Author Topic: Red motor oil?  (Read 1243 times)

bman

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Red motor oil?
« on: July 12, 2014, 12:09:02 AM »
Hey Guys,
Just a quick question. I just picked up a new 2012 Jager and checking the oil I found that it's red in color.
Having never seen red motor oil before, I'm wondering if it's special Kymco break-in oil.
Any idea what brand it is?
Thank's

Yager200i

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Re: Red motor oil?
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2014, 01:10:26 AM »
No idea if it's break-in oil, although I doubt it. I changed it at 50 miles. I was supposed to change it at 25 miles, but the oil didn't look dirty, so I rode instead. Looking back, I should have changed it no matter what. Lack of discipline on my part.

You'll extend the life of the engine greatly by changing the oil frequently as it breaks in. I changed it at 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 miles, and every 600 miles after that. Frequent oil changes gets rid of the wear particles that can do your engine a lot of damage as it breaks in.

I used regular diesel grade dino oil 15W-40 for the first 1400 miles, then switched to Royal Purple 15W-40 Synthetic for the engine. I used regular 75W-90 dino oil for the gear casing for the first 100 miles, then switched to 75W-90 synthetic, but later found that 75W-140 got rid of the metal 'glitter' in the drained gear oil.

Don't use motorcycle oil... the clutches on motorcycles can't use oil that has friction modifiers, so your engine is less protected by an oil designed for motorcycles with wet clutches. Use a diesel rated high detergent oil (and add some ZDDP to protect your cams if your diesel rated oil has low ZDDP levels... most have sufficient levels) during break-in. Don't add extra detergent to your oil, it competes with the friction modifiers, so too much will cause your oil to perform poorly in protecting your engine. Rotella 15W-40 is a good diesel rated oil to use for break-in. Castrol Tection 15W-40 is a good one, too.

I started using LiquiMoly Ceratec oil additive in the engine and gear casing at 6200 miles. Hard to say if it's had any effect.

As for the engine break-in itself, I did a hard break-in to ensure the rings seated properly to get better compression. This consists of allowing the engine a short warm-up idle period, then snapping the throttle fully open until you reach your cruising speed, then varying your cruising speed, and snapping the throttle closed and letting the engine deceleration slow you down as much as possible.

That has a couple of advantages... you're being harder on the engine during its warranty period, so if something breaks, you can get it fixed by the dealer, you're increasing the cylinder pressure on acceleration and thus forcing the rings to seat better, and you're drawing a higher vacuum on the cylinder under deceleration which draws oil up the cylinder wall, and helps to flush out any wear particles.

A hard break-in should give you higher cylinder pressure, longer engine life and less oil burning (mine burns no oil). Babying the engine means your rings won't seat, you'll get a lot of blowby, your oil will get dirty quicker, you'll burn more oil, and your engine won't make as much power.

Also, my 2010 Yager GT 200i didn't have a fuel filter, which is insane for a fuel injected engine. The one I use is Part #33031 from FleetFilter.com. Although I found it's got a smaller fitting than the fuel hose, so I had to clamp it well. It's a metal canister type fuel filter, so you can't see when it's plugging up, but I replace it every 3000 miles on my maintenance schedule. I chose a metal canister type because of reports that the plastic ones were breaking. The metal canister can easily handle the pressure the Yager's fuel pump delivers.

You can peruse my maintenance thread here:
http://www.kymcoforum.com/index.php?topic=3672.0

bman

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Re: Red motor oil?
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2014, 01:52:26 AM »
Thank's for that detailed information.
Had planned on doing early and frequent oil changes.
Used Rotella in my thumper and liked it a lot.
Just haven't seen red oil before.
Don't want to run it thinking somebody put ATF in the sump.

zombie

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Re: Red motor oil?
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2014, 06:08:21 AM »
It can only help to change it.

Like momma always said... When in doubt, throw it out!"
"They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn't want to be broken."   Bobby Sands...

bman

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Re: Red motor oil?
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2014, 04:38:48 PM »
Well, after digging around the forums a bit more it seems that the red  oil is the kymco break in oil.  Thank's again.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

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