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4K mile oil change intervals?

Southwest ORV

Active member
Joined
Jan 26, 2021
Messages
109
I rode it in the woods, on the street, and did a top speed run or two. My 1974 has needed 1 valve adjustment in 47 years. Don’t overthink it, I’d guess it would run for 50 years with an oil change or two.
I’m still under 100 miles tho
Love the confidence.
 

mysticbus

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2021
Messages
26
Location
Daytona Beach
I changed my oil at 100 miles, I just put in Honda 10w-30 and a magnetic drain plug. Nothing fancy. This is my 3rd Honda Mini-moto bike with this engine, and the 5th in my family. Every single one has been wrung out since mile 1. The hardest used is my sons Grom, which is a 2020 and has about 8K miles on it now. He used it to commute about 50 miles a day to his teaching job. It was absolutely fine, but he tore the engine down recently and did a "super 125" kit for more fun, but the engine wasn't needing an overhaul.

A couple of them developed a burning oil smell. My son's Grom and my first Monkey, both of them after the first oil change started to have that smell, but no performance decrease at all. I think maybe we were just putting too much in, I know I was just dumping a quart and calling it a day, so I suspect it was burning the excess off in both cases.

My son in laws Grom is a 2018, it has about 4k miles on it, and it has been abused hard. It was his first bike, and it was crashed a couple times, he isn't a smooth rider and shifts really bad, the bike is ugly but still gets it done day after day.

Nobody, and I mean nobody did anything special for break in, these bikes just run wide open all the time. Every time we ride together it is a race.
 

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Southwest ORV

Active member
Joined
Jan 26, 2021
Messages
109
I changed my oil at 100 miles, I just put in Honda 10w-30 and a magnetic drain plug. Nothing fancy. This is my 3rd Honda Mini-moto bike with this engine, and the 5th in my family. Every single one has been wrung out since mile 1. The hardest used is my sons Grom, which is a 2020 and has about 8K miles on it now. He used it to commute about 50 miles a day to his teaching job. It was absolutely fine, but he tore the engine down recently and did a "super 125" kit for more fun, but the engine wasn't needing an overhaul.

A couple of them developed a burning oil smell. My son's Grom and my first Monkey, both of them after the first oil change started to have that smell, but no performance decrease at all. I think maybe we were just putting too much in, I know I was just dumping a quart and calling it a day, so I suspect it was burning the excess off in both cases.

My son in laws Grom is a 2018, it has about 4k miles on it, and it has been abused hard. It was his first bike, and it was crashed a couple times, he isn't a smooth rider and shifts really bad, the bike is ugly but still gets it done day after day.

Nobody, and I mean nobody did anything special for break in, these bikes just run wide open all the time. Every time we ride together it is a race.
Again, this instills confidence.
 

Kcboom10

Active member
Joined
Mar 6, 2021
Messages
118
Location
Yolo County, California
I have a question. Use synthetic or traditional. I’ve heard good and bad for both. I’m a fan of synthetic and run it in all my cars. I also added a magnetic plug and have changed my oil twice in the last 1200 miles. Look at those chunks!1615217182805.jpeg
 

AZ7000'

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 28, 2021
Messages
957
Oil choice is pretty personal, the engineers who designed and built it should have a pretty good idea. I personally and on multiple chat boards have never heard of an engine failing due to the incorrect or failed "oil". Maybe lack of or contaminated oil but still not sure I have ever heard of it.

These will rum many many miles, even 4000 without a required oil change per the mother ship. Again, 46 years later the 1975 is still taking me to work every day and I change it about every 2 years and still able to see through the oil when it pours out.
 

Migolito

Active member
Joined
Jan 24, 2021
Messages
86
If you don't use Synthetic your engine will fail....

Just kidding. I use Synthetic in all my moto's. I've never had any oil related issues. It it better than dino? Ofcourse, at least ive convinced myself so $$$ BTW, THATS a lot of metal. When I changed mine there was zero. However, it appears the metal was stuck to the mag plug. Experts straighten me out here, but, no way those fragments made it through the screen. My guess, and its a WAG, is those are left over castings, and other crap that didn't get rinsed out during manufacturing.
 

m in sc

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 2, 2021
Messages
2,435
Location
Rockhill, SC
im changing mine soon. break in for rings is approx 3 or 4 heat cycles and done. the rest of the motor is roller bearing. IE: no break in needed. The auto clutch is bedded in pretty quick. break in procedure this long on stuff like this is typically a CYA from manufacturers for warranty periods. when i bought my 1st gen grom new, there was -no- break in period specified. same motor.

I ran mine 3 or 4 times lightly, then let er rip. Im going to use castrol 4t synthetic. why am i changing it? to drain out any swarf from assembly process from factory. .02
 

oldskool

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 1, 2022
Messages
445
Oil ain't that expensive and its .7 quarts....there is angst trying to ring out a few more miles between changeso_O. Its not that oil is fine to x number of miles and one year then it is gone. It starts degrading from the first mile. It will degrade at different rates depending on how hard it is pushed. Air cooled engines subject oil to some pretty hard abuse, heat all over the place depending on use. Putzing along on a nice country road in the fall or spring is quite different from dealing with traffic in the summer pushing it to keep up and then idling at stops in 100+% heat. Then add no oil filter.......Mobil 1 T4 every 2500 miles is my plan. The extra $20 to $40 a year is a wise investment in my book. Without clean quality oil any other effort made to make a engine last will have little if any real impact IMHO. Its so cheap and easy it baffles me that it is even a question:unsure:
 

ShieldArc

Active member
Joined
Jul 11, 2022
Messages
124
Location
Nebraska
I have a question. Use synthetic or traditional. I’ve heard good and bad for both. I’m a fan of synthetic and run it in all my cars. I also added a magnetic plug and have changed my oil twice in the last 1200 miles. Look at those chunks!View attachment 668
When I hauled my new bike home, I layed it on its side and installed a magnetic drain plug. I drove it 20 miles and layed it on its side and checked the plug, It looked like your plug in the picture. I will check it again at 100 miles.
 

AZ7000'

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 28, 2021
Messages
957
Oil ain't that expensive and its .7 quarts....there is angst trying to ring out a few more miles between changeso_O. Its not that oil is fine to x number of miles and one year then it is gone. It starts degrading from the first mile. It will degrade at different rates depending on how hard it is pushed. Air cooled engines subject oil to some pretty hard abuse, heat all over the place depending on use. Putzing along on a nice country road in the fall or spring is quite different from dealing with traffic in the summer pushing it to keep up and then idling at stops in 100+% heat. Then add no oil filter.......Mobil 1 T4 every 2500 miles is my plan. The extra $20 to $40 a year is a wise investment in my book. Without clean quality oil any other effort made to make a engine last will have little if any real impact IMHO. Its so cheap and easy it baffles me that it is even a question:unsure:
Good info! I wonder if the engineers at Honda know that? 😉
 

oldskool

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 1, 2022
Messages
445
Good info! I wonder if the engineers at Honda know that? 😉
I am sure they do. What the engineers tell corporate and what becomes official maintenance requirements in the manual may not be the same. The only thing bean counters care about is no break downs during the warranty period. Every one is free to do as they wish, I'll spend a couple bucks more a year.
 

Captain

New member
Joined
Dec 31, 2022
Messages
8
Haha, they are tough, you could probably run it for years without an oil change, but I ain't gonna find out.
having a one quart capacity, I will try 400 miles at most. I will likely start with about 300 miles and see how it looks. Oil is the lifeblood of the engine
and with use it can become abrasive and or less useful. It certainly won't hurt to change it more often.
 

Speeddaddy

New member
Joined
Feb 21, 2023
Messages
5
Cheap insurance. Change it every 1800 miles.
as my buddy who teaches motor mechanics says, you can’t change it too often.
 

Zoomy7

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2023
Messages
42
Installed magnetic plug at 50 miles but kept factory oil. Just reached 330 miles and did first actual oil change. No chunks of metal but oil was not golden in color. Filled with Honda GN4 and will probably do every 1,000 miles as a lot of high rpm use in high Florida temps coming this summer.
I did try to do break in by riding “normally” for the first 300 miles but you can’t really go anywhere on the street on this little motor without it running over 5,000 rpm.
First full throttle run for 2 miles on flat road was at 307 miles and hit an indicated 63 mph on my OPMID so I was happy with that. I’m sure GPS speed was a bit lower but she buzzed along just fine.
 
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