Oil Analysis for your Motorcycle

A good friend of mine has been sending the oil out of his bike periodically to Blackstone Labratories who for $22.50 perform an analaysis of your used motor oil and tell how your engine components are wearing and the amounts of additives left in your oil.

I Just changed my oil at 7,500 miles and put in Amsoil 10/40 motorcycle oil which I planned to run for 7,000 miles, or twice the normal oil change interval, which is what Amsoil says you can safely do, and I when I change the oil at 11,000 miles I plan to send a sample into Blackstone Labs and see what the condition of the oil is to see if in fact if a synthetic oil can be run that long and not harm the engine.

Besides telling you what amounts of metals are in your oil, they also tell you how much of the additive package is still present in your oil, and my friend just got his analysis back on a sample of Amsoil 10/40 that he had changed out of his VTX 1800 that he had a little over 10,000 miles on it, and they said that the oil was still great with no major problems, and they recommended that he try going to 12,000 miles on the next oil change.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

If you're concerned about wether or not a particular oil is clutch safe or has enough antiwear additives for your bike you can also have them do a virgin oil analysis to show you the additive levels, viscosity and TBN...
I'd like to see a VOA of Suzuki performance 4 oil.

Motorcycle Used Oil Analysis Forums are a great source of information.

General Motorcycle Lubrication & Virgin Oil Analysis (VOA's) are good too!

I have been meaning to do an analysis on my auto's for awhile now, but just keep referencing other UOA's instead. I think I will for sure test the Amsoil 10W40 I just put in the Bandit though...

Don't tell my Mother, but I put SuperTech 10w40 in my motorcycle last oil change. The numbers looks similar to other oils at a 1/3 - 1/2 the cost. At $8/change versus $17-22, I can change 1500 miles sooner and still get good shifts.
SuperTech UOA

Tracker said:

Don't tell my Mother, but I put SuperTech 10w40 in my motorcycle last oil change. The numbers looks similar to other oils at a 1/3 - 1/2 the cost. At $8/change versus $17-22, I can change 1500 miles sooner and still get good shifts.
SuperTech UOA

Click to expand...

My oil changes cost 6 bux. Beat that. I get leftover oil for free from work. I use a PureOne oil filter from Advanced Auto.

Well I just sent an email off today to Blackstone Laboratories requesting an oil sampling kit and I am going send in a sample to them for analysis from my next oil change that I will be doing shortly.

I've been using Amsoil 10W-40 M/C specific since 2001. I'll be interested in the results of the oil analysis. Thanks!

Came across this article that made a lot of sense. His take on using the C-4 commercial diesel oils and why is interesting to note. http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/Oils1.html

Chuckled at this comment-
"You buy $65 tires for your car that last 45,000 miles, and $100 tires for your bike that last 8,000 miles. Why on earth would you try to save $5 on each oil change to buy an oil that can't hold up in a motorcycle engine?"

I'm still waiting on my sampling kit to arrive from Blackstone Labs, but I decided to call them today and I talked to one of their techs there and found out that they have the baseline info on Amsoil 10/40 motorcycle oil that they will compare to my used 10/40 Amsoil saving me the cost of having a separate analysis done on an unused sample of it.

I told him that I am going to run the oil I am going to be sending in to 5000 miles and that in previous changes I have found absolutely no metal particles on the drain plug magnet and that the engine uses hardly any oil between changes, and he said that from his experience he doesn't see a problem with me running the oil that long.

After analyzing my oil, besides telling me how much metal particles and additives are in the oil, they will also make recommendations as to how many more miles if any they feel I can safely go between the next oil changes.