Thanks.
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What oil should i use?
Moderators: KeithZ1R, chrisu, paul doran, Taffus
What oil should i use?
Can someone on this forum give me an advice regarding what kind of oil i should use for my turbocharged z1000? The oil also lubricate the turbo. Setup for bike is: Rayjay turbo, 1200 ccm, comp 8:1. Need some help on this issue, as i never before have done turbo on a bike.
Thanks.
Thanks.
-77 z1000 turbo
Not sure how to post a link to a prevous discussion on this subject 
so I have copied/pasted an earlier reply on this subject, perhaps somebody with forum savey could post the link.
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.
so I have copied/pasted an earlier reply on this subject, perhaps somebody with forum savey could post the link.
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.
The stuff I purchased from Steve a couple of weeks ago was:
AMSOIL, 20/50 Synthetic Motorcycle oil
Sold by the quart (bit like the old Trophy Bitter ad's
).
Packaging STATES - ( not United States
)
Designed for wet clutches too
No friction modifiers 
Excellent for roller bearings.
Not cheap, but the Yanks do know what they're about when it come to engines
(and of course so do Debbens 
)
AMSOIL, 20/50 Synthetic Motorcycle oil
Sold by the quart (bit like the old Trophy Bitter ad's
).
Packaging STATES - ( not United States
)
Designed for wet clutches too
No friction modifiers
Excellent for roller bearings.
Not cheap, but the Yanks do know what they're about when it come to engines
(and of course so do Debbens )And on the 7th day... Zeds were created!
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Thanx for the response. 
Debben, I may have to ask you for some more help later on. It's hard to find anyone in Norway with experiense with this. People usually look like they burn their hands when i ask. I will not hold them responsible for advises they give, but it is always nice to get a second opinion. I have done some turbo cars, but this is new to me. You are a great bunch of guys. Thumbs up.......
From the list of oils that you listed for me, I have chosen the Valvoline. This is a manufacturer i know of from cars, and they usually make good oilproducts. The Amsoil wasn't easy to find im my area.
Thanx again.
Debben, I may have to ask you for some more help later on. It's hard to find anyone in Norway with experiense with this. People usually look like they burn their hands when i ask. I will not hold them responsible for advises they give, but it is always nice to get a second opinion. I have done some turbo cars, but this is new to me. You are a great bunch of guys. Thumbs up.......
From the list of oils that you listed for me, I have chosen the Valvoline. This is a manufacturer i know of from cars, and they usually make good oilproducts. The Amsoil wasn't easy to find im my area.
Thanx again.
-77 z1000 turbo
Hello Ed Z1R, Yes a lot of synthetics can cause problems, Silkolene for example has a history of causing clutch slip, sometimes the oil can reduce friction to a point that it becomes counter productive, Silkolene offers excelent dealer discounts and incentives for the stockist so is sold in many motorcycle service centres and shops, its not that its a bad oil, it just causes problems in some applications, like torquey or tuned engines.
All oils have the strengths and weaknesses and are entirely suitable for different applications. What we require from an oil is different to what many other (most) motorcyle engines demand. The Amsoil has been designed for the engines like the Harley Davidson and is entirely suited to roller bearing engines with very wide gears (as found in a Z engine) with a wet clutch and capable of dealing with high amounts of scuff. It also has been extremely succesfull in high lift cam engines, this is an area many of the oils we have tested have failed, one of our racers was sponsored by Elf with free oil, but the cams noses wore quickly and cost hundreds of ? worth of damage, over the last 30 years we have also been given incentives, sponsorship and attractive deals to race with and sell other oils, but if it doesnt suit our own addmittedly diverse application then its not an advantage to use it.
I am not trying to tell anybody which oil is bad and which oil is good, just each application has different demands. Take Valvoline as an example, it may very well be a fantastic oil in a turbo charged car, which is water cooled, does not need to cope with a wet clutch or lubricate the gearbox, it may also be available from Halfords or the local petrol station, and it may work ok in a motorcycle engine but it might not be the BEST oil for the application we are using. We have used (tested) Amsoil for quite some time now not only in many of the Z ennies but also to extremes, camshafts with .625" lift, lock up clutches which are designed to slip and aircooled turbo applications where the tempertures run much hotter than those achieved with water cooling and we have found Amsoil to be very reliable. In a stock Z900 engine many oils will be suitable, but the question was which oil is best, and I hope I have replied with an answer that does not offend or upset anybody, after all this is just my own opinion.
All oils have the strengths and weaknesses and are entirely suitable for different applications. What we require from an oil is different to what many other (most) motorcyle engines demand. The Amsoil has been designed for the engines like the Harley Davidson and is entirely suited to roller bearing engines with very wide gears (as found in a Z engine) with a wet clutch and capable of dealing with high amounts of scuff. It also has been extremely succesfull in high lift cam engines, this is an area many of the oils we have tested have failed, one of our racers was sponsored by Elf with free oil, but the cams noses wore quickly and cost hundreds of ? worth of damage, over the last 30 years we have also been given incentives, sponsorship and attractive deals to race with and sell other oils, but if it doesnt suit our own addmittedly diverse application then its not an advantage to use it.
I am not trying to tell anybody which oil is bad and which oil is good, just each application has different demands. Take Valvoline as an example, it may very well be a fantastic oil in a turbo charged car, which is water cooled, does not need to cope with a wet clutch or lubricate the gearbox, it may also be available from Halfords or the local petrol station, and it may work ok in a motorcycle engine but it might not be the BEST oil for the application we are using. We have used (tested) Amsoil for quite some time now not only in many of the Z ennies but also to extremes, camshafts with .625" lift, lock up clutches which are designed to slip and aircooled turbo applications where the tempertures run much hotter than those achieved with water cooling and we have found Amsoil to be very reliable. In a stock Z900 engine many oils will be suitable, but the question was which oil is best, and I hope I have replied with an answer that does not offend or upset anybody, after all this is just my own opinion.
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