So I`m a self-declared bonafide oil nut. I test the oil on every engine I own except my push lawn mowers, and have been for years. I won`t admit this to my wife, but I`ve tested about 50 samples of oil of all types and in all types of engines. I could hardly wait to get enough hours on my new Scrambler to send in an oil sample to see how things looked.
The back story here is that I went a little nuts trying to find just the right oil for the Scrambler after I bought it. I am familiar with almost all known, available brands and types of oil known in the United States and some only available in Europe. I settled on Schaeffer`s Supreme 9000 Racing 5w50 for my new baby. It is a nice blend of PAO "real" synthetic and group III "fake" synthetic with a huge anti-wear additive pack. Schaeffer`s markets this oil as a dirt-track racing oil and let me tell you, it will indeed get`er done!
So on to the sample. Reading the comments from Blackstone Labs, they don`t get many of these engines in, so they aren`t real clear on what the average engine should look like, but it`s hard to find fault with this sample. Wear metals are extremely low, especially considering the abuse this engine takes during a race. Speaking of that, this sample of 10 engine hours included one 90 minute race and a two hour practice session and the rest just putting around.
Look down the chart to molybdenum, you won`t find it in regular oils made for motorcycle and atv use because of the wet clutch in many engines. Well, our engines don`t have wet clutches, so why run an oil made for one? I wanted to take advantage of the lower friction offered with a good dose of moly.
Even further down is the potentially bad stuff, silicon, and sodium. Essentially silicon is dirt ingested into the engine through the air intake. My number isn`t too bad for a machine run in dirt. I`ve become comfortable with higher numbers than that for many of my quads. Sodium is another matter, it`s in anti-freeze, and it`s a bad thing when it shows up on a used oil analysis. Most oils don`t use sodium as an additive so when it`s there it`s because of a leaking head gasket. It isn`t too bad in this sample so I won`t push the panic button just yet, but it is definitely something I will watch in future samples.
At the bottom of the list are the two things I look for most in oil for my quads, potassium and zinc, and this oil has them in spades. These two elements are the primary anti-wear additives in most motor oil. Oils designed for modern car and truck engines have less than 1,000 parts per million of these two, but you can see the Schaeffer`s is a real racing oil, designed to protect an engine during critical boundary lubrication states. In other words, when I push the throttle instantly open and the piston jumps toward bottom dead center on the power stroke and pushes most of the oil out of the rod and main bearings, this oil will provide a sacrificial layer of zinc and potassium to protect the parts from rubbing metal-to-metal. Me likey :thumb .
At the section on the very bottom you can see that the oil is still a 50 weight oil, even after 10 hours of abuse in the engine. That may sound like a short time, but in my experience, most oil will shear down one grade in 2 to 3 hours of hard use in my racing engines. On my quads with a wet clutch and shared sump with the transmission, I change the oil every 3 hours. The 100 hour oil change interval suggested by Polaris is complete insanity.
Another problem with this sample is the fuel dilution. 4.8% is a bunch. This engine wasn`t fully warmed up before I took the sample and may be the cause of the high fuel number, but I`ll have to watch it in future analysis. I plan to take the next sample cold to try and see if that makes a difference, one thing`s for sure, this engine isn`t running lean.
I didn`t mean this to sound like oil analysis 101, I hope I didn`t insult anyone`s intelligence by my tone. It`s just that most of the stuff I read on the internet and most of the stuff I`m told by people in person about oil is completely false. Over the past decade I`ve taken the time and money to analyze oil and know for sure how different types of oil work in different engines. I don`t know everything and learn often about oil and engines.
If you have questions or comments or most certainly advice, I`d be happy to know it.
Most importantly, I encourage all of y`all to do a used oil analysis on your engine with your oil so that you will know what`s going on inside; sure beats guessing.
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The back story here is that I went a little nuts trying to find just the right oil for the Scrambler after I bought it. I am familiar with almost all known, available brands and types of oil known in the United States and some only available in Europe. I settled on Schaeffer`s Supreme 9000 Racing 5w50 for my new baby. It is a nice blend of PAO "real" synthetic and group III "fake" synthetic with a huge anti-wear additive pack. Schaeffer`s markets this oil as a dirt-track racing oil and let me tell you, it will indeed get`er done!
So on to the sample. Reading the comments from Blackstone Labs, they don`t get many of these engines in, so they aren`t real clear on what the average engine should look like, but it`s hard to find fault with this sample. Wear metals are extremely low, especially considering the abuse this engine takes during a race. Speaking of that, this sample of 10 engine hours included one 90 minute race and a two hour practice session and the rest just putting around.
Look down the chart to molybdenum, you won`t find it in regular oils made for motorcycle and atv use because of the wet clutch in many engines. Well, our engines don`t have wet clutches, so why run an oil made for one? I wanted to take advantage of the lower friction offered with a good dose of moly.
Even further down is the potentially bad stuff, silicon, and sodium. Essentially silicon is dirt ingested into the engine through the air intake. My number isn`t too bad for a machine run in dirt. I`ve become comfortable with higher numbers than that for many of my quads. Sodium is another matter, it`s in anti-freeze, and it`s a bad thing when it shows up on a used oil analysis. Most oils don`t use sodium as an additive so when it`s there it`s because of a leaking head gasket. It isn`t too bad in this sample so I won`t push the panic button just yet, but it is definitely something I will watch in future samples.
At the bottom of the list are the two things I look for most in oil for my quads, potassium and zinc, and this oil has them in spades. These two elements are the primary anti-wear additives in most motor oil. Oils designed for modern car and truck engines have less than 1,000 parts per million of these two, but you can see the Schaeffer`s is a real racing oil, designed to protect an engine during critical boundary lubrication states. In other words, when I push the throttle instantly open and the piston jumps toward bottom dead center on the power stroke and pushes most of the oil out of the rod and main bearings, this oil will provide a sacrificial layer of zinc and potassium to protect the parts from rubbing metal-to-metal. Me likey :thumb .
At the section on the very bottom you can see that the oil is still a 50 weight oil, even after 10 hours of abuse in the engine. That may sound like a short time, but in my experience, most oil will shear down one grade in 2 to 3 hours of hard use in my racing engines. On my quads with a wet clutch and shared sump with the transmission, I change the oil every 3 hours. The 100 hour oil change interval suggested by Polaris is complete insanity.
Another problem with this sample is the fuel dilution. 4.8% is a bunch. This engine wasn`t fully warmed up before I took the sample and may be the cause of the high fuel number, but I`ll have to watch it in future analysis. I plan to take the next sample cold to try and see if that makes a difference, one thing`s for sure, this engine isn`t running lean.
I didn`t mean this to sound like oil analysis 101, I hope I didn`t insult anyone`s intelligence by my tone. It`s just that most of the stuff I read on the internet and most of the stuff I`m told by people in person about oil is completely false. Over the past decade I`ve taken the time and money to analyze oil and know for sure how different types of oil work in different engines. I don`t know everything and learn often about oil and engines.
If you have questions or comments or most certainly advice, I`d be happy to know it.
Most importantly, I encourage all of y`all to do a used oil analysis on your engine with your oil so that you will know what`s going on inside; sure beats guessing.
