From: bleve@hoggle2.uucp (Bennett Lee Leve)
Subject: Re: V-4 Honda oil filters, Hein Gereicke spares
Followup-To: rec.motorcycles
	<BLEVE.93Jan15135150@hoggle2.uucp>
	<ramarren-180193153334@kops.apple.com>
Organization: Starved Photo-Linux Hackers Association
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 17:42:08 GMT

In article <ramarren-180193153334@kops.apple.com> ramarren@apple.com (Godfrey DiGiorgi) writes:


 >>   In article <BLEVE.93Jan15135150@hoggle2.uucp>, you wrote:
 >>   > education.  I change my oil every 900 to 1500 miles.
 >>   > One other thing to look at is that the bike filters are
 >>   > very difficult for me to get.  
 >>
 >>   This is an unnecessary frequency of oil changes for a Honda V4 
 >>   motor. A modern, water cooled engine like this can easily go
 >>   2500-3000 miles between changes, no sweat. On trips with a lot
 >>   of highway mileage, I'd run that out to 4,000 or so. {When I worked
 >>   for a dealership, we'd occasionally see people running 6,000 
 >>   miles plus on their *air cooled* Honda fours with NO oil problems
 >>   whatever. The water cooled engines are far more stable than that
 >>   and should run at least as long.}

It is true that I could wait longer periods of time between oil
changes, and i will be doing so since I switched to synthetic
oil.  I changed the oil often here because the cobination of
Florida heat and Orlando traffic caused my bike to get extremely
hot daily.  This is my second V-65 Sabre, the first one I sold
with 75,000 miles on it.  I put 60,000 of that on the bike myself
in 3 years.  The only reason I sold it was that I wanted one with
lower miles, as I do a lot of touring.  I must be doing something
correctly to get that kind of mileage out of a bike.  Never wrecking
helps.  I did all the engine work myself and kept track of internal
engine parts wear.  Of which the only parts I replaced were the
cam chain tensioners, (normal), and the cams.  I have worked
on many many many, (can't stress it more than that) V-4 Hondas.
None of which ran as well as either of mine, and all of them
had a variety of engine problems.  These problems could always
be linked to oil contamination.  I am not saying that oil
contamination was the only cause of these bikes problems, but
it probably had something to do with it.  I believe you can
never change your oil too much, and this is what I tell my
friends.  

The problems with the other bikes may be that before bringing
them to me, they had them serviced at a mom and pop bike shop.
This is a problem that I have seen many times.  I have found
that the only places to take a V-4 Honda to for service is either
your own personal garage or the Honda shop.

 >>   You risk more in the way of stripping oil drain plug threads, 
 >>   accidentally allowing dirt into the engine, etc. than you gain with
 >>   this frequent an oil change cycle. 

True, this is why I switched to synthetic oil.

 >>   My advice would be to run 3000 miles between changes and use
 >>   the stock Honda filter, which you can obtain at discount from 
 >>   a number of Honda dealers on a mail order basis. {I always keep 
 >>   one oil filter in stock so that I don't have to run to a dealer
 >>   when I need a new one, and I replenish my stock at my leisure.}

I will go back to the bike filter next oil change, there are more
variables than I thought about.  Buying more than one at a time is
just the way I am going to have to do it I guess.

Thanks a lot for the post and the advice.

 >>   ------------------------------------------------------------------
 >>   Godfrey DiGiorgi - ramarren@apple.com  | DoD #0493      AMA#489408
 >>    Rule #1: Never sell a Ducati.         | "The street finds its own
 >>    Rule #2: Always obey Rule #1.         |  uses for things." -WG
 >>   --- Ducati Honda Cinelli Toyota Krups Nikon Sony Apple Telebit ---
--





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|Bennett Leve    84 V-65 Sabre            |   mov        ah, 04Ch     |
|Orlando, FL                              |   mov        al, 0        |
|hoggle!hoggle2!bleve@peora.sdc.ccur.com  |   int        021h         |
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