K11 Owners Group

[BMGraeme]

I religously change engine oil and filter every 4K miles. I'm using standard Castrol GTX at the moment but have recently thought about switching to fully synth now the K11 is up to 26K miles. Over here in the UK the price of Mobil 1 is about twice the price of GTX so my question is can I get more miles between changes with fully synth?

And in my ignorance of Mobil 1 is there a different version for cars than bikes or is it all the same stuff?
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1980 CB900FA
1994 K1100RS
2008 R1200GSA

[tmarshall57]

You could get loads more miles between changes - but would you
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K1100RS Special Edition 1997
Arctic Silver/Black

[rkildu]

Just to put this in perspective:

Once upon a time I decided to switch my boxer airhead to mobil 1. Pondering on the same question, I contacted the number on the bottle and spoke with an engineer. He said that he didn't have enough data on motorcycles to be specific but I should be able to more mileage between changes.

He suggested I do the following:
Change it to mobile one
Run 1,000 miles over the recommended change interval (it is 5,000 miles according the owners manual)
Get a oil anaylsis kit, take a sample and send it off.
If it came back good, increase another thousand miles and repeat.

So our hero did as recommended. At that time the bike had 45,000 on it.

Results are that up to and including up to 10,000 miles it was still returning good oil analysis results.

At that point I decided it was enough, as I rarely exceed 6-7,000 miles in a season. So now I change oil at the start of the riding season and don't worry about it.

The bike now has 110,000 miles on it, still going strong and has never used a drop of oil between changes.

Now this is an air cooled engine. The K is a very automotive liquid cooled. I do my K1100 exactly the same way. I have always used the standard automotive version.
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Rod Kilduff
97 K1100LT HighLine
82 R100Lufty

[Don Sproule]

Hi Rod,

I've been using Amsoil full synthetic for thirty years and am happy with it.
Might I suggest that you consider changing oil when you are putting your machine into winter storage instead of after? The reasoning behind this is to not leave old, potentially contaminated oil in your engine for extended periods. The acids that can form could be hard on the metals. Good synthetic lubes should not deteriorate during storage and you're pretty much ready to go when you wake your bike up in the spring.

Don

[chopper_harris]

Chaps

You have to be very careful when switching from Dino oil to a modern synthetic.

This is an FAQ on the airhead sites, but 20+ years of Dino will build a nice, stable crust of carbon deposit around bushes and seals.
This is good karma, and everything is in balance.

Modern full-synth oils (and the better semis with > 60% synth) have a strong detergent action, and will break down the deposits.

This invariably leads to oil leaks where there were none before.
It also blocks your new filter.

Modern engines are high revving, and built with close tolerances to meet current noise and emission standards - they mandate synthetic at 12k-20k changes..
Airheads and K75/100/1100 are 25+ year old blocks, designed to use mineral oils at 4k-6k changes.

A modern semi is fine. Full synth shows that you care, but is like putting lipstick on a pig
_________________
C1 200 (2001)
R100 RS (1990)
NSU Quickly N (1964)
Honda 400/4 F1 (1977)
MotoGuzzi 1000C (1978)
Suzuki TL 1000 R (1999)
Kawasaki KLV1000 (2005)
K12R Sport (2007) - Wifeys

[rkildu]

Don,

Actually, I don't wait until spring, I do all my major maintenance over the cold winter months including changing the oil, flushng brake systems, changing coolant, etc. That way I'm ready t go when the weather warms up.

Thanks
_________________
Rod Kilduff
97 K1100LT HighLine
82 R100Lufty

[old guy old bike]

Rod,
Your in Ark, don't you ride year round? I would bet pretty darn close anyway.
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1993 K1100LT
2003 K1200GT Gone but not forgotten
2014 Victory Crossraods

[Off the grid]

I use Castrol semi synth and change between 6-8k.
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Bane of your existence since July 2006
2007 Triumph Tiger ABS. "Sabertooth"
2009 Husqvarna TE610. "The dirty Italian mistress"

[Flying Duck]

Next time you start an OIL THREAD by claiming it's NOT an OIL THREAD I will toss you into the Dungeon.
_________________
93 LT (x2)
94 RS
86-97 K75F(K75/100/1100 Frankenbrick)
86 K75C w/paralever, hi perf cams,TURBO!
91 & 92 K75Ss
91 K1
86 custom K100
14 WR250R
IBA #17739 (SS1K, BBG, 50CC)
Buy parts HERE

[Jim]

hey - easy now - it's not an oil thread - it's an oil change thread...
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Jim
1997 K1100LTSE 94,000 - still has gremlins!
1995 R100RT Classic 16,650 crashed - repaired!
1992 K75RTP 46,000

"We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed."

[BMGraeme]

[hockeyshifter]

[rkildu]

To answer the question by 'old guy old bike'

I pretty much stop after our New Years Day Ride until Mar or April. I do get out some though. That's the advantage of two bikes, one to ride and one to work on, in turn.
_________________
Rod Kilduff
97 K1100LT HighLine
82 R100Lufty

[Al.]

[Al.]

I got on to Castrol and the guy advised Act<Evo GP 20-50
There are different grades of Act<Evo. If you do a search it need the '<' in the name.

[Jim]