Trueblue,
I don't know if this would make any difference for oil retention but I
think you can make a good guess by when your compression readings
stabilize. I have hot and cold readings from when my '93 was new and
you could clearly see the engine changing all the way through 2K.
At 677 miles I could see a difference of as much as 10 lbs between hot
and cold readings w/ the biggest gap on cylinders 2 and 3.
at 912 miles cold pressure readings had improved as much as 10 lbs on
one cylinder and the least being 5 lbs .. the actual difference
between cold and hot readings was averaging 5 lbs.
At 1976 miles cylinders 1 and 4 only had 2 lbs difference between hot
and cold readings w/ 2 & 3 averaging 5 lbs hot/cold difference.
Somewhere between 1976 miles and shortly before an oil change at 2635
miles these readings repeated themselves almost exactly ... (I missed
recording the exact mileage), at the 2635 mile oil change the
synthetic went in .... (Mobil 1 - 15w50 ... the car stuff ...) ...
At 3826 miles, (I don't know why I have readings here .. I assume I
was doing an oil change on a different bike and had the stuff out),
the hot/cold difference repeated itself on cylinders 1&4 ... 2&3 also
maintained their 5lb difference between hot and cold .. but the
overall readings had increased an average of 3 lbs per cylinder
........ So .. I don't know if that meant everybody was benefiting
from more lubricating splash, (the synthetic is like water and flies
all over the place), the engine was still settling down or the slight
increase in peaks was carbon build-up .... who knows ... but I think
the engine was done around 2K ...
I have a Royal Star I picked up as a left over at the end of last year
and at 618 miles when I did the first service there was no more that 2
lbs difference between any cylinder .. hot or cold .... at 1532 miles
.. the hot readings were 190, 191, 189, 188, (for cyl 1-4 in that
order). Cold readings were all in the mid 180s with no preference to
any cylinder .. Sooooooooo ... is this engine already seated ?? Does
this mean the center cylinders on my Max never really seated ?? I
don't know .....
The only other thing I can say about synthetic is that it is weird ...
When I first started using the mobil in the Max I put on a Don-o-lator
spin on adapter .. I have been using AC Delco PF-1177 oil filters
because they are dark blue and short ... When I used to use Castrol
20w-50 GTX I always filled the oil level up to the top line, (leaving
the small gap showing at the top of the window). When oil change time
came around the oil was still at the top line. When you started the
engine cold you could see the oil level go down briskly and when warm
and idling you could sometimes see about 1/8 - 1/4 inch churning
around in the bottom of the window.
I did the same thing the first time I put the synthetic in, (filled to
the top line). When I started the engine the oil disappeared from the
window but you could see the stuff splashing all over the place ...
When it idled .. you saw no residual level at the bottom of the
window, (it was all busy being sprayed all over the place I guess). I
realized that this was OK ... moves faster on cold startups etc ...
and didn't matter because when I shut down the engine the level came
back up to the mark. Welllllllll ... after my first ride I let the
bike sit a short time and looked in the window and I had lost 1/8 inch
from the top line .... I figured some of this oil had parked itself in
the nooks and crannies so I topped it off and took another ride ...
Parking it this time revealed a level I expected to see ..... The next
morning the bike showed overfull ... there was no gap at the top of
the window ........ so I took some out ...... to get it back down to
the line.
Ultimately ... after I got over this ... (who knows .. I figured it
could be the check valve on this big oil filter etc ....), if I got a
low reading .. I would just check it later ... it would strangely
re-appear .. but sometimes you had to wait a few hours. The next thing
I noticed was that if I tried to keep the level at the line that it
would strangely get eaten ... it would disappear . ..... It didn't
matter how many times I topped it off to the top line .. it would
disappear ... all I had to do was burn up one tank of gas ... and it
would be gone ... I finally gave in and never ever fill the thing to
more than 1/8 inch below the top line .... and then it is still there
at oil change time. I can only assume that running the higher level
allows it to get blown out of the crankcase too easily and ingested by
the intake .........so I just don't do that anymore ... I suspect some
people may have noticed the same thing but may be mistaking this as
burning oil ... as they keep trying to top it back up to the line
.......
If your bike is in the 2K range .. and you have not recorded any
historic compression readings I would think it would be a good idea to
do so before changing to synthetic .... then you can check again on
your next service and see what the difference is. Knowing what you
have now at least gives you something to compare to in the future.
This might save you from blaming the synthetic if weird things start
to happen and will allow you to address an out of spec cylinder with
Yamaha before your warranty is up.
campbell
----- Original Message -----
From: "trueblue 28" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Rings seated yet?
> How can I tell if my rings have seated? Everyone
> says not to use synthetic oil, or additives like
> XR-1, until your rings have seated...how do I know
> when this has occurred?
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