I was curious what weight oil is actually supposed to be used in a trx250r engine/clutch housing. The manual claims 10w-30 and now there are all these products that claim they are designed for 2-strokes that are 85weight. Please help

 

This is a tough subject in the Dirtbike form, I personly use Honda HP-4 20W 50 in my 2 strokes to get the best shifting/clutch action, but friends use the bell ray 85W oil with no trouble, but there clutch does drag when cold because of the think oil.. all in all either 4 stroke motercycle oil or 2 stroke gear box oil will work fine.

 

does anyone have any guesses as to what weight oil to use? what do you use??

 

Currently I am using Honda HP4 10w40, the next oil change go to 20W50 HOnda oil.

 

I was at a meeting last year and the president of Maxina Oil Co gave a talk about oils. The manual says 10-30w oil, They are talking about motorcycle oil which has different chemicals in them than cars oils have. i think that there is 3 different grades of oil out there(come might help[ me on this). You can run 4-stroke oil in a 2 stroke, but it will shift better with 2 stroke oil. Car oil is made to lub bearing, not to lub clutch plates very well. There are people out there who are using car oil in there quad and having good luck, but the clutch plates will work better with 2 stroke oil. Maybe they don't want to spend the extra $2 or $3 for the oil but they will buy that extra add on piece for $200. I have even heard of some poeple using ATF, but they change it after every ride. Buy a good grade of motorcyle oil and change it often.

many250r's
87 250x
99 400ex

 

Here's a technical article from a very respected source.

http://www.ericgorr.com/mototech/mototech_june_1999.htm


I don't like using engine oil in my transmissions, simply from the fact the engine oil doesn't have the Extreme Pressure (EP) additives that a quality gear oil does. The EP additives prevent the oil from mechanically breaking down from the forces imparted upon the oil by the gears. The EP additives are "long" branched molecules that won't break down as quickly. I will however, run engine oil for a weekend and then change it, thereby getting around the need for a longer service oil.

With a wet clutch you should always change your oil frequently, more often under severe service. The contaminates will build up and eventually that is what leads to some clutch failures. The drive plates get varnished and there's more wear from particles that are suspended within the oil(due to the lack of a filtration system, the filtration system IS drain and refill)

I've used full synthetic oils in every car, truck, PWC, snowmobile, motorcycle, and quad I have or do own, and NEVER to date have had ANY problems with the oil. Only with better results, everything runs cooler and shows less wear with synthetic oil.

Go check out Mr. Gorr's website article and get informed for yourself.

Here's some more articles:

http://tempest.ece.uiuc.edu/~cburian/mc/oil/oils4.txt

Very respected tribology researcher Ed Hackett:
http://tempest.ece.uiuc.edu/~cburian/mc/oil/oils2.txt I believe that even the atving.com Ed. Staff has posted this one.

http://www.amsoil.com

I personally run Amsoil Series 2000 75-90 Gear Oil in both of the 250R's. My 295 motor cost me over $2000 to build-up, do you think I would jeapordize that with a cheap oil??? Run a synthetic gear oil, 75-90 or 80-90, and change it often.

 

What about a 4-stroke, What kind and weight? It is getting warmer everyday here and will probably be up around the high 90's to 100 on the hottest days of the summer, would I be advised to change to a 20w-50 to compensate for this higher air temp? Also, I was told by a guy at the honda shop that my clutch would slip with synthetic?

 

Of course the Honda Sales guy would love nothing more for you to buy his overpriced oil. The shops make so much more profit off of incidentals like that than parts(Parts, which by the way are always marked up at least 100%, sometimes as high as 250% from what they pay American Honda, read your shipping tag next time, look for two blocks, labeled qual 1 and qual 2, qual 1 is what they paid, qual 2 is what you are paying, the decimal points are moved, but its the actual price)

For summer time riding I would run a synthetic 20-50 Oil. Take a few moments and go read the article by Eric Gorr. Also remember with hotter weather take it a tad easier when you ride. Regardless of weather you should'nt sit and let an air cooled motor idle hot (like after riding, not talking about ensuring it's warmed up).