Questions about ALL THE OIL!

[moff3tt]

Background: I have a '15 Roughhouse Titanium and I love it. I read through the manual about the service intervals and went ahead and changed the gear oil at the recommended 200 miles.

Question 1:

Here is what the factory fill looked like at approx 200 RH miles (sorry it was night when I changed the oil):



Here is the factory fill next to the fresh oil I put in:



I bought and used this(picture links to the store page for it):



I decided because the scooter uses so little gear oil, it's not that expensive, and the factory fill was so dirty that I should probably do another change to flush out any remaining crud.

This is what I got out at about 440 RH miles:



Yikes! So either there was a lot of crud or my gear box is going to self destruct! This is the first scooter I've ever owned so I'm hoping to reach out and see if this is normal or not.

Question 2:

While changing the gear oil I noticed that the cover for my cvt had what looked almost like oil seeping down it from top to bottom. Is this a possibility or is it just water or something I splashed through? A dog already pissed on my front tire so it could be anything really, I just don't want it to be like a huge red flag that I ignore or something.

Question 3:

Where do you guys buy your 2t oil? I bought a quart of Lucas semi-synthetic that meets or exceeds JASO FC as a start but it was $10 from my FLAPS. As I was putting my scooter on it's center stand the oil light flickered so I went ahead and topped off the oil injection tank and it sucked up about 2/3rds of the quart at 440 RH miles. So I'm looking at about 660 RH miles or so per quart and at $10 a quart that adds fairly significant maintenance costs in this particular category compared to any normal 4t engine so I would like to find an oil or store that is less expensive or less expensive per quart.

[PeteH]

Regarding the gear oil, it might not all be due to dislodged metal or crud - it may be temperature-related. Some oils change color after they've been heated-up some. Try to strain it through a coffee filter or some such to see if there's really a lot of metal in there.

Regarding fuel/oil mix, let me dust off my slide rule.

Assuming a 2% mix, or 50:1, then for every 50 gallons of gas, it's a gallon of 2T oil, or expect to consume a quart of 2T for every 12.5 gallons of gas. Assuming (conservatively) something like 60mpg, then you should get 750 miles from a quart of 2T. Give or take.

So at $10/quart, that's a tad under a penny per mile. I paid a little over that (about $50 for 4 liters) for Motul 710, but it's pretty high-grade stuff.

[moff3tt]

Regarding the gear oil, it might not all be due to dislodged metal or crud - it may be temperature-related. Some oils change color after they've been heated-up some. Try to strain it through a coffee filter or some such to see if there's really a lot of metal in there.

Regarding fuel/oil mix, let me dust off my slide rule.

Assuming a 2% mix, or 50:1, then for every 50 gallons of gas, it's a gallon of 2T oil, or expect to consume a quart of 2T for every 12.5 gallons of gas. Assuming (conservatively) something like 60mpg, then you should get 750 miles from a quart of 2T. Give or take.

So at $10/quart, that's a tad under a penny per mile. I paid a little over that (about $50 for 4 liters) for Motul 710, but it's pretty high-grade stuff.

Thanks for the reply. I have my second flush still in the coffee cup I'll strain it to see and report back. (likely will be a few days since work is super hectic)

[BuddyRaton]

I wouldn't worry about the gear oil. That gear box is still breaking in. As suggested it could be temp. One thing I do is run a magnet through the old lube and see how much metal I pick up.

As far as oil consumption. 2% is 2%. The question would be did you start out topped off or was it delivered with "just enough".

Good synthetic is expensive but in my opinion worth it.

[k1dude]

It's still breaking in. There's supposed to be all sorts of stuff in there. That's why you need to break it in.

IIRC, you shouldn't have switched to full synthetic until at least 650 miles. Up to that point you should be using dino oil.

[viney266]

I run synthetic Spectro 2T in mine, its about $12 a litre, but I find the better oils are worth it in longevity on a 2T

http://www.spectro-oils.com/golden-2t-injector/

The gear oil? Don't sweat it. Keep it changed and run it. Its supposed to get dirty, the good oil does.