This is my first thumper toy. A 04 DS. I notice the oil gets very black right away. They say change it every ten hours (I think). I only get one day of riding and its super dirty looking. I started using Bomb synthetic oil but after seeing how dirty it gets so soon, I use regular oil and change it often. I noticed the clutch slipped alot first time I rode it and thought that is what was making the oil dirty so soon. I put in 60% springs and that fixed the clutch but not the oil problem. My question is, is this normal? Is this why the new Honda separates the trans oil from the motor? I don't want to be the only one with a problem with my DS.

 

I noticed the same thing when I went to a thumper too. I think it's just the nature of the beast. I change my oil every three rides, before, and after each dune trip. I just changed the oil in my DS, after three rides, and it was nasty. Just be sure to use a quality oil. I asked around and had a bunch of folks respond with the type of oil they use. I went with the Shell Rotella T synthetic. It has no additives to mess up your clutch, and it's only 12$ a gallon at Wal-Mart. So you finally wore out the Quadzilla, huh. I wish I'd never sold mine. I had a pretty nice '88. It was ported, polished, had a big carb, reeds, and an FMF pipe. It was Scary fast. Put some paddles on it, and it would take weeks for the smile to come off my face.

 

My oil was black black after about a tank thru my 450r, could be cuz im breaking it in but it sure got black soon. My oil was always black in my DS after about 10 hrs.

It could be one of the reasons why they seperated it but i think the main reason was so you can run fully synthetic for the engine and not have to worry about the clutch slipping, thus adding life to the clutch and the engine. Kinda of a smart things when the new 450s are reving higher then big bores.

 

I wondered if anyone waits as long as recomended to change there oil. It just weirds me out to leave such dirty looking oil in. I guess its fine. I don't ever hear of any engine problems. By the way, Freakneh, I didn't wear out the old LT. I just got tired of it. Sold it and then missed fourwheeling too much and had to buy something. I just rode a LT 500 the other day. Kind of missed mine but still no regrets. The one I rode was way beyond wore out. I feel bad for those old beasts. They don't deserve that.

 

If I ever get another one, I'm gonna clean it up to like new, and use it as a dune bike only.