but at current i am just runnin the Z1-R as standard with the odd thrash about,of your stock, which oil would you personally reccomend Cheers Ed

Hello Ed, I use the Amsoil in my Z, even after several meetings of very hard abuse and some equally abusive road miles thrown in, the oil maintains its condition, every year the engine is completely stripped to measure any wear, I wouldn't not use anything else now. Regards, Steve

Steve thanx for taking the time to answer my questions