ok..... So far all the bikes components are back less a couple of small items. I intend using engine flush to try and clean the oilways out prior to making any adjustments to the timing, carbs, ballancer etc. Is there any major risk that I may cause any problems which are likely to cause me any headaches that I'm not prepared for? Would appreciate any input, however small, and what experience anyone else has had from doing the same... Alex

 

I would take a look under the valve cover to see if there is any dirt to remove before spending money on cleaning. When I pulled the valve cover on my CBR 1000 F -92 with more than 100 000 km's on the odometer, there was no dirt or dark leavings at all in the upper parts and pockets of the cylinder head, which was surprising to me since the bike as a whole didn't looked as it has been taken care of. If you look under the valve cover on a car engine there is always some remaining, even if the car is only a few years old. I guess the reason for bike engines being so clean, despite they have a dirty wet clutch and a gearbox sharing the same oil, is that the oil is changed so often relative a car, and most bikers tends to use high quality oil. Another way to do some cleaning is to pour new oil in, run the engine fully warm, and then drain the oil and put new oil and filter in again. I guess that is cheaper, and possibly also safer, than using engine flush. That’s my thoughts about this, but I can’t say I really know if engine flush is good or not.

There are several types of "engine flush" on the market. One is the BILSTEIN type that uses an aggregate that pumps around some solvent in the engine and then dry it by pressured air. In the Swedish marketing they claim - as anyone knows, the engine must be cleaned if mineral and synthetic oil has been mixed in the engine, or something like that. That's absolutely incorrect, which makes me sceptic to everything they state for their engine flush.

AMSOIL has a product Engine Flush that is mixed in the old oil before change to new oil. By some reason they state that it should not be used on motorcycle engines or small engines. http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/aef.aspx

 

Run some Diesel in it for a 1000k's or so to give it a clean out.

But don't do it on high mileage motors.

 

I guess you mean some Diesel in the gas Trips (and not in the oil tray), right?

 

No I mean use some Diesel oil instead of bike oil.

 

Ok. Can you state a few more reasons why you would use diesel oil over engine flush. Although I can appreciate the diesel oil would lubricate the parts in use but I have to bear in mind that the bike has done nealy 70000 miles. What sort of volume of diesel oil would you recommend? Have you known anyone else do this before? don't want this to end up being an expensive mistake!

 

I ran Diesel for about 20,000'ks. Never had a problem. Inside of the engine is nice & clean.

There are a few reasons I run Diesel.

1. It has great shear stability. Diesel is designed to be churned in turbo's and in engines that generate hundres of ft/lbs of torque. So it is less likely to be chewed apart by a motorcycle gearbox.

2. It has no additives.

3. It has a higher amount of detergent. It is a good way to clean things out. The downside is that quite often in very high mileage motors its is the buildup of crap that gives the motor its compression and lines the bearings. So if you run it through a motor like that it may actually burn more oil etc.

THe only reason I don't use diesel now is that I get Mobil 1 Synthetic Cheap!

So if you are in any doubt then just use running in oil for a few hundrek's and then replace the filter and use normal oil.

Sump & filter magnets also don't hurt either.

 

ok, will look into that, but just as a footnote, I found out that there may be a product called castrol flushing oil. wether you can still get it I dont know but will make some enquiries in the morning. thank for the input, will advise on the method sellected which will be in the next day or so, as I'm now taking a few days off to get this bike mobile. catch up with you soon.....