How to change your oil

In the past I have always used Yama-Lube, a good semi oil, but it proved to be a hassle to always go to a Yamaha dealer for oil. So I switched and began to just go to Auto Zone for the Valvoline pictured above.

What the hell is in my oil filter?

Two days ago I changed my oil on my Chetak and you will never guess what I found in the outside of my oil filter?! It looks like two torn pieces of engine seals. They are a back paper-like substance. I have over 6,000 miles on my bike; therefore I know these two torn pieces are not recent.

As an added precaution, I always check my oil filter for slivers of metal, possibly from clutch wear and alike. To do this I stick a white paper towel inside the oil filter so I have the silver metal or any other alien form pops out from the white paper towel background.

After that I use compressed air to blow the filter clean from the inside out. This frees it of all debris.

I emailed my mechanic, who worked for Bajaj USA at their corporate office and at a Bajaj dealer (also Vespa, Lambretta, and everything else) as a head mechanic, and this is what he had to say:

"Be honest with you, I have been a mechanic for almost ten years and I have seen a lot of crazy stuff coming out when performing oil changes. Normally, I will not worry about it unless the engine sounds weird or runs like crazy.

Do you have any problem with the engine? Any oil leak? Any idle issue? If not, then don't worry about it since those pieces are already broken or came off."

With that response, I filled it up with new oil and will ride the bike and pay special attention to it as all of my answers are "no" to my mechanic's questions.

FOLLOW-UP FROM MECHANIC AFTER SEEING THIS PICTURE:

Jeremy,

Looks like those things are the engine case paper gasket. Do you have any oil leak out from your engine? If not, don't worry at all.

What happen are..... those engine paper gaskets for most of the time are larger than what it is supposed to be. And sometimes due to the engine design, gasket can't cut out exectly or match the engine cases because if everything matches the paper gasket are not strong enough to seal, hold and keep the oil inside the engine. For some cases, when the extra stick out paper gasket inside the egine has soaked oil for too long, they will be soft enough and tear themselves apart. That is what you see in the screen filter. And that is why engine will leak oil when they get old. And of couse, the material to make the paper gasket is also important. For bajaj you don't expect they are top qualities.

So for now, if you have any oil leak, you know what happen.

Hope this information would help you.

Kent

Resolving oil leaks

Gotta tiny oil leak . . .

Ted overfilled the tranny oil he said and my engine developed a tiny leak. Ted believes that the small leak is due to the excess oil coming out or worst-case-scenario it's the rear hub seal has gone bad. When visiting the painter on Thursday a very small puddle had formed.

I emailed Christopher Markley and asked him for advice. This is what he told me:

"If it was way overfilled, it would have developed excess pressure and blown out the breather, and also could have blown out the hub seal. You can replace the hub seal easily if that's the problem. All Vespa engines leak some oil. The old joke about old motorcycles is the customer calls the garage and says, "Hey, I don't know what you did when my bike was in the shop, but it doesn't leak any oil anymore!" The mechanic screams, "Don't ride that bike, it must mean that the engine is bone dry!"

After you clean off the cases with denatured alcohol, blow some chalk dust on the cases all around. You can get this at Home Depot where they sell levels and plumb bobs. You can get the chalk dust in white or colors. After you've sprayed the chalk dust on the cases, it will be very easy to identify where an oil leak is coming from. It is very unlikely to be coming from between the case halves. The gasket and the gasket sealer usually prevents all but the tiniest weep from this joint. But good news -- if it is from there, you can just drain the oil bone dry, ultra-clean the case joint where it is leaking, and then get Yamabond gasket sealer in silver, and carefully apply it to the section of case mating area that is leaking, and voila, no more leak. If you apply it CAREFULLY, nobody will ever even see it."

Transmission Oil

This is the easy way to install your transmission oil. Heck, it's an easy way to run anything through these bottles, since the caps are universal. Just make yourself a cap, tighten it on the bottle, and cut the bottom off of the bottle and you're good to go -- you have an excellent funnel now. Pore your tranny oil through your funnel and it's as easy as 1-2-3 and no clean up required.

Through the funnel was pored SAE 30 non-detergent oil.

Parts Purchase

Using Ted W.'s 20% discount, on Saturday he picked up the following items from B & B Yamaha:

1) Light bulbs for front & rear tail lights

2) 2 Qrts of Yamalube 2cycle oil

3) A variety of nuts and bolts (metric). The smaller n/b will be purchased at the local hardware store.

4) Spark plug NGK B6ES (2 more are on order)

5) Gas line tubing

TOTAL (about): $25

That's it for now. I am still working on finding non-Indian grommets. I have two leads.

Items to be purchased tomorrow

My buddy Ted W. will purchase the following items tomorrow at B & B Yamaha in Lancaster, PA:

1) NGK BGES spark plugs.
2) Cheapest dino-based 2stroke oil you can find
for your break-in (synthetic is too slippery and will
prevent ring bed-in). Probably will go with Yamalube.
3) Hardware (stainless if touching paint, i.e. the front fender and galvanized every where else)
4) Light bulbs for headlight 6v 25/25w, taillight , speedo light? (I believe I need 6V and NOT 12V since I do NOT have a battery in this bike. I suspect with the front light and tail light assembles, which you have they can match a bulb?). 5) Gas line (gas tank to engine)
6) CEV Brand taillight to replace the cracked one.

Spark plug & oil choice

I asked Tom G. what brand spark plug and oil he recommends for the SS180 and here's his response:

Plug: NGK

Use the cheapest dino-based 2stroke oil you can find
for your break-in (synthetic is too slippery and will
prevent ring bed-in).

After breakin, use any good synth or semi-synth oil.
I use Yamalube semi-synth, for no particular reason.

Belray is also supposed to be good, and I use to use
that a lot. Also Motul.

Tom

Rusted and stuck?

Since I am seem to be on the theme for product placement today I figure I better introduce another great product . . .
PB Blaster is some good good stuff! I can attest to that. If you have a part, maybe a piston or an old shock, that is seized in rust-n-muck PB Blaster is one of the best choices. It sizzles things free. It's an industry-favorite as well. You can buy it at your auto parts stores or even Walmart.

Oil Change

The oil pictured above was recommended to me by my dealer, Mike Lawless, of Philly Scoots. I recognize that it is synthetic, which goes against the manufacturer's recommendation. But, Mike knows his stuff and he has brother have both raced motorcycles and worked on them for a long time. Mike also runs Yahamalube in his Chetak. I have run it in my bike and my wife's for years without any problems.
Changing your oil is a quick and effortless job. Above you will find the instructions on how do so with the amendments handwritten on it.

Note: when you put your cylinder valve cover on (1) ALWAYS replace the o-ring. It costs about $.40 cents at Ace Hardware. Better yet, buy the big-o-bag of o-rings from Harbor Freight Tools for $5.00 or when it goes sale for $2.00 and you will have an assortment of 200 o-rings on hand. (2) Hand tighten the cylinder head valve cover back down until your fingers can not move it. Now with a wrench tighten the smallest amount until the it is snug. Be CAREFUL as I once stripped mine because I wanted to make sure it was tight. Stupid. I had to have a local Kawasaki shop Heli-Coil it for me. Unnecessary mistake. Fortunately, it cost me less than $40 to fix.